Elizabeth Barrett Browning And William Shakespeare

782 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Factors influencing expression of emotion

For centuries, individuals have had the urge to communicate their feelings, thoughts, and passions, whether it be in the form of speech, writing, or drawing. These are only a few of many types of manners that the human kind have appropriated to represent secretive passions for something. Although their forms of expression are countless, writing is one of them in which individuals encounter tend to find comfort to communicate profound words. Poetry is a writing device that helps the person to share a clarification of a feeling by using complexity in its words based on the individual 's views. “Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private” (Ginsberg). The great two poets, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Shakespeare are examples as they well displayed their passions and feelings by using the sonnet form. A sonnet is mostly “A lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic pentameters in English, alexandrines in French, hendecasyllables in Italian. The rhyme schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns” (Baldick). The two poems, "S43" by (EBB) and "S130" by (WS), share similarities and differences.
During the “sixteenth” century, poetry was expected to follow the popular "Blazon" style for which is used to define heraldry. “This method of depiction was translated into poetry and was used to portray the features of the human, usually the female body. A typical blazon would start with the hair and work downward, focusing on eyes, ears, lips, neck, breasts and so on.” (Woolway). In other words, the speaker describes the physical beauty of a lover 's body as it focuses mostly on the woman’s characteristics. "My mi...

... middle of paper ...

...onless objects. "My soul can reach when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace" (EBB) she gives these essential humanistic features to the description of her soul. In the same way, "If hairs are wires, black wires grow on her head" (WS) the poet describes his mistress 's hair.
In conclusion, the "S43" by EBB and "S130" by WS are two great poems that have distinguished similarities and differences. The outstanding contradiction in this two poems is that one uses hyperbolic descriptions while the other one is more critical. The two sonnets express differences, but they compare in the form of literal devices such as personification. The point of view is one similarity the two sonnets share as they use "I" at the beginning of a few sentences. Therefore, we can see that the two poets have unique styles, but they also share a few similarities.

Show More
Related

  • An Echo Sonnet To An Empty Page Summary

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem “An Echo Sonnet, To an Empty Page” poet Robert Pack introduces the narrator who is referred to as the “voice” and his alter ego/subconscious who is referred to as the “echo” in the poem. They exchange questions and answers which reveal the poets prospects and attitudes toward life. The “voice” seems like unsure man, afraid to make a change in his life and live it, because he fears his inevitable mortality. The “echo” which is the man’s subconscious/ alter ego answers the voices questions showing the man a view on life. Beautifully designed, this poem uses the traditional form of a Shakespearean sonnet with the addendum of the “echo” communicating a direct message to the reader. Various literary techniques like symbols, juxtaposition,

    Read More

  • Comparing My Last Duchess And Sonnet 130

    1796 Words  | 4 Pages

    Love and Hate are powerful emotions that influence and control how we interact with people. To express this influence and control and the emotions associated with love and hate, for instance, joy, admiration, anger, despair, jealousy, and disgust, author's craft their writing with literary elements such as as structure, figurative language, imagery, diction, symbolism, and tone. Poems in which these can be seen present are “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare. Within “My Papa’s Waltz” a mighty love is seen between the father and son. To express this Roethke uses figurative language, symbolism and diction. Within “My Last Duchess” there is little love, but an ample hate towards the duchess from the Duch. To express this the

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Browning's Sonnet 43

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    A good relationship cannot be found, it has to be created. Relationships are different for everybody and most of us feel we need a good relationship in our lives to make us feel better and live happier but that is that always necessarily the case? ‘Thefreedictionary.com’ defines relationship as ‘The condition or fact of being related; connection or association’ whereas the ‘urbandictionary.com’ defines a relationship as ‘A legal form of prostitution where a female collects money, cars, and other valuable things in exchange for sex’, both definitions are very different but which Is right and which is wrong? Truth is both may be right. The definition of relationship depends upon how you see it, therefore meaning there may be millions of different definitions out there. Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett Browning both investigate the developments and growth in relationships in their texts ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Sonnet 43’. Many similarities emerge from both texts despite both authors being centuries apart.

