Love is an eternal theme in literature, and it is shapeless and formless. Poets often turn to rhetorical devices to convey this abstract concept. The following passage tells you how love is described in poems. Read it and fill in the blanks with words that best complete the sentences. Some letters have been given to you.

With similes and (1) m _ _ _ _ _ _ r _, love can be illustrated by analogy with everything in the universe, such as roses. In his poem “A Red, Red Rose”, Robert Burns confesses his profound affection for his (2) b _ _ _ _ _ d with a vivid simile: “O my Luve is like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June”. Thanks to the (3) S _ _ _ _ _ _ h poet’s rich imagination, roses have become an enduring (4) em _ _ _ _ of romantic love.

Emily Brontë also compares romantic love to a type of flower. Yet, she does not view it through (5) _ _ s _-_ _ _ _ _ _ spectacles like Burns does. In her poem “Love and Friendship”, Brontë likens love to wild rose-briars and friendship to holly-trees. Wild rose-briars are more vibrant when in (6) b _ _ _ m, but the poet urges readers to consider their nature: while wild rose-briars (7) _ i _ _ in the winter, holly-trees remain verdant in all (8) _ _ _ _ _ _ s. By (9) c _ _ t _ _ _ _ _ _ g the traits of the two plants, Brontë praises the endurance of friendship and ridicules the fleeting nature of romantic love.

Brontë would probably find an ally in Christina Rosetti, another Victorian poet who shared the same fondness for hollies. Whilst describing hollies as “bold and jolly” in a poem, Rosetti shows disdain for roses, writing: “A rose has (10) t _ _ _ _ _ as well as honey, / I’ll not have her for love or money”. To her, roses are not a sight of (11) j _ _ , but a potential source of (12) _ _ _ n.