Love in Shakespeare's Sonnet 128 and Gibran's The Prophet
William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 128" suggests a rather playful and sensual approach to love, while an excerpt on love and marriage from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet has a didactic and intellectual tone. Shakespeare revels in lustful possession of his lover, but Gibran advises leaving space between partners in their relationship.
Well-endowed with imagery, Shakespeare's sonnet evokes the vision of a woman swaying back and forth playing a spinet, and the poet sitting back smiling and enjoying her movements, aroused by her music and charm. Master of double entendre, Shakespeare writes "Sonnet 128" as a sexual conceit. He compares her playing beautiful music on a "blessed" wooded instrument to her playing his blessed wooden instrument (phallic symbol). In fact, he sees the woman as his playtoy and object of possession for him to exploit for his own sexual enjoyment, misinterpreting his selfish lust as love.
The poem has an atmosphere of licentiousness, and Shakespeare employs many sexual puns and innuendoes to provide for this tone. His diction exhibits an earthy element: "playing music on blessed wood," "sweet fingers gently swaying," "wiry concord," "jacks nimbly leaping," "reaping a harvest," "wood's boldness," "change of state when tickled," "dancing chips," and "fingers walking with gentle gait." An interpretation of any of these preceding phrases could describe either his lover playing a spinet or performing a sexual act with consequent gratification. "Change of state when tickled" indicates the achievement of an erection. "Reaping a harvest" represents his sexual climax and ejaculation. "Wiry concord" makes reference to another poem in ...
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Although the confederation gained some substantial powers, the crucial powers to tax and regulate commerce remained with the individual states. Each state passed their own currency, and therefore created inflation and made “Continentals” in circulation worthless. Compounded with restrictions on trade to Great Britain and down the Mississippi River, the states became mired in a heavy depression. John Fiske, of the conservative view, realized the precarious situation when he stated “the Nation was under the verge of collapse and near-anarchy and that the five year period after 1783 was the most critical time in American History.” Robert Morris, secretary of finance, resorted to desperate measures with the Newburgh conspiracy in an attempt to raise funds for a depleted military; but it took an impassioned plea from General Washington himself to put down the rebellion. Furthermore, the Articles allowed for personal rights abuses such as unsubstantiated foreclosures...
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
One of the largest issues that the Articles faced was the inability to enforce taxes (Roark p. 237). Due to the large amount of debt that was generated from engaging in war, establishing western settlements, and the formation of peace with Indians (Roark p. 237), the confederation government had an enormous debt that they could not resolve. Another large problem was the Articles’ inability to administer, sell, or determine the borders of new territories (Roark p. 230). The result of this was a lack of a plan to expand the United States and stagnation in possible
Over the years, society has come to evolve and progressively become more efficient as society’s viewpoints and perspectives on various aspects of life have also changed. However, the one aspect of life that has stayed constant has been religion. The impact of a constant religious opinion on a changing society has detrimental and benign effects on the populace of such a society.
Clark, W. G. and Wright, W. Aldis , ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Vol. 1. New York: Nelson-Doubleday
Treatment of sex is what sets apart Measure for Measure from other Shakespearean comedies. Sex in Shakespeare is usually the source of enjoyment and happiness. However, in Measure for Measure, which in terms of genre belongs to the so-called dark/bitter comedies or problem plays, sex is the gloomy source of death. Jokes about sex are dismal and include allusions to venereal diseases such as syphilis. Only two of Shakespeare’s 38 surviving plays contain scenes in brothels. This is one of them, the other is Pericles.
Religion ties American’s of different races and cultures together in various ways. It provides unity and hope among a very diverse group of people. In today’s American society religion provides deep connection to American’s through socialization and social control.
In this essay, I will explore the religious experience in general and some of its variations around the world. The focus will be on the types of religious beliefs and religious leaders, especially in small-scale societies. An exploration of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or any other major religion is beyond the scope of this essay. The approach taken is that of cultural relativity--religious practices or beliefs are not evaluated in terms of their "correctness" or "sophistication" but, rather, in terms of their function within the societies that have them.
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.
Shakespeare’s sonnets include love, the danger of lust and love, difference between real beauty and clichéd beauty, the significance of time, life and death and other natural symbols such as, star, weather and so on. Among the sonnets, I found two sonnets are more interesting that show Shakespeare’s love for his addressee. The first sonnet is about the handsome young man, where William Shakespeare elucidated about his boundless love for him and that is sonnet 116. The poem explains about the lovers who have come to each other freely and entered into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet’s love towards his lover that is constant and strong and will not change if there any alternation comes. Next four lines explain about his love which is not breakable or shaken by the storm and that love can guide others as an example of true love but that extent of love cannot be measured or calculated. The remaining lines of the third quatrain refer the natural love which can’t be affected by anything throughout the time (it can also mean to death). In the last couplet, if
Then, I will present the case Cloutier v. Costco Wholesale, which shall illustrate how everything fits together – from the broad definition of religion to the handling of a filed charge.
Discrimination based on or derived from religion has been a cause of significant suffering. Prejudice directed against people based on their religious beliefs, practice, identification or association has resulted in a wide range of discriminatory practices. Prejudice and discrimination based on religion continue to be problems even in countries that otherwise has achieved a high level of religious diversity. Prejudice based on religion has been used to justify discrimination against those with different religious beliefs, individuals of various ethnicities, those who are not exclus...
In a functionalistic view religion provides focus and purpose to a society and assists its leadership in controlling the society. In other words it helps society stay on course with the path that its leadership has deems important or suitable. Practicing, praying or preaching a religious belief contributes to the norms of a society, possibly mostly a societies’ mores (Schaefer, 2009). Since religion in itself usually instructs its followers to practice the ideologies of peace and to be submissive to their god and leaders, this helps society be passive on a global level. Many religions that are practiced today are embedded with customs, traditions, an...
Religion has existed ever since the dawn of time. Most ancient civilizations believed in one or greater beings that watched over and controlled all of their lives. Even today, religion plays a significant role in a majority of people’s lives. They go to the local church, mosque, synagogue, or another place of worship and bow their heads in admiration to the higher power. But how has religion affected society? Has it brought world peace and ended all wars? Or has it, in fact, brought hate and evil warfare? The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Thirty Years War are all examples of religion’s negative effect on society throughout history. More contemporary examples such as the Lebanese Civil War and attacks by Muslim extremists show that