The two poems I will be comparing and contrasting in this essay are two of William Shakespeare 's most popular sonnets. Sonnets in chapter 19, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? ', and in chapter 23, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds, ' of our Literature book. Both of these poems deal with the subject of love but each poem deals with its subject matter in a slightly different way. Each also has a different purpose and audience.
The two sonnets I will be comparing are Shakespeare's “Sonnet 65” and “I shall forget you presently, my dear” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Though these are both sonnets within the theme of love, they are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Both sonnets are in typical sonnet form, with three quatrains and an ending couplet, and a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. The meter for both is iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's sonnet speaks of beauty and mortality.
In William Shakespeare 's Sonnets, he often speaks of the ravages of time to beauty, nature, and life and the fear and acceptance as he recognizes that time moving forward is natural. In Sonnet 19, Shakespeare describes time affecting animals and a mythical beast, which a writer does not normally notice day to day: "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion 's paws, / And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; / Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger 's jaws, / And burn the long-liv 'd Phoenix in her blood;" (Shakespeare). Most do not usually experience the effects of time on nature; they only know from pictures. The use of the phoenix in these lines, a mythical creature that lives forever, demonstrates that time will always find a way to erode. Despite the fact that a phoenix can resurrect itself after death, it cannot escape time.
Shakespeare uses a lot of light and dark imagery in this scene to describe the Romeo and Juliet's romance. As Romeo stands in the shadows, he looks to the balcony and compares Juliet to the sun. Then he says "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon" . Romeo had always compared Rosaline to the moon, and now, his love for Juliet has outshone the moon. Therefore, when Romeo steps out of the moonlight into the light from Juliet's balcony, he has leaves behind his melodramatic love declarations for Rosaline and moves toward a more real and mature understanding of
Vincent Millay they also have their difference. Some of their differences are the way the tone and mood are expressed through the poems. The tone is the way the author feels about his and the attitude he sets in the poem and the mood is how the reader feels as he or she reads the poem. In the poem Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare he has a very appreciative tone as he compares his lover to a summer's day and how he appreciates her and tells the reader that she is way better than a summer's day. Shakespeare's poem also has a loving mood.
Love is the center for both Catullus and Shakespeare. Their works bring passion and yearning to every reader. Whether it shows the passion between two individuals or the love one has for another both are aspects that fit into both authors work. When thinking of Romeo and Juliet it is childish but so is Catullus 5. They blend together and that is something that is very important.
Shakespeare communicates the love that Juliet possesses for Romeo wonderfully with the use of distinct language techniques. In particular, Juliet’s love for Romeo is crafted into the story and demonstrated
Shakespeare situates this moment directly after Juliet’s wedding night , linking the idea of development from childhood to adulthood. The audience can infer that she feels apoplectic and imprisoned by her father as she says ‘Proud can I never be of what I hate’. The revelation of Juliet’s attitude toward her father would have shocked an Elizabethan audience whereas in modern times we find it normal to disagree with our parents. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing technique in the lines ‘or if you do not, make the bridal bed, in that dim monument where Tybalt dies’ which adds dramatic tension to the story by building anticipation about what might happen next. The audience can see Juliet developing in maturity as this is the first time in the play that she disobeys her parents and makes her own
Sonnet 18, has an insulting and criticizing quality in the beginning while sonnet 130 uses different phrases and structures to imply the passion to his lover. For instance, the sonnet 130 could be discovered as romantic, serious, and insulting at the same time, also Shakespeare reflects the misleading nature of love by referring to “I think my love as rare”. On the other hand, the author underlines his fascination to his mistress: “I think my love as rare, as any she belied with false compare”, and these two lines add to the concluding point of the poem and also highlighting the presence of attraction. Sequentially, sonnet 18 has a humorous tone and starts the sonnet with the rhetorical question “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” However, even with the presence of this odd phrase, in the beginning, eventually toward the end the sincerity and seriousness inclined to lead in the emotional expression. Although both sonnets cover the same, they use different figurative language instruments to deliver the right tone and the attitude of the author, and this aspect is what distinguishes the poems from one another while making them reflect the love and passion from opposite
This poem (sonnet 18) is devoted to praising a friend or lover, traditionally known as the 'fair youth', the sonnet itself a guarantee that this person's beauty will be sustained. Even death will be silenced because the lines of verse will be read by future generations, when speaker and poet and lover are no more, keeping the fair image alive through the power of verse. The main theme in this poem is the stability or immortality of love and beauty, In the first 4 lines (quatrain), Shakespeare asks if he should compare his loved one - to a summer's day. The obvious answer would seem to be that he should, but in fact he does not. He goes on to say that his beloved is more lovely and more temperate than such a beautiful day.