Poetry is continously seen as a way of leaving a mark in various poems, especially those of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, as well as Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser. Spenser states to his love, that his “verse your virtues rare shall eternize,” basically declaring that through his poetry she will live forever (Spenser 11). It seems vain of the speaker to say that his poems will live forever, since he seems to regard himself in such a high standard. Shakespeare was also confident of his skills, as proven when he writes; “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” (Shakespeare 12). He seems to also be giving the ultimate proclamation of love to his special one by implying that he will have her in the history books with amazing poems about her. …show more content…
They seemed to had deifted off from thinking about those above them, and instead started focusing on themselves more than anything else. This is evident by the large amount of poems about a significant other. Christopher Marlowe demonstrates this idea in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by speaking about nature and how the “steepy mountain yield” all of the beautiful sights he sees (Marlowe 4). He is also describing this to his interest, and does not seem to even mention another entity throughout the whole poem, emphasizing the change to individualism. This change is also demonstrated in Sonnet 31 by Sir Philip Sidney were he brings up, “that busy archer,” referring to Cupid (Stanley 4). This shows that poets at the time were not afraid to go against what the Church would deem suitable at the time, so they wrote whatever they felt was best for themselves. The poets translated the idea of becoming more independent and not having to get so much from a higher entity, which could still be translated into …show more content…
He compares his relationship with his love as “stiff twin compasses” and other similar comparisons to describe their unity (Dunne 26). Like a compass, they always seem to be working cohesively as one unit. It could have the same theme as “The Passionate Shephard to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe, the theme of love conquering all. They both seem to have an idealistic view to the relationship as well, as the shephard in Marlowe’s poem insists that his love “will all the pleasures prove” if she were to go with him (Marlowe 2). Both poems aim for a perfect life with their love, and Donne’s poem manages to come up with a more realistic option out of the
Donne's reversal of that introversion came in the form of an intellectual exploration of the nature of his relationships themselves. His verses often point out the selfishness inherent to new love, as in "The Good-Morrow." In this poem, Donne's focus is on the exploration of the new world, which he then twists around to imply that his entire world is formed between his mistress and himself. "[Love] makes one room an everywhere." (l. 10) His poetic conceit (conception) is an explication of the emotional conceit (vanity) underlying love. A clearer example of the universalization of love is seen in "The Sun Rising" with the lines "She is all states, and all princes I,/Nothing else is." (ll. 21-22) With the equal weight of both his mistress and Donne's part, we see a much more balan...
Whether Donne wrote his poem for his wife or just touched a universal theme for of us to learn from, the huge apparent differences bring the mortal love between the speaker and his lady to a level of perfection and no journey can ever break that.
This is an enjoyable sonnet that uses nature imagery, found extensively in Petrarca, that Shakespeare uses to get his point across. Not much explication is needed, aside the sustained images of nature, to fully understand its intent, but I would like to point out a peculiar allusion. When reading line 3, "the violet past prime" has made me think of Venus and Adonis. In the end, Adonis melts into the earth and a violet sprouts where his body was, which Venus then places in her heart, signifying the love she has for him. Reading this into the poem makes the few following lines more significant. Having Adonis portrayed as the handsome youth, Shakespeare is alluding to the death of youth (in general and to the young man) through the sonnet. In the next line, it is not certain if "sable" is an adjective or a noun and if "curls" is a noun, referring to hair (which is plausible) or a verb modifying "sable." Invoking the allusion to Adonis here, Shakespeare portends that if Adonis did live longer, he too would have greying hair; thus, Shakespeare sees ["behold"] an Adonis figure, the young man, past his youth.