    Read More

  • From the Hazel Bough

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    In poetry, we can vent our frustration and interpretations of the world around us on paper. Poets make their points using metaphors or little stories to bring them out. When reading poetry, I always put myself in the shoes of the first or third person to better understand what is trying to be put across in the words of the sonnets. Most poems can mean anything to anybody. There are many cases in which you see people finding beauty in things they don't even understand, such as an Italian Opera or Ancient Hieroglyphics painted on a pyramid wall. Poetry can be silly, cheesy, boring or down right appealing and consuming to the readers eyes.

    Read More

  • Lanston hughes comparison of two poems

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”

    Read More

  • A Poetry Explication

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 and Clause McKay's The Harlem Dancer

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Queen Elizabeth I and Virginia Stephen-Woolf

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are two women from the near and distant past that have become strong female role models in recent years: Queen Elizabeth I and Virginia Woolf. These women were not without problems while growing up, though. Elizabeth’s mother was beheaded after being charged with treason when she was only three; she grew up viewing women as indispensable after her father had six wives; her family kept dying (mother, step mother, father, half brother, sister), and she was locked away by her sister Queen Mary in the Tower of London for a number of years. Virginia Woolf on the other hand battled with depression and mental disease her whole life, was denied a typical education because she was female, had many mental breakdowns after death of mother, and was institutionalized after father’s death. Both Elizabeth Tudor and Virginia Stephen-Woolf shared many of the same family problems in their lives, but their life paths and careers were drastically different from one another.

    Read More

  • Necessity of Love in Browning´s Sonnets from the Portuguese

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    Canfield Reisman, Rosemary M. “Sonnet 43.” Masterplots II. Philip K. Jason. Vol. 7. Pasadena: Salem Press, 2002. 3526-3528. Print.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast John Keats And Anthem For Doomed Youth

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the two sonnets differ in their general structure, the formal elements making up that structure are just as crucial for both of them to organize and contrast the themes and ideas present throughout the

    Read More

  • Shakespeare Doesn T Who Is The Dark Lady

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the works of William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser it is clear that some similarities are apparent, however the two poets encompass different writing styles, as well as different topics that relate to each other in their own unique ways. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Spenser’s “Sonnet 75”, both poets speak of love in terms of feelings and actions by using different expressive views, allowing the similar topics to contain clear distinctions. Although Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” relate in the sense that love is genuine and everlasting, Spenser suggests love more optimistically, whereas Shakespeare focuses on expressing the beauty and stability of love.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Sir Thomas Wyatt's Poetry

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sir Thomas Wyatt is credited as one of the first poets to bring the sonnet form into English literature, a form in which the speaker’s sincerity for, most commonly, a distant mysterious woman whom he loves, is believed to be the focal point of the poetry. From the selection of works which Wyatt wrote we can see many point in which the focal point is seemingly the earnestness of his love for his muse as authenticated by what he states in the poem itself. However, there is a sense of underlying meaning throughout his works which the reader must tease out themselves to see that that in fact is the focal point of his poetry.

    Read More

  • Chaucer and Shakespeare

    2011 Words  | 5 Pages

    Two of the greatest masters of British literature, Shakespeare and Chaucer, tended to look to the classics when searching for inspiration. A lesser-known example of this lies in an ancient tale from Greece about two star-crossed lovers. There are many variations on the names of these lovers, but for the purpose of solidarity, they shall henceforth be referred to as “Troilus and Criseyde” for Chaucer and “Troilus and Cressida” for Shakespeare. Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde” offers up a classic tale of love that is doomed, whereas Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” is not only tragic but also biting in its judgment and representation of characters. This difference may be due to the differences in time periods for the two authors, or their own personal dispositions, but there can be no denying the many deviations from Chaucer’s work that Shakespeare employs. Shakespeare’s work, by making the characters and situations more relatable, builds upon Chaucer’s original work, rather than improving it or shattering it.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Sonnet 73

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fourteen line sonnet is constructed by three quatrains and one couplet. With the organization of the poem, Shakespeare accomplishes to work out a different idea in each of the three quatrains as he writes the sonnet to lend itself naturally. Each of the quatrain contains a pair of images that create one universal idea in the quatrain. The poem is written in a iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Giving the poem a smooth rhyming transition from stanza to

    Read More

More about Elizabeth Barrett Browning And William Shakespeare

Open Document