Kayne West, Stronger


Work it harder make it better,
do it faster makes us stronger,
more than ever, hour after
hour work is never over



Th-th-that that don't kill me
Can only make me stronger
I need you to hurry up now
Cause I can't wait much longer
I know I got to be right now
Cause I can't get much wronger
Man I been waitin' all night now
That's how long I've been on ya


Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta, On Going to the Wars


Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.


True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore:
I could not love thee, dear, so much
Lov'd I not honor more.

The juxtaposition of these two pieces indicates of a shifting conception of love, which is, in the more recent incarnation, lacking any transcendent basis and consequently bankrupt. It is the virtues that one engages in that make love possible, according to Lovelace. The narrator in the poem can only love a woman because he has properly ordered his commitments and loves honor and virtue. We can see that when those virtues are ignored and sex and only sex is central, there is no basis for respect and not possibility for love. The virtues are then replaced with cheap and ineffective imitations that only seek to reinforce the narcissism of lust--accomplishment and strength and patience and work and perseverance, but all in relation to his lust and not to anything outside of it.