THE PERSEPTION OF PARENT/CHILD RELATIONSHIPS IN THE SONNETS BY GEORGE
ELIOT AND SIR WALTER RALEGH
'Brother and Sister' by George Eliot and 'Sir Walter Ralegh to his
son' by Sir Walter Ralegh are both sonnets on the subject of Children
and Parental Relationships.
Despite one sonnet being written by a woman and the other by a man,
their relationships with their children are very important to them.
They are both Shakespearean sonnets, dealing with the aspects of age
and experience.
George Eliot is writing as a child and what their mother is saying to
them, where as Sir Ralegh is writing as a father and what he is saying
to his son. It is distinguished that George is writing as a child as
her first line says her mother "stroked down my tippet and set my
brother's frill " Therefore, this will have to be taken into account
when comparing the two sonnets. Both sonnets are similar, as life is
being explained - what must and mustn't be done and what to look out
for.
They are different ideas though, as in George Eliot's sonnet she is a
young, innocent child listening to her mother talk to her and her
brother, where as in Sir Ralegh's sonnet he is much older and has the
task of explaining life to his son and what he should avoid.
Both sonnets are similar as both are Shakespearean sonnets as they
follow the pattern of three quatrains and a final cuplet. But the
ideas portrayed are different. In George Eliot's sonnet the first
quatrain explains the background to what is happening. The second and
third quatrain describe the surroundings and what role that plays in
her life. But, in Sir Ralegh's the first quatrain goes straight into
explaining the situation. The second and third quatrains then go on in
det...
... middle of paper ...
...lets in both the sonnets have different meanings. George
Eliot describes her overall feelings about nature and what her mother
had said to her.
"And made a happy strange solemnity, A deep-toned chant from life
unknown to me"
But, Sir Ralegh's ending cuplet is more formal - a prayer and wish is
being made for the safety of the son against the three things.
"Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray, We part not with thee
at this meeting day".
Both sonnets show that the best is wanted for the child/children from
the parent,
although both poets describe it in many different ways.
When I first read the sonnets, I didn't feel that there was any real
meaning to either George Elliot or Sir Walter Ralegh's sonnet. But, on
closer examination I have found that is not the case. Both sonnets
refer well to the heading of "Parent/ Child Relationships".
Parent Child Relationships in Before You Were Mine, Kid, On My First Sonne, and The Song Of The Old Mother
In his 1967 book, Edna St. Vincent Millay, James Gray writes that "the theme of all her [Millay's] poetry is the search for the integrity of the individual spirit" (Gray 6). While searching for the uniqueness of the individual spirit, Millay's poetry, especially "Sonnet xxxi", becomes interested in how the individual works when it is involoved in a relationship and must content with the power struggles which occur within that relationship. Power struggles occur on many levels, but Millay works in "Sonnet xxxi" with the decision of a partner to deny her individuality in order to provide harmony within the couple. Ultimately, the poem demonstrates that happiness cannot be found when one partner chooses to deny themselves and their individuality.
The first image of her love tells us that her love has no bounds and
William Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered to be some of the most beautiful poems in English literature. Although little is known about the poet, many seem to put their focus on Shakespeare’s inner life; wondering why he wrote the things he did. William Shakespeare is mostly known for his plays; however, he did accomplish a lot in poetry. William Shakespeare was powerful with his words, and knew how to express things in great depth. Why or who he wrote about is still a mystery. Scholars only know so much about his life, and are still trying to put the unknown pieces together.
The Use of Sonnets in 20th Century Poetry Works Cited Missing In my discussion of literary tradition in the 20th century with specific reference to Shakespearean and Patrarchan sonnet formats, three post 1914 sonnets will be chosen from the poems we have been studying at school for comparison and analysis of the different formats and how they add meaning to the sonnets. I have therefore selected the following as my subjects: Rupert Brooke - 'The Soldier', Robert Frost - 'Acceptance' and Wilfred Owen - 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. From these three poems we can now discuss the use of the sonnet format
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.
Compare William Shakespeare’s Sonnets 12 and 73 William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote a group of 154 sonnets between 1592 and 1597, which were compiled and published under the title 'Shakespeare's Sonnets' in 1609. The 154 poems are divided into two groups, a larger set, consisting of sonnets 1-126 which are addressed by the poet to a dear young man, the smaller group of sonnets 127-154 address another persona, a 'dark lady'. The larger set of sonnets display a deliberate sequence, a sonnet cycle akin to that used a decade earlier by the English poet Phillip Sidney (1554-1586) in 'Astrophel and Stella'. The themes of love and infidelity are dominant in both sets of poems, in the larger grouping; these themes are interwoven with symbols of beauty, immortality, and the ravages of time. Lyrical speculations of poetry's power to maintain bonds of love and to revere the beloved can also be found in the larger collection of sonnets.
