Description of Different Feelings in Sonnets

Description of Different Feelings in Sonnets

In this essay, I am going to look in detail at three sonnets showing

very different feelings. I will show all the main features and try to

explain what the writers were trying to show and underline in there

sonnets. Each of the three sonnets I have chosen are by different

writers and also from different centuries, I have decided to look at

‘God’s Grandeur’ by G.M Hopkins, ‘Death be Not Proud’ by John Donne

and also ‘Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day’ by William

Shakespeare. The reasons the poems were wrote and also the time is

they were wrote is different but the range of emotions and feelings

shown throughout is amazing; the sonnets have also been written in

different centuries and all three poets come from very different back

rounds.

Before I go on, I would like to explain the features and describe what

a sonnet is. A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines with a formal rhyme

scheme, expressing different aspects of a single mood, or feeling, is

then resolved or summed up in the last lines of the poem. The two main

forms of the sonnet are the Petrarchan and Shakespearean. Petrarchan

is split into two stanzas an octave followed by a sestet with the

sestet being used to reflect or sum up the octave of the sonnet. In

contrast, the Shakespearian style of sonnet was to divide the 14 lines

into three quatrains and a couplet but like the Petrarchan style, it

has the change in emphasis, although it is a shorter couplet used for

summing the sonnet up.

This poem ‘Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day?’ is one of

Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet and also one of his finest,

throughout the cen...

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...ch as the king of the

animal kingdom the Lion. As the lion has the potential power and

strength but now the Lion is sleeping and harmless just like the City

is harmless when no work has started.

From reading the sonnets from the three great authors; I have learned

so much but in particular I have to say my favourite was ‘Shall I

compare thee to a Summers day?’. As before reading this sonnet I could

not relate to Shakespeare, but from the sonnet and the background to

the sonnet, I seen both the love the lady had for her son and the love

Shakespeare had for nature and the power of words. As Shakespeare

wrote

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”

Now that boy is still living and not only the boys spirit lives on but

also Shakespeare’s spirit goes on.