Love as Fickle

The central theme of the poem is the fickle nature of love. The speaker argues to her addressee that one should never mourn for a lost or "dead" love because the notion of true love does not actually exist. Instead, the speaker says, love is changeable and unpredictable, morphing from one form to the next without warning."Oh never weep for love that’s dead," the speaker says, "Since love is seldom true / But changes his fashion from blue to red, / From brightest red to blue" (1-4). In the very beginning of the poem, the speaker presents love as a chameleon-type entity, capable of altering its appearance. That the speaker uses the word "fashion" to describe love's changes underscores her interest in presenting love as a duplicitous force. She portrays love as someone who can adorn an array of different clothing, thereby altering their...