One of the most famous poets in literary history is that of William Wordsworth. He lived between the years of 1770-1850. He was a very strong poet and many of his works have some degree of a pessimistic view to them. They could be understood after the hard life he led. He saw the French Revolution at its height and wrote several poems about it. He had an illegitimate daughter with a woman in France. When he returned back to England he married Mary Hutchinson, who gave him two sons and another daughter.
Till this day we can read the famous poems and ballads of Wordsworth. One poem that caught my attention was that of Scorn not the sonnet. The poem is rather interesting and brings up other poets before his time. It also talks about the form and the meaning of a sonnet. He talks of the sonnet as a delicate work of art. Wordsworth describes each part of the sonnet by talking of another poet. He describes how one of the other poets helped shape the form of sonnet writing.
In the first two lines of the poem he is writing of a critic. Wordsworth writes “Scorn not the sonnet; Critic, you have frowned, mindless of its just honors;” These two lines state the critic or the audience is not able to understand what is being written in the sonnet. Wordsworth from the beginning says that the sonnets hold honor in their form of literary writing. This style of writing was very popular among the sixteen hundreds and most well known writers are known because of their sonnets. The sonnets gave the writers honor as the sonnet took honor of its own.
Next he goes on to say, “with this key Shakespeare unlocked his heart;” Without going into great detail Shakespeare is none for his incredible sonnets as well as hi plays. Wordsworth here begins to show how each poet contributed to this writing still. He begins off with Shakespeare. Wordsworth explains that through these sonnets Shakespeare’s heart was opened so therefore he was able to write such meaning full sonnets with love and passion. By the honor that was bestowed by the sonnets Shakespeare was able to be more expressive and gain his own honor.
Petrarch, who was one of the early sonnet writers is also one of the great Italian poets. His sonnets dealt with his unrequited love for a woman by the name of Laura.
Exploration of the philosophical part of life has been a very common thing for poets in the past. They love to play mind tricks through their poems that have a deeper meaning of life. They always try to play it off in some simple word play, but there is actually an insanely deeper meaning to the poem. Nine times out of ten it deals with life in some way. It usually will try to teach a lesson of some sort, or maybe even give some insight to how you should treat life. The author William Wordsworth is a lyrical genius when it comes to his poetry. He says some extremely simple things that have this crazy deep meaning. He always uses his words so that it may seem fairly simple, but there is so much complexity in the poems. He is often known for his essay style poetry as well. They are poems, but
A sonnet is a well constructed poem that allows a poet to examine the difference of two ideas, actions, people, or whatever the poet may write about, by comparing and contrasting against the two. Sir Thomas Wyatt was famous for his translations into Petrarchan sonnets. A Petrarchan sonnet is well known for two things, first they contain remarkable comparisons, and secondly their stri...
One of our greatest fears is the fear of death. Immortality is something any of us would take in a heartbeat, so we do not have to face death. But this is something that we cannot run away from. Mortality is an unpleasant thought that sits in the back of our minds form our day to day lives. Yet, this fear is something that is developed more over time as we grow older. Children believe that the world is such a wonderful place, they fell invincible. They also have wonderful creative skills and imaginations which is often revealed to us when they can play one game for hours at one time. Yet, as a child ages, this imagination and creativity can disappear. This is what William Wordsworth is terrified of. Wordsworth is an English poet as well as his colleague Samuel Taylor Coleridge published the first edition of Lyrical Ballads and it changed everything as mentioned Evelyn Toynton, “In early 1798, Coleridge and a little-known poet named William Wordsworth decided to publish a joint volume of their poems.” (Toynton, Evelyn). William expressed this fear of premature mortality of the imagination in each of his works, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, The Prelude, The World is Too Much with Us, and London, 1802.
One of the most famous poets and writers of all time was William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was best known for his 154 different sonnets. In each sonnet, he usually asked a question in the first line for the reader to think about. For example, in Sonnet 18, the poem’s first line is “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” As you continue to read the sonnet he answers the question more in depth. This sonnet is also believed to have been written about Shakespeare’s late son. Through the use of metaphors, personification, and repetition in Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare concludes that his lover’s beauty is eternal and will never run out.
A sonnet is a fixed patterned poem that expresses a single, complete thought or idea. Sonnet comes from the Italian word “sonetto”, which means “little song”. Poem, on the other hand, is English writing that has figurative language, and written in separate lines that usually have a repeated rhyme, but don’t all the time. The main and interesting thing is that these two poems or sonnets admire and compare the beauty of a specific woman, with tone, repetition, imagery, and sense of sound.
A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one of several set of rhyme-schemes. Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications, but the two characteristic sonnet types are the Italian type (Petrarchan) and the English type (Shakespearean). Shakespeare is still nowadays seen as in idol in English literature. No one can read one of his works and be left indifferent. His way of writing is truly fascinating. His sonnets, which are his most popular work, reflect several strong themes. Several arguments attempt to find the full content of those themes.
John Donne and William Shakespeare are each notorious for their brilliant poetry. William Shakespeare is said to be the founder of proper sonnets, while John Donne is proclaimed to be the chief metaphysical poet. Each poet has survived the changing centuries and will forever stand the test of time. Although both John Donne and William Shakespeare share a common theme of love in their poems, they each use different tactics to portray this underlying meaning. With a closer examination it can be determined that Donne and Shakespeare have similar qualities in their writing.
William Wordsworth rejected all the traditional assumptions about the proper style, words, and subject matter for a poem during the Romanics period. When explaining his writing Wordsworth said, “There will be found in these volumes little of what is usually called poetry diction; I have taken as much pains to avoid it as others ordinarily take to produce it.” (Marshall) Because he took such a different approach to his writing, many people criticized his poems. Literary critic Harold Bloom said, “The fear of mortality haunts much of Wordsworth’s best poetry, especially in regard to the premature mortality of the Imagination and the loss of its creative joy.” Wordsworth does in fact express fear of mortality in the poems The World is too much with us, London, 1802, The Prelude, and Lines composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
During the Renaissance, it was common for poets to employ Petrarchan conceit to praise their lovers. Applying this type of metaphor, an author makes elaborate comparisons of his beloved to one or more very dissimilar things. Such hyperbole was often used to idolize a mistress while lamenting her cruelty. Shakespeare, in Sonnet 18, conforms somewhat to this custom of love poetry, but later breaks out of the mold entirely, writing his clearly anti-Petrarchan work, Sonnet 130.
In addition, the sonnet is a statement of respect about the beauty of his beloved; summ...
Wordsworth wrote a preface to Lyrical Ballads in which he puts forth his ideas about poetry. His conception of poetry hinges on three major premises. Wordsworth asserts that poetry is the language of the common man:
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.
During Wordsworth time as a poet he made it his mission to have poetry be read by not only the aristocrats but also now the common man something that has never been done. In both poems Wordsworth makes his poems relatable by incorporating themes that everyone can relate to even if they haven’t personally had that experience, although both poems do differ when it comes down to structure and form but also when trying to convey a message, these poems are important because these ideas have never been done before and now even the average Joe can finally participate in a conversation about poetry and this brings two world together.
Wordsworth had two simple ideas that he put into his writing of poetry. One was that “poetry was the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” The second idea was that poets should describe simple scenes of nature in the everyday words, which in turn would create an atmosphere through the use of imagination (Compton 2).
The sonnet, “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” shows Wordsworth’s appreciating the beauty of London and demonstrating it as “emotion recollected in tranquility.” It’s characteristic of his love for solitude that it is set in the early morning when there is no bustle and noise.