The Speaker

The speaker of the poem is unnamed, and speaks directly to an unnamed addressee. Most assume that the speaker is a woman, as she genders love as male while speaking about its fickle and disappointing nature. Siddal engages with the Petrarchan and metaphysical poetic traditions throughout the poem, movements that were made famous by predominately male poets. In this way, the speaker of "Dead Love" represents a feminist argument not only about love, but about poetry as well. She encourages the addressee not to put their faith in love because it is "seldom true" (2). Readers will recognize that, despite her assertions about the impossibility of love, the speaker herself speaks from a place of pain over her own lost love.

The Addressee

The addressee in the poem is also unnamed, and the gender of the person is unspecified. However, many argue that the addressee is likely the...