Greeenblatt also points out that to truly grasp the meaning of the poem and the transience alluded to therein, readers must consider the social code for homosexual love. The Church did not tolerate sodomy and it would make sense that men would be attracted to other men considering how women were often treated as lower-class citizens. Through this "seesaw game of acknowledgment and denial" (253), Shakespeare "stages his sexual desire for the young man" (253). This poem encapsulates the bittersweet emotions often experienced in May-December or otherwise difficult romances. In "Sonnet 116," we see a different side of love, which seems to influence the poet's attitude toward life as well. The poet uses metaphors to discuss love. He tells readers from the very beginning that love is a "marriage of true minds" (Shakespeare Sonnet 116-1). The term "ever-fixed mark" (5) explains how love is a metaphor for a navigation tool, such as a compass. The poet speaks of love as something that never falters and states that it is the "star to every wandering bark" (7). The star of love is bright and it will steer the course of many hearts that choose to follow it. The poet also demonstrates the strength of love through metaphors. The "tempests" (6) the poet speaks of are the difficulties lovers will eventually encounter. However, the poet's love is "never shaken" (6) by these kinds of troubles. By writing that love is "not Time's fool, though rosy lips & cheeks / Within his bending sickle compass come" (9-10), also uses metaphors. The use of the word time indicates that time will make a fool of love. Time might also represent death, as the poet mentions a sickle. These metaphors are powerful and they all point to the fact that love is powerful enough to overcome difficulties as well as strong enough to make a fool of anyone who finds him or herself in it. More metaphors describe rosy lips and cheeks, common when alluding to beauty. Unlike "Sonnet 73," this poem...
There is no dread or gloom in this poem and it declares love is wonderful regardless of how long it lasts.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 57 A Reading of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 57 Shakespeare's Sonnet 57 begins with a striking metaphor: "being your slave." Shakespeare does not soften the image by using a simile to suggest he is "like a slave" -- he is already a slave because he is in love. Structurally any Shakespeare sonnet consists of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, in which the quatrains in some way speak to each other,
The ironic twist is the play of what is to be expected to be said and what is actually said (or, going back to the argument, what is expected from love and what actually occurs): It begins: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red" From here the sonnet continues with a much less pleasing list of the qualities about
Of all Shakepeare's works, sonnets seem best to portray this word marriage from past and present. Not only do the words and style of the sonnet show this transition of time, but the era in which it was created was a great transitory time as well. Gutenberg had invented the printing press over a hundred years previous, but the full benefits of that marvelous invention had just begun to be felt
Shakespeare Sonnets In both Sonnet 71 and in Sonnet 73, the narrator contemplates old age and death. Both poems use rich and dark imagery to convey the theme of human mortality, although Sonnet 73 is more filled with metaphor than 71. However, both poems are composed according to the strict rules of the poetic form: in iambic pentameter with fourteen lines organized into three quatrains and a final couplet. Iambic pentameter
Sonnet 165 by Shakespeare focuses on a young lover, whose emotions are deeply connected with whatever his sweetheart says to him. Thus, the entire poem relates the effects of the words "I hate" on the young speaker. The poem is addressed to the reader, and not to a specific listener. The speaker is asking for sympathy, as he evoked sympathy from his lady. The poem thus basically focuses on the fact
The Spenserian sonnet combines elements of both Italian and the Shakespearean forms. It has three quatrains and a couplet but differ in that it has linking rhymes between the quatrains. In the 17th Century the sonnet was adapted and used by John Donne in his religious poetry and by Milton who adapted to political themes. It was later revived by Wordsworth in the 19th Century, after being relatively neglected in
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