William Shakespeare just couldn 't leave the man alone. "Sonnet 2" is part of a 17-sonnet collection written to a young friend encouraging him to produce progeny. Also known as "the procreation sonnets" (Shmoop Editorial Team), the poet urges him to "marry and eternize his beauty through the engendering of children, [...] to conquer devouring Time" (Bevington 883). To attain immortality, to beat time, he needed to wed and pass his name on to an heir. This collection of sonnets appears to be written by an overzealous parent. But in all fairness, that is just a cursory reading and understanding of the intent of the author. Due to the significance of producing an heir, there is a genuine concern and a sense of urgency for the poet 's young friend, …show more content…
"How much more praise [would be] deserved [for] thy beauty 's use (9) If thou couldst answer, 'This fair child of mine (10) Shall sum my count and make my old excuse (11), ' proving his beauty by succession thine (12)." As an alternative, if the young man 's response to the question of what he had done with the richness of his youth in that he invested it into a successor, this would be duly praiseworthy. It would also "sum [his] count" (11) by balancing the debt of the richness given to him and thereby "make amends of [his] old age" (Bevington 885). Instead of the nobleman "burying his talents" and keeping it all to himself, he would be not only be investing, but depositing it into his son 's account. Thereby, allowing his "succession thine" (12) to "prove that his father 's beauty isn 't really gone" (Shmoop Editorial Team) - it had been passed on to the next generation. Symbolically, the nobleman, like the wise servants in Jesus ' parable, would be greatly …show more content…
Ultimately, at some point in a person 's life, there is a desire to "be new made when thou art old" (13). There will most assuredly come a time when we become aged that we would wish to go back to being young again - to run and not grow tired, to work without getting sore. It is often said that one can see themselves in their children. It 's almost as if the nobleman would experience a "kind of resurrection" (Shmoop Editorial Team). The Bible tells us that in King David 's old age, he could not keep warm, "Now King David was old and advanced in years. And although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm" (1 Kings 1:1). It seems in the 2nd line of the couplet that the poet is reminding the young nobleman that this could also be a problem for him, "And see thy blood warm when thou feel 'st it cold" (14). In this sonnet 's final line, the poet is employing a play on words, as "blood" is also a synonym for "decent, or lineage" (OED). The young man, in his old age, would take comfort and solace in the fact that while his time on Earth is shortened, his heir would carry on his
The poet uses the associations with autumn to comment on love by explaining how love is the trees in autumn who survive the winter. For instance, the lines, “The strong root still alive under the snow, love will endure – if I can let you go.” From these lines I can conclude that although the poet might let go of her lover like how trees let of their leaves, their love will continue because the roots of the tree never die throughout the winter. For this example, of a comparison of love to autumn, the poet creates an image of a tree root prospering under the snow, even if the part of the tree above ground looks dead. Additionally, the author correlates autumn with love in the lines, “If I come to know what they do know, that fall is the release,
The conceit, characterization and tone of the one hundred and forty third sonnet make this particular sonnet interesting to analyze. The collection of sonnets was written by William Shakespeare around the mid-1590s and published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. “Sonnet 143” describes a woman who "sets down her babe and makes all swift dispatch." Her attention has been restrained by the idea of taking possession of a feathered creature that has run away (line 3). In this sonnet, Shakespeare creates a rivalry of role-play between a man in pursuit of a woman, who is compared to a housewife and a mother, and the love interest the woman in pursuing. The speaker is in desperate pursuit of the housewife, like a child who wishes to be pacified and kissed
Shakespeare’s sonnets are some the most widely analyzed and debated works in Western Literature. Taking a poem at face value with a literal interpretation can belittle the work, so including an exploration of figurative language and multiple definitions will bring about new observations and analyses. Also, if only analyzed as a single piece of literature certain arguments will become invalid, however when all of the sonnets are analyzed as en entity, there will be a wider range of support for what was once an unsound analysis.
