Critical Analysis Of Sonnet 71
Sonnet 71: A Critical Commentary
Don’t think of an elephant. When I say that what is the first thing you think of? On the surface sonnet 71, of the 154 sonnets William Shakespeare composed in his lifetime, appears to have such a forthright and sincere meaning you could almost read the first line and look no further – “No longer mourn for me when I am dead”. (1177) Alas, it is not so simple. As Don Patterson alluded to, when comparing the sonnet to the aforementioned Elephant prompt used by psychologists, this poem’s purpose is exactly the opposite of what it claims. The sonnet is split into three quatrains and completed with a rhyming couplet – similar to almost all of Shakespeare’s other sonnets. However, this poem sees a stark shift in tone from the previous sonnets as the poet begins to question his own mortality and starts contemplating what the world shall be like now that he has “fled”. (1177) The Poet uses wonderful imagery and style with masterful wordplay to ensure his request appears earnest but contradictory meanings and the overall lasting feeling of the sonnet indicates he is not.
At first glance, the opening quatrain appears to set the tone for the poem, with the first line apparently embodying the message of the poem - that the poet should not be remembered in case it should cause the Fair Youth pain. While most of the lines in the sonnet appear as mere statements of facts and wishes, in lines two and four “the surly sullen bell” and “vile world, with vilest
Robert Pack's An Echo Sonnet
469 Words | 2 PagesIn the poem “An Echo Sonnet,” Robert Pack introduces a narrator and an alter ego who exchanges questions and answers that show Pack’s questions and attitudes towards life. The narrator is portrayed as a timid man who is afraid to dive into the unknown. He fears what will come of his future life and the consequences of mortality. The “echo” which is the speakers alter ego, answers the voices questions in a way that gives the voice a certain outlook on life. Pack utilizes a traditional form of Shakespearian sonnet with the addition of the “echo” which enable the reader to receive a clearer message.
Analysis Of 100 Sonnets By Henry Frank Lott
235 Words | 1 PagesHenry Frank Lott is a working-class poet, whose writing focuses on the everyday lives of people in the laboring class. His sonnet’s shift when he writes about a lover, who makes his days brighter, but also, reveals an inner battle. His work turns dark once more when the relationship is over. After it ends, Lott feels scorned by love, and refuses to write about love again, claiming why write about common topics such as love when there are harder topics to write about. After this, infused with nature imagery, his sonnets portray a love for freedom from the oppression of society, and the longing for the laboring class to advance from simply working and dying.
Edna St. Vincent Millay's Sonnet 71
1543 Words | 7 PagesVincent Millay’s “Sonnet 71,” the speaker begins by describing the pain of a love lost, unknown whether due to death or other circumstance, using metaphors and imagery about nature to describe her mourning. After the volta the speaker laments that she is reminded of her grief everywhere, to the extent that even when she finds places that he had never been, this realization itself reminds her of him and she is once again plunged into agony. The two sonnets utilize the elements of the fixed Italian sonnet form to express the emotions that come with memories of love lost, though the circumstances of the past relationship differ, focusing on how memories of their past relationship emerge without warning. Compared to Millay, Kane puts a refreshing contemporary spin on the sonnet, both in form and content, while exploring a similar emotional
Comparing Love In Sonnet And Harryette Mullen's Dim Lady
956 Words | 4 PagesHer sonnet may have fourteen lines, but it does not follow a rhyme scheme or iambic pentameter (Mullen Lines 1-14). By breaking away from the standard conventions and structure of a sonnet, she creates a creative and sarcastic method of criticizing Shakespeare’s typical male speaker. Criticizing this classic speaker plays into Mullen’s criticism of sonnets that focus on love as a whole. Her sarcastic and comedic word choice directly contrasts Shakespeare’s, which permits her criticism. Shakespeare’s speaker focuses on the woman’s ugly features in order to bring out her personality (Lines 1-14).
