The Lais of Marie de France

Just like all the other poems we have read, I found myself having a difficult time reading this because of my disinterest with poems. In “The Lais of Marie de France” showed many themes but the most noticeable was love. We start to see the presence of love when Guigemar is thinking to himself on a sleepless night how “her words and appearance, the bright eyes, the fair mouth whose sweetness had touched his heart. Under his breathe he cried for mercy; he almost called her his beloved.” (415-420). Knowing that Guigemar lacks love in his life, this is an important part of the story because he finally has love for a woman. He does not know how to react or do with the love he has for her. Also, the way Marie explains his love is very deep and detailed so that the readers understand what he is feeling. She does a stellar job of creating an image of the moment he is in. What made this part very enjoyable most was the uncertainty from both Guigemar and the lady. They did not know whether the other had as much love. Even though the reader understood that they had the same kind of love for each other creating some love drama. For example, right after we have discovered how Guigemar feels toward the lady, the lady returns from mass and thinks to herself “whether the man whom she couldn’t help loving was awake or asleep.” I like reading these types of stories because of the curiosity of what is going to happen next. Are they going to tell each other the love they have for one another? Or are they just going to dismiss these feelings and go about their lives? We find out that they tell each other creating this love story which I enjoyed.