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Michael Bryson and Arpi Movsesian trace a tradition of love poetry from the Song of Songs to Milton's Paradise Lost. Their study considers both the poems themselves and the critical interpretations surrounding them, asking how readers have understood the claims made by lovers in relation to religious authority, social convention and the demands of the communities in which they live.
The chapters move through classical and late antique writing, troubadour poetry, Abelard and Heloise, medieval French and English literature, Italian poetry and the sonnet traditions. Shakespeare, Donne and Milton provide later points of comparison. Across these works, the authors examine the idea of love as a freely chosen relationship and the recurring tensions between poetic experience and prescribed forms of belief or conduct.
A parallel history of criticism follows allegorical readings and approaches that treat passionate love as a disguise for something else. The book returns to the pleasures and particular voices of the poetry while testing these interpretations against its language. Extensive quotations, references and a concluding discussion of reparative reading support an extended argument about how literary works can be read and enjoyed.