An Echo Sonnet To An Empty Page Poem Analysis
1417 Words | 6 PagesPoetry in literature is often marked significantly by a literary device or a special characteristic of the structure. In Robert Pack’s poem “An Echo Sonnet, To an Empty Page,” echoes throughout the poem create a tone of awe-solemn wonder, revealing the poet’s confused attitude towards the relationship between form and meaning and the inner conflict formed within oneself, dealing with the “voice” and the “echo.” A conversation then begins. The “echo” in this poem acts as the subconscious of the speaker, as opposed to a simple reproduction of the previous sounds. The speaker employs the “voice” as a confusing soul, who is deliberately seeking a response to its questions, and the “echo,” with its one word responses, provides the “voice”
Dim Lady Analysis
605 Words | 3 PagesStructurally “Dim Lady” has little to do with the firm guidelines of true sonnets, however this choice gives Mullens a greater degree of creative liberty when it comes to the rescripted Sonnet 130. The more contemporary style of free verse rather than structurally rigid helps to create the more modern feeling of the overall work and in turn allows Mullens to shape Shakespeare's work in a new
Sonnet 30 And Breakeven Comparison Essay
983 Words | 4 PagesBreakeven is about a girl leaving a guy. She does 't like him anymore and meets a new person but he still loves her. That 's where the line "Cause when a heart brakes no it don 't breakeven" comes from. Because the guy still loves her so he has the bigger piece of the heart because he 's more broken then she is. Sonnet 30 is about a guy liking a girl but the girl doesn 't like him.
Sonnet 130: My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun
710 Words | 3 PagesHe employs several literary devices in this poem which include: simile, hyperbole, satire, imagery and metaphors to create a lasting mental image of his mistress for the readers. The language used in this sonnet is clever and outside of the norm and might require the reader to take a second look. The first 3 Stanzas are used to distinguish his beloved from all the
Sonnet 130 Figurative Language
861 Words | 4 Pages"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Shakespeare 1). The first line in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130" illustrates the mistress of the speaker has eyes that are nothing like the sun. This example of a metaphor introduces the play's main theme, tone, and figurative language. Throughout this sonnet, Shakespeare compares his mistress to items or objects that are far more beautiful than her. While this seems rash, it all shows that his mistress is far more unique than all of the women depicted in other sonnets.
Sonnet 71 Figurative Language
1351 Words | 6 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s sonnets are closely related in the idea that the theme as well as the subject of the poem remain consistent. A distinctive factor among Shakespeare’s sonnets however, is that they each contain somewhat varying tones. Two specific sonnets that prove this are “Sonnet 71” and “Sonnet 73” respectively. Both sonnets refer to the same subject, what is seemingly the speaker of the poem’s lover or mistress. The theme of death and dying are ones which remain present throughout each text.
Petrarch Sonnet 1 Analysis
782 Words | 4 PagesLooking at your list of first sentences, assess whether the paper moves logically from one topic to the next. This is a hard question to answer. To be honest, I am not sure how logical should look like in this case. I think it does move logically; I feel like there is a connection between all the sentences, but I am just not
A Comparison Of Love In Sonnet 116 And Forbidding Mourning
848 Words | 4 PagesLove at first sight, a concept overused in every romantic comedy. It is the instant connection between two soulmates. It is the idealistic perfect love. This phenomenon of true love has been around since the Elizabethan Era, preserved in the writings by some of the greatest poets of all time. “Sonnet 116” written by Shakespeare and “A Valediction; Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne both strive to express their version of Neoplatonic love (an immaculate love).
Theme Of Sonnet 130
862 Words | 4 PagesThroughout William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” the reader is constantly tricked into thinking he will compare his mistress to something beautiful and romantic, but instead the speaker lists beautiful things and declares that she is not like them. His language is unpredictable and humor is used for a majority of the poem. This captivating sonnet uses elements such as tone, parody, images, senses, form, and rhyme scheme to illustrate the contradicting comparisons of his mistress and the overarching theme of true love. Shakespeare uses parody language to mock the idea of a romantic poem by joking about romance, but ultimately writes a poem about it.
Feminism In Maya Angelou's Still I Rise
1945 Words | 8 PagesIt is in this setting we discover the protagonist occupied with a difficult day of tiring work. The tone of the sonnet amid the first stanza is tense, as though the protagonist is continually helping herself to remember the amount she needs to do in the day, and posting the errands in her mind so she doesn 't neglect to do any of them. The stanza also begins with “I’ve” which shows the necessity of her getting the work completed. It also shows how unwilling and forced she is to do the work. It appears that she is worried by her day by day schedule.
Theme Of Love In Shakespeare's Sonnet
2302 Words | 10 PagesIn the first seventeen sonnets which are called the procreation sonnets, Shakespeare makes an earnest request to his beloved fair lord to find a woman to bear his child so that his beauty might be preserved for posterity. In all these seventeen sonnets, he presents the time as a powerful instrument and force. He establishes this fact through much imagery like military winter and the sun. In sonnets no. 2, the poet urges his friend to get married and beget a child who would inherit his beauty and keep it alive.
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