Sonnet 1, introduces the predominant themes which run through the sequence of sonnets: the phrase ‘we desire increase’ (Sonnet 1, line 1, Norton 2nd eds, pp. 1946) suggests procreation and immediately the theme of immortality arises where we ‘might never die’ (Sonnet 1, line 2, Norton 2nd eds, pp. 1946). The poet is suggesting that the alleged youth, to wh...
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.
“Sonnet Eighteen” was one of the first of the Sonnets to become very well known. It “sets a fearful problem in turning it into prose”, because it is so straight forward and easy to comprehend (Rowse 39). Throughout this poem, the reader will acknowledge that Shakespeare “finds the human beauty “more lovely” and more lasting than nature’s” (Kastan 10). In the Sonnet, Shakespeare is comparing a woman to a summer’s day. He uses imagery to differentiate the harshness of summer and beauty of the woman. The audience can see the speaker’s perspective of youth and beauty throughout the lines in the
The sonnet is a form of writing often taken advantage of by many writers and literature lovers. Most may not know the history and origins of the sonnet or the Petrarchan sonnet. There are many different forms of writing and the sonnet form is a fourteen lined poem broken into two different parts. The first part is called the Octave and the second is the sestet.
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.
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.
Much has been made (by those who have chosen to notice) of the fact that in Shakespeare's sonnets, the beloved is a young man. It is remarkable, from a historical point of view, and raises intriguing, though unanswerable, questions about the nature of Shakespeare's relationship to the young man who inspired these sonnets. Given 16th-Century England's censorious attitudes towards homosexuality, it might seem surprising that Will's beloved is male. However, in terms of the conventions of the poetry of idealized, courtly love, it makes surprisingly little difference whether Will's beloved is male or female; to put the matter more strongly, in some ways it makes more sense for the beloved to be male.
She is known for creating radical novels, which stuck discord in many of its early readers, and writing highly respected sonnets. Similar to Behn, Smith also captures the inner thoughts of not just women, but all human beings in the sonnet “Written at the Close of Spring” and juxtaposes the beauty of the annual spring with the frailty of humanity. In the first stanza of this poem, the speaker uses imagery in order to help readers connect with the beauty and delicacy of spring flowers. In the second stanza, she calls to attention the fact that the spring flowers are dying and, to experience the beauty again, one will have to wait until next spring to enjoy them. In the third stanza, the poem’s focus changes from nature to humanity and asserts that as people age and begins to take part in, “tyrant passion, and corrosive care” (Line 11), youth becomes wasted. The speaker comes to the realization that once youth vanishes, it will forever, unlike the yearly revival of spring. The major fault of this sonnet is that it can be difficult to understand and has several different messages, some of which are not as strong or enlightening as
This is beneficial to sonnet simply because it allows it to flow better and gives it rhythm. To Shakespeare, youth is seen as the pinnacle of your lifetime. In reality, this peak of youthful beauty is only a slight moment of perfection. Before you know it, time swallows your youth, and things begin to change. He elaborates on the beauty and the decay of youth through style, technique and structure.
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.
Shakespeare's sonnets are a romantic and charming series of poems. His use of rhyme and passionate, eloquent language serve to illuminate his strong feelings. These techniques were probably the most fluent way for such a writer as him to express the immeasurable love that he obviously felt for his mysterious lady. Examining the numerous ways Shakespeare found to describe it, the reader believes that this love was undoubtedly lasting and authentic. He often made heart-felt comments about his emotions that could also suit lovers in the present day. Because of this, and the fact that people read them yet, Shakespeare's sonnets are timeless and universal, just like the concept of love itself.
In Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, the speaker ponders the beauty, or the lack thereof, of his lover. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker presents his lover as an unattractive mistress with displeasing features, but in fact, the speaker is ridiculing, through the use of vivid imagery, the conventions of love poems and the way woman are portrayed through the use of false comparisons. In the end, the speaker argues that his mistress may not be perfect, but in his eyes, her beauty is equal to any woman who is abundantly admired and put through the untrue comparison.