Comparison and Contrasting Between 3 poems: - The Flea (John Donne),

Comparison and Contrasting Between 3 poems: - The Flea (John Donne),

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day (William Shakespeare), and

Jenny Kissed Me (James Leigh Hunt)

These three love poems or sonnets were all written pre 1914 but by

very different writers. The authors of these poems use different

styles of writing love poetry. For instance, John Donny is very

clever. His poem, 'The Flea' brings out an angle of smart sayings to

get people to have sex. William Shakespeare focuses more on actually

love, while James Leigh Hunt focuses primarily on a blunt approach.

Two of these three poems are very short, merely one verse if you can

call them that. 'Jenny Kissed Me' by James Leigh Hunt rhymes creating

a quicker tempo and bringing a real life experience to the readers

mind. It brings over the fact that someone is infatuated with another.

Someone 'stole' Jenny's love in this poem. ''Time, you thief, who love

to get' indicates that someone picked their time to steal her love.

However, much like Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's

day', this poem is about love, and not infatuation. It shows that the

love has stayed through the course of time.

William Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day' is a

very popular sonnet. It is about love, very much unlike John Donne's

the flea, which is merely about sex. It is easy to see the love shown

in this sonnet by a variety of quotes. 'Though art more lovely and

more temperate', 'Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines', 'Nor

lose possession of that fair thou owest', and 'So long as men can

breathe or eyes can see'. Almost every other line there is a reference

to the beauty of the subject of this poem. 'Shall I compare thee to a

summers d...

... middle of paper ...

...onne's 'The Flea'

is about someone trying to seduce a woman to have sex with him before

marriage, while William Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare thee to a

summer's day' is more about how love can be good, but can also hurt. A

complete contrast to both is James Leigh Hunt's 'Jenny Kissed Me',

which has a theme about someone being loved once, and clinging on to

that memory, which could be for a few reasons.

The actual dates of the poems reflect something about them. For

instance, both Donne's 'The Flea', and Shakespeare's 'Shall I compare

thee to a summers day' were written around the same time and culture,

however, 'Jenny Kissed Me' by James Leigh Hunt was written about a

hundred years afterward, this may reflect the dramatic change in

styles of writing, just like the old English of the past and the

contemporary writing styles have a remarkable difference.