Louise Labe

Louise Labé conveys the relationship between pain and joy, as well as the back and forth nature of not only love, but also life in her sonnet, “I Live, I Die, I Burn, I Drown.” The poem acts as a personal diary of sorts, in which the narrator, Labé, is spilling her feelings out, possibly about an unrequited love. These emotions are very raw and conflicting of each other, and through this use of contrast, the ups and downs of the narrator’s emotions are clearly presented. Furthermore, Labé introduces a pattern in which each line contains an image or emotion that is then contradicted, which carries throughout the poem until the third stanza. This cycle of pain and joy displayed throughout the poem gives a mood of resignation and despair, while
More specifically, Labé is describing the unpredictability of love, and how inconsistent her relationship is, which is comparable to her emotions in the previous lines of the poem. Her statement that she “suffers” these contradicting emotions leads to the idea that she has resigned to love’s fate, and has possibly accepted it (9). This theme continues, with Labé writing, “And when I think the pain is most intense / Without thinking, it is gone again” (10-11). This acts an accurate depiction of the ebb and flow of a relationship. Rough patches are a natural part of a relationship, as well as life, where heartbreak brings pain, but once the rough patch is over, the pain is gone. In this third stanza, the poem switches from more contrasting emotions or things to the evolution and changing of Labé’s emotions. Although her emotions are still contradicting, they are depicted as evolving in a sort of cycle now. Labé is suffering from the erratic, unstable nature of love, and experiences great pain that is soon replaced by joy, as described in line four, only to cycle back to pain at the end of the