The relationship between a father and his son is an important theme in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One, as it relates to the two main characters of the play, Prince Hal and Hotspur. These two characters, considered as youths and future rulers to the reader, are exposed to father-figures whose actions will influence their actions in later years. Both characters have two such father-figures; Henry IV and Falstaff for Prince Hal, and the Earl of Northumberland and the Earl of Worcester for Hotspur. Both father-figures for Hal and Hotspur have obvious good and bad connotations in their influence on the character. For example, Falstaff, in his drinking and reveling, is clearly a poor influence for a future ruler such as Prince Hal, and Worcester, who shares Hotspur's temper, encourages Hotspur to make rash decisions. The entire plot of the play is based on which father-figure these characters choose to follow: had they chosen the other, the outcome would have been wholly different.
Anna Freud, the founder of child psychoanalysis, once said, “It is only when parental feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent or when the mother's emotions are temporarily engaged elsewhere that children feel lost” (“Anna Freud”). In this case, the children, Romeo and Juliet, get lost and confused, leading to their ultimate deaths. While they cannot live without each other, they also cannot live with each other either, since they end up dying together from all the conflicts piling on top on each other. Since Romeo and Juliet do not really have any parental influence in their lives, they do not know how resolve their conflict of star-crossed love. Due to miscommunication, conflicting viewpoints between parents and adolescents, and a lack of involvement in their children’s lives, Shakespeare shows through Romeo and Juliet that adults are ineffective in saving their children’s lives.
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.
Shakespearean sonnets appear to be arranged in three parts; the first third of the sonnets appear to be directing the recipient of the poems to reproduce to endure his legacy, the second third highlight the ability of the immortalizing abilities of the sonnets and with the latter third there is the appearance of a dark haired lady - possibly a tongue-and-cheek humor of the Petrarchan sonnet. Sonnet 147, as one of the latter third sonnets, appears to be directed to the dark haired lady; as a anti-love sonnet, sonnet 147 covers the progression of emotions dealing with the loss of a lover. Shakespeare laments on his woeful state and illustrates clearly, these progression of emotions through the use of rhetorical tools and through metaphorical means by designing the sonnet itself as a fever.
“The rose embodies only the perfect moment that intervenes between fulfillment and decay. Describing it, Shakespeare makes no attempt to speak in a biographical voice, or that of a dramatically defined persona. It is simply “we” who speak, as the voice of a consensus, and our desire for preserving the flower’s beauty is no less natural than its coming decline. Such a confluence, using “we” to unite temporarily speaker, reader, and the ordinary world, has a justification of its own” (Weiser, 3).
Milton returned to England about 1641 when the political and religious affairs were very disturbing to many. He started to apply his work in practice for that one great work like Paradise Lost when penning the Sonnets. Not every sonnet is identical but they can be difficult in interpretation, styles, word use, and so forth. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Milton’s Sonnet 8 (ca 1642), “Captain or Colonel.” This will be done by explaining the type of theme and then separating the sonnet into three sections: lines 1-4, 5-8, and 9-14 for a better understanding of how Milton used the development of ongoing events to present problems with a mystical resolution.
Almost four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare's work continues to live on through his readers. He provides them with vivid images of what love was like during the 1600's. Shakespeare put virtually indescribable feelings into beautiful words that fit the specific form of the sonnet. He wrote 154 sonnets; all of which discuss some stage or feature of love. Love was the common theme during the time Shakespeare was writing. However, Shakespeare wrote about it in such a way that captivated his reader and made them want to apply his words to their romances. What readers do not realize while they compare his sonnets to their real life relationships is that Shakespeare was continually defying the conventions of courtly love in his writings.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) lived in a time of religious turbulence. During the Renaissance people began to move away from the Church. Authors began to focus on the morals of the individual and on less lofty ideals than those of the Middle Ages. Shakespeare wrote one-hundred fifty-four sonnets during his lifetime. Within these sonnets he largely explored romantic love, not the love of God. In Sonnet 29 Shakespeare uses specific word choice and rhyme to show the reader that it is easy to be hopeful when life is going well, but love is always there, for rich and poor alike, even when religion fails.