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Lovesick, Lovefool

A poignant thematic similarity between the two ballads is that they both feature a somewhat problematic relationship between love and physical objects, a relationship that both of the male figures attempt to subvert. It is a bit strange that within “Lord Randal,” the Lord’s mother immediately becomes concerned with the family’s inheritance, and goes so far as to ask what he will leave to his true-love. However, in the final stanza and the final turn of the poem, Lord Randal, instead of leaving her an object, or nothing, chooses to leave her “hell and fire,” taking his revenge into his own hands, even if only by expressing it vocally.  Similarly, within “Boots of Spanish Leather,” the male figure is constantly hounded by his lover about whether or not he “might want something fine / Made of silver or of golden,” (ll. 9-10), something tangible, from tangible places like “the mountains of Madrid / Or from the coast of Barcelona” (ll. 11-12).  Instead, he responds to her with intangible and perhaps ethereal desires, for her to carry herself back to him “unspoiled” (ll. 8), for her “sweet kiss,” (ll. 15), and, even more vaguely, “The same thing I want from you today, / I would want again tomorrow.” (ll. 23-24). In the final line and stanza of the poem, the figure finally acquiesces to her questions, but his desire for the eponymous “Spanish boots of Spanish leather” is not just a desire for boots, but a message that from that point on, a physical object is all that he will want from her.

I feel slightly raw about using the word "poignant," but what can ye do.  It's 5:30 and this was one of two papers due tomorrow.  Or today, rather. 

And my reward will be listening to that song, that song about those Spanish boots of Spanish leather.