Sonnet 130 Edna David Millay Analysis

Poetry is literature that conveys deeper feelings by using connotations, poetic devices, rhymes, and language. Poets use rhyme scheme, structured pattern in the sonnet that rhyme the words at the end of a line. Imagery is used to make the reader think and feel about what the author wants to convey about topics such as love. In the poems “What My Lips Have Kissed, And Where And Why”, by Edna Vincent Millay, and “Sonnet 130”, by William Shakespeare;; the authors use rhyme scheme and imagery. Shakespeare uses the change in rhyme scheme as an ironic surprise in the last couplet, while Millay uses the rhyme scheme to reminisce about lost love, both poems are infused with imagery to paint a vivid picture for the reader.

Shakespeare and Millay use

They use it to make the reader see what they want to convey about the topic of love. In Sonnet Shakespeare elaborates on his mistress’ image proclaiming, “If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head” (4 Shakespeare). He has created an image of his mistress’ hair as stringy and unattractive conveying the image to the reader that she is run down and exhausted. Millay uses imagery to represent her lost love by explaining, “I have forgotten in what arms have lain” (2 Millay). She is conveying an image of the number of lovers she has been involved with. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s style of imagery is to conjure up a vivid image while Millay’s imagery is more subdued.

The two poets use rhyme scheme and imagery in two different ways to create different pictures in their readers mind. Shakespeare uses the English sonnet’s rhyme scheme to surprise the reader in the last couplet by expressing his love for his mistress. While Millay on the

When it comes to imagery, Shakespeare’s is vivid and paints his picture boldly in the readers mind when he states, “And in some perfumes is there more delight/ Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” (7-8 Shakespeare). Here he is plainly saying perfumes give more delight than the horrid breath of his mistress. Millay’s imagery is subtle and is meant to make the reader ponder on its meaning, “ Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree/ Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one/ Yet know it boughs more silent than before” (9-11 Millay). Here Millay feels like a lonely tree and where her lovers have vanished and her life has grown silent. Even though Shakespeare and