The Themes of Love in Shakespeare's Sonnets and Other Poetry
Love poetry has been written for many centuries. The ideas expressed
by Shakespeare and Browning are still relevant today. Love is not a
tangible thing; it is an emotion so it can be perceived in many
different ways.
Shakespeare has infamously used sonnets to express his ideas on love.
'Shall I compare thee…?' is a sonnet in which Shakespeare focuses on
immortalisation through words. 'Let me not' is another sonnet written
by Shakespeare in which he expresses his views and the theme of the
strength of love.
I choose Robert Browning's, Porpyria's lover to compare to the above
poems. As it is a dramatic monologue, which provides an insight into
another existing love. The love conveyed in Porphyria's lover is
obsessive love. This provides are sharp contrast to the above sonnets.
Let me not is written in third person, which gives it an authoritive
tone in this case. The authoritive tone adds to the theme of the
strength of love. This theme is expressed within this poem in a rather
exaggerated manner. Although this manner is very appropriate for this
poem, because it hammers home the point of the poem!
The imagery of a sailing ship in a storm is used in the second
quatrain- to describe Shakespeare view on love. Also love is said to
be a star to 'every wandering barke'- which is a ship. This explains
that Shakespeare believes love and marriage is the right path to go
along.
The imagery used within this poem describes love in the form of
tangible things like a ship. This makes it easier for the reader to
imagine and realise Shakespeare's message. The other two ...
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...y. Also he thinks God has
sanctioned his actions! 'And all night we have not stirred
And yet God has not said a word'
Out of the three poems I have compared, I feel shall I compare thee
expresses love in the most appealing, way as it probably had the best
inspiration. It combines the element of immortalisation from
Porphyria's lover and the trueness of let me not -in the correct
manner to achieve full effect.
The hyperbole in let me not makes us understand that poems message
very seriously, as Shakespeare probably wanted us to do, but it
doesn't show us how love could actually make us feel as 'Shall I
compare thee' does
The shock in Porphyria's lover makes that poem less appealing thus
less successful in making the reader enjoy it. Plus it doesn't express
a true love, which everyone wants to experience.
The play opens with the chorus, it is a sonnet and has a rhyme scheme
Both Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning and Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare delve into the passion of fervent love. In many ways these two sonnets can be compared and contrasted based upon poetic devices such as word choice, figurative language, and imagery.
Lust and Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Campion’s There is a Garden in Her Face
The first quatrain introduces the surreal relationship between the young man and the poet in the choice of diction that is used. The first line of the sonnet "That thou hast her," uses strong alliterative qualities in the stressed first syllables of each word. In doing so, the imagery that is created is one of conceit and arrogance on the behalf of Shakespeare. Generally, a man who has been cuckold by the infidelities of his mistress is not so swift to forgive his betrayer. Instead, he narcissistically tells the friend that the affair is "not all [his] grief" (1). Likewise, Shakespeare alternately uses hypermetric and iambic lines in the first quatrain. Lines one and three are regular iambic pentameter but lines two and four are hypermetrical iambic pentameter. When referring to the young man and the pseudo-importance of their relationship, Shakespeare implements regular iambic pentameter, trying to convince the rea...
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
The love described in this sonnet is a dangerous, obsessive, and possessive love. Fenghua Ma states “the love that appears in Shakespeare’s early works takes on a bright and optimistic look” (Ma 920). Following Shakespeare’s early works, he transitioned to a period focused primarily on themes discussing tragic love. In a sense, the development of the theme in Sonnet 75 could be compared to Shakespeare 's career. The beginning of the sonnet discusses how essential the narrator 's lover is to his life. However, as the sonnet continues, the positive, optimistic view of love disappears, just as Shakespeare 's themes transitioned from optimistic views of love to tragic love throughout his career. On certain days, the narrator describes that he is over satisfied by looking at his lover excessively, but on other days, he is deprived of not having seen his lover at all. Shakespeare writes, “Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, / Or gluttoning on all, or all away” (Shakespeare l.13-14). The narrator is admitting to having an obsession and unhealthy relationship with his lover. He either sees too much or not enough of his
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.
Theme of Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare seldom created his own plots for the plays he wrote and Romeo and Juliet was not an exception. It was not unusual to 'borrow' plays written by others and edit them to their own creative styles. The play "Romeo and Juliet" had been 'borrowed' several times before Shakespeares version, and the original version was actually a poem, written in Italian by Masuccio Salernitano in 1476. Shakespeares main source of inspiration though, came from a long, English poem written by Arthur Brooke written in 1562. This poem was yet another adaptation from the original.
The love that a person has for someone is not the same for other people. They can look at their love through nature or just by their beauty. Shakespeare has the ability to explain his love for someone by using nature as a reference. Looking at two of Shakespeare’s sonnets 18 and 130 explore the differences and similarities between one another. In Sonnet 18 and 130, both show Shakespeare’s knowledge in developing his love and respect.
In Elizabeth Browning’s poem ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning explores the concept of love through her sonnet in a first person narrative, revealing the intense love she feels for her beloved, a love which she does not posses in a materialistic manner, rather she takes it as a eternal feeling, which she values dearly, through listing the different ways she loves her beloved.
Therefore, because William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” share the idea that love is sincere and eternal, they can be looked upon as similar in theme. However, although similar in theme, Shakespeare’s intent is portraying the true everlasting beauty of his love, which is already achieved, whereas Spenser concentrates more on trying to entice his desired love, remaining optimistic throughout the entire poem.
At the time of its writing, Shakespeare's one hundred thirtieth sonnet, a highly candid, simple work, introduced a new era of poems. Shakespeare's expression of love was far different from traditional sonnets in the early 1600s, in which poets highly praised their loved ones with sweet words. Instead, Shakespeare satirizes the tradition of comparing one's beloved to the beauties of the sun. From its opening phrase "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", shocks the audience because it does not portray a soft, beautiful woman. Despite the negative connotations of his mistress, Shakespeare speaks a true woman and true love. The sonnet is a "how-to" guide to love.
In William Shakespeare’s sonnet “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” the audience is introduced to a poem in which he himself goes into depth about the person he is infatuated with. The author does not give any type of hints telling the audience who the poem is towards because it can be for both male and female. That’s the interesting part about William Shakespeare’s work which is to second hand guess yourself and thinking otherwise. Making you think and think rational when you read his work. The sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summers day” is one of his most famous and published poem. Shakespeare’s tone of voice at the commence of the poem is somewhat relaxed and joyful because he is going on talking about the person he is intrigued by. Throughout the passage Metaphors, similes and imagery can all be found in the poem itself
Shakespeare addresses his first 126 sonnets to the same fair man. Sonnet 18, by far one of the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets, was written to illustrate his love and adoration for the man. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate" (18.1-2). The first few lines of this sonnet place vivid images in the readers mind about a beautiful and sweet tempered person. Most readers be...