After reading “The Reformation” and two of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, I have come to realize that someone else’s reality may not be another’s. Throughout these literary works, the authors are describing their perspectives on certain subjects. The minds of the audiences for these literary pieces are opened to a whole new way of seeing a certain topic. In “The Reformation”, readers see why Protestants thought it was right to leave the Roman Catholic Church; and in the Sonnets, the audience get an image of Shakespeare’s perspective of what love should be like.
has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way
Sonnet number one hundred sixteen and number one hundred thirty provide a good look at what Shakespeare himself defines as love. The former describes the ever-enduring nature of true love, while the latter gives an example of this ideal love through the description of a woman who many call the “Dark Lady”. Through the combination of these two sonnets Shakespeare provides a consistent picture of what love should be like in order to “bear it out even to the edge of doom”(116, Ln: 12). To me the tern “maker” used by Sir Philip Sidney to describe the poets first and foremost duty would refer to the creation process, which produces the end text. The discourse of the poet is to take an emotion or event they up to that point was purely felt, and make it into flowing words, which in turn reproduce the initial emotion. The poet is therefore a “maker” of poems as well as emotion. This emotion would not be present however if the poet were not human experiencing the ups and downs of everyday life. Therefore I feel that the poet is first and foremost human, and therefore susceptible to human needs, feelings, and emotions, and secondly a maker.
The Theme of Love in the Poems First Love, To His Coy Mistress, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess and Shall I Compare Thee?
...ne exclusively on himself and his lover. By doing so he says the sun will be shining on the entire world. It is apparent in both poems the tone and language is dramatic, as this is typical of Donne’s writing style. His use of imagery and symbolism effectively present his experience of love. However it is the structure that builds up the emotion throughout the poems as Donne starts in each poem to refer to a seductive love, then in conclusion realises the importance of true love. ‘The Good Morrow’ clearly shows evidence of this when at the beginning Donne states he ‘suck’d on country pleasures childishly’ and in the end understands that a ‘Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die’.
In addition, the sonnet is a statement of respect about the beauty of his beloved; summ...
Though ballads and Sonnets are poems that can depict a picture of someone’s beloved, they can have many differences. For instance, a Ballad is a story in short stanzas such as a song would have, where as a sonnet typical, has a traditional structure of 14 lines employing several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tight thematic organization. Both Robert Burn’s ballad “The Red, Red, Rose, and William Shakespeare’s “of the Sonnet 130 “they express their significant other differently. However, “The Red, Red, Rose depicts the Falling in new love through that of a young man’s eyes, and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 depicts a more realistic picture of the mistress he writes about; which leaves the reader to wonder if beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder.
William Shakespeare was an excellent writer, who throughout his life created well written pieces of literatures which are valued and learned about in modern times. One of his many works are 154 Sonnets, within these Sonnets there are several people Shakespeare “writes to”, such as fair youth, dark lady and rival poet. Sonnet 20 is written to fair youth, or in other words a young man. The idea of homosexuality appears in Sonnet 20 after the speaker admits his love towards the young man.
While Shakespeare and Spenser have their own sonnet forms and different rhyme schemes, the topics in which they write about in “Sonnet 18” and “Sonnet 75” possess many similarities. A major theme in both of the sonnets is the idea of immortal love. Both sonnets straightforwardly mention the idea of love eternalizing, defying all of time, and conquering all obstacles. Spenser unmistakably mentions that “whenas death shall al the world subdue, our love shall live, and later life renew”. Correspondingly, Shakespeare declares that his and the subject’s love “shall not fade,” but continue to grow. When it comes to a matter of love defying time, both sonnets remain in synchronization, expressing that even with death, love will go on and remain forever, through poetry and memory. Spenser conveys his lover as one who “shall live by fame”, because through “[his] verse [her] virtues rare shall eternalize”. Evidently, Shakespeare believes that as history writes itself, he and his subject’s love will become one with time because “when in et...
He wanted to write a love poem where the speaker wasn't speaking to his lover, like in the typical love poem. He wrote a poem that stands out from all the rest!
In the poem, Donne structures each stanza individually as a different personification of love. In the first stanza, Donne compares love to a plague when he says, “Yet not that love so soon decays…that I have had the plague…” (3/6) It is the latter line that Donne implements his use of imagery and conceit. Love is not often compared with “the plague” and this is a very strong interpretation. However while these two images seem different, they do interconnect through the pain and anguish that love can foster. This first comparison of Donne’s is very ef...
John Donne and William Shakespeare shared similar ideas to depict the theme of love in “Sonnet 18” and “The Good-Morrow”. Both Donne and Shakespeare used the concept of eternal love in their poems, but with slightly different perspectives. John Donne establishes the idea of eternal love by saying that his lover’s bodily fluids mixed with his create the perfect match. In other words, through coitus, they become a whole perfect person free from death. “Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.”