In the Elizabethan era, love poetry was primarily used to seduce women into sex. The majority of love poetry suggested that lust and the trade of material items for sex seemingly similar to prostitution where considered to be love at the time. Ironically the “love” poetry of the time has very few real references to love at all.
In the Elizabethan age most love poems had the intent of convincing the receiver of the poem to sleep with the author. Although these poems could be written in various manners they had the same end goal. One type of love poem played to the “Carpe Dium” mentality, in this type the author was more direct about his desire to sleep with the receiver. The poem “To His Coy Mistress” falls under this category. The poem begins with the recognizing her coyness and accepting it, he then compares his love for her “like a plant in growth” (page 276). After he goes on to compliment her:
“An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast;
But thirty thousand to the rest” (page 267, lines 13-16).
This would lead her to believe she is truly adored and even loved, only short there after to hear that one day she will lose her virginity and she will no longer be valued for what she was, “That long preserved virginity;/ And your quaint honor turn to dust; And into ashes all my lust” (page 267, lines 28-30). Stating that once she loses her beauty she will no longer be wanted and there will have been no purpose to her coyness. In doing so the author would make her feel self-conscious and put her in a state of wanting to feel desired. He would then have an easier time persuading her to sleep with him.
Another type of Elizabethan love poem is pastoral poetry, where the ...
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...e because it is not just based on a trade for sex but conversations and similarities and interest in one another.
Ironically, most Elizabethan love poetry has very little to do with love at all. The writers of this poetry where men whose only desires were to have sex with women and used their writing to seduce them. This poetry brings to question if there was ever any real love in the Elizabethan age at all. Shakespeare provides some hope that there was in fact real love during this period but the majority of writing would suggest love was just a trade between men and woman, with the man providing a home, wealth and items such as clothes in exchange for sex. I believe Shakespeare was aware of the rarity of real love because he finishes his “Sonnet 130” with “And yet, by Heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.” (page 167, lines 13-14).
When love is in attendance it brings care, faith, affection and intimacy. This is proved true in the spectacular play A Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare. This play displays the facts about lust, hatred, jealousy and their roles in something powerfully desirable. It is entitled love. Love is present everywhere, in every form, in every condition and even when one least expects it.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare examines the concepts of love in the tragic play
In Shakespeare time, marriage was seen as a wealthy and social commitment and didn’t involved love. In the Elizabethan Era, women were believed to be inferior to men and were expected to obey men without exceptions. Marriage was seen as business relationships were money was involved, this explained the relationship between men and women and their interests in marriage. Marriages between wealthy families were very common in that time, and were expected to increase the family fortune. For marriage women were expected to have their own ‘dowry’ which in that time was their money and properties they inherited after marriage. However, in their marriage the women lose all their possessions and came to be their husband’s properties. A good example of a marriage done by social commitment is the marriage between Petruchio and Katherina. The only reason Petruchio wants to be with her is because of her money. As a result this shows how men show no romance towards women.
...l love, like Marvell in “His Coy Mistress,” is still used to get women in bed. It makes them feel secure in a relationship, which in turn makes them more likely to have sex with their partner. Building up the relationship, like Donne in “A Valediction: forbidden Mourning,” will also make a woman feel secure in a relationship in modern times by establishing dependability; it also romanticizes the relationship. If a woman feels she is being swept off her feet by Prince Charming, she will be more likely to get in bed. Allaying a woman’s fears will also convince her to consent to sex, much like in Donne’s first stanza of “The Flea.” He reassures his woman that sex is not a big deal. These days sex really has become quite inconsequential and men do not have difficulty pointing that out to a woman they are trying to sleep with. Generally, many of the basic ideas expressed in 17th century poetry are similar to those presented today in relationships. Making excuses, finding arguments, allaying fears, and professing true love are all still utilized to speed along the occurrence of sexual relations.
However, Shakespeare also picks on love. Not only did Malvolio's confusion about his and Olivia's relationship prove to add to the comedy, but it rather showed how one can play with love, and use it for another's harm. Apart from this example, love is depicted as a light and lovely emotion.
When he writes "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she, belied with false compare." (lines 13-14) in the final couplet, one responds with an enlightened appreciation, making them understand Shakespeare's message that true love consists of something deeper than physical beauty. Shakespeare expresses his ideas in a wonderful fashion. Not only does he express himself through direct interpretation of his sonnet, but also through the levels at which he styled and produced it. One cannot help but appreciate his message of true love over lust, along with his creative criticism of Petrarchan sonnets.
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
In the poem “To His Coy Mistress”, the speaker is trying to seduce his wife. In the assumption the mistress is his wife; she is being bashful towards losing her virginity. The speaker, which is the mistress’s husband, develops a carefully constructed argument where the speaker seeks to persuade his lady to surrender her virginity to him.
Attitudes Towards Love in Pre-1900 and 1990's Poetry “The Despairing Lover” written by William Walsh was written pre 1900 whilst the second poem “I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine” by Liz Lockhead was written in the 1990’s. These poems are almost a century apart. Attitude towards love changes over time and these poems represent this. I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine is about how people think about Valentine’s Day in the 1990’s, while The Despairing Lover is showing what people think and how important they see love in the 1990’s.
Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare’s harsh yet realistic tribute to his quite ordinary mistress. Conventional love poetry of his time would employ Petrarchan imagery and entertain notions of courtly love. Francis Petrarch, often noted for his perfection of the sonnet form, developed a number of techniques for describing love’s pleasures and torments as well as the beauty of the beloved. While Shakespeare adheres to this form, he undermines it as well. Through the use of deliberately subversive wordplay and exaggerated similes, ambiguous concepts, and adherence to the sonnet form, Shakespeare creates a parody of the traditional love sonnet. Although, in the end, Shakespeare embraces the overall Petrarchan theme of total and consuming love.
There is a defining complication in the sonnet. “This centers on the ambiguity of the term “mistress” which could refer to a husband’s wife, or, as the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, could also mean “[a] woman loved and courted by a man; a female sweetheart” or “[a]woman other than his wife with whom a man has a long-lasting sexual relationship” (Gregory, 2). The poem does not specify if “my love” refers to the speaker’s mistress or to the speaker’s love, his feelings. Shakespeare could be implying that his feelings and his love, are equally as sacred as the supposed love of other lovers that his mistress wrongly compares him
The overall gist of "To His Coy Mistress" is established in the opening stanza of the poem. It describes a sceneario where a girl has the option to either give in to the young persuaders sexua...
The Theme of Love in the Poems First Love, To His Coy Mistress, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess and Shall I Compare Thee?
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. Courtly love was the term used to describe the courtship rituals between noble men and women. This usually involves a dashing knight falling instantly in love with a strikingly beautiful woman. Most of these relationships did not result in marriage because it was thought that love only existed outside the bonds of marriage.