My first impression of Louise Labe’s poetry was that it was purely aesthetic: that is, she writes about longing and unrequited love in a very particular style as a way to play with words and display her cleverness. The singularity and repetitiveness of the theme suggests someone who is in love with the idea of love rather than looking for an actual relationship: clearly in line with the style of romantic poetry of Labe’s time, but not particularly deep. As I went through the sonnets, however, I found some that were quite erotic and passionate, which suggested that her experience and interest in romance was perhaps more genuine that it appears at the first glance.
My favorite was of all #21 because it shows real insight into love and passion. While most romantic poetry of that era (written by men) extols physical beauty and its power on the beholder, Labe has a very different idea. She points out that love is irrational and unpredictable: you love someone simply because, and it’s not the person’s looks, personality, popularity, talents, or any other trait that makes you lose your mind, but simply being that particular person has that effect on you. Nowadays, we call it “chemistry”, “connection”, “soul-linking”, etc, and Labe has no definition for this phenomenon, but she explains it beautifully.
I like the style where she contrasts love’s experiences in opposites. Such as crying while laughing, I live, I die. It’s like saying love is a grey area in between, however it always leads to the other end. Effect, emotional reactions I believe is something very hard to capture in the form of words, her style is certainly unique and you caught the points of it.