An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 Essay

Shakespeare examines love in two different ways in Sonnets 116 and 130. In the first, love is treated in its most ideal form as an uncompromising force (indeed, as the greatest force in the universe); in the latter sonnet, Shakespeare treats love from a more practical aspect: it is viewed simply and realistically without ornament. Yet both sonnets are justifiable in and of themselves, for neither misrepresents love or speaks of it slightingly. Indeed, Shakespeare illustrates two qualities of love in the two sonnets: its potential and its objectivity. This paper will compare and contrast the two sonnets by Shakespeare and show how they represent two different attitudes to love.

In the first three lines of his sonnet Shakespeare maintains the repletion of such words as “love” and “love”, “alters” and “alteration”, “remover” and “remove”. This way he underlies the consistency of feelings that prevail over other conditions in his poem. With each line Shakespeare’s thought is like bouncing between unusual changes to embrace the whole meaning of love that stays strong no matter what it has to sustain. In the next few lines Shakespeare is using metaphorical associations of love to give the reader the impression of majesty of love. “O no! It is an ever-fixed mark” (5), in this essence the meaning of mark pertains to sea-mark, which is a lighthouse, “That looks on tempests and is never shaken;” (6). The author is giving love metaphorical meaning of strength which is like a lighthouse never shaken with tempests. The next metaphorical close: “It is the star to every wandering bark,” (7), in

Made up of three quatrains and couplet in iambic pentameter, Sonnet 1 contains the common thread of encouraging procreation, however each has a small topic shift that defines the tone of the quatrain. The first quatrain is an axiom, ending with the line “His tender heir might bear his own memory” signifying to the reader the speaker’s purpose behind their argument. By structuring the sonnet this way Shakespeare uses a structure that is similar to some persuasive arguments in real life. The rhyme scheme also helps to reflect this as Shakespeare uses the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme to draw the reader’s attention to word that strengthen the speaker’s argument. An example of this is the rhyme between ‘’spring’’ and ‘’niggarding’’ in the third quatrain.

Additionally, here, Shakespeare reveals the key personification of nature. The poet is saying that occasionally the sun is too hot and burns out eyes. And he refers to the sun as ”the eye of heaven” ,the poet then proceeds in the next line to merge images of the weather. Shakespeare means that it repeatedly goes behind the clouds.

the first of the two lines he uses the word ‘mark’ which means buoy to

What Shakespeare and Donne have in common is that numerous of their sonnets have a universal theme of love as well as their desire for a loved one. The most distinct theme in Shakespeare and Donne’s sonnets and plays is true and eternal love. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 and Donne’s “The Flea,” marriage is illustrated similarity even though both of the poets have different views on marriage. In this analysis, both Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 and Donne’s “The Flea” will be observed for the reoccurring theme of love as well as how both writers define marriage.

    Shakespeare's apostrophic "Sonnet 96," one of the sonnets written to the blond young man, is arranged similar to a rebuttal in an argument or debate." In the first three quatrains, he describes several possibilities, such as the youth's winning nature and potential for mischief, only to refute them in the couplet." He begins with concise one-line points in the first quatrain, moves to a comparison utilizing the entire quatrain in the second, and transitions to two-line arguments in the final quatrain, evoking the idea of a logical, organized argument." Along with reason, however, are the romantic tones of the couplet, which refutes the statements made in the

has the gentle heart of a woman but is not inconsistent as is the way

The title of the poem “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” suggests that the speaker is not in love with his ‘mistress’. However, this is not the case. Shakespeare uses figurative language by using criticizing hyperboles to mock the traditional love sonnet. Thus, showing not only that the ideal woman is not always a ‘goddess’, but mocking the way others write about love. Shakespeare proves that love can be written about and accomplished without the artificial and exuberant. The speaker’s tone is ironic, sarcastic, and comical turning the traditional conceit around using satire. The traditional iambic pentameter rhyming scheme of the sonnet makes the diction fall into place as relaxed, truthful, and with elegance in the easy flowing verse. In turn, making this sonnet one of parody and real love.

Donne even goes so far as to command God to destroy the person he has

Sonnet 73 is a meditation on mortality, and yet it can be interpreted in a number of ways. The first such interpretation is that the author of the poem is speaking to someone else about his own death that will inevitably come in the future. This interpretation has the poem focused on the author, and his focus and concern over himself. This makes him seem very selfish, because we are all going to die sooner or later, and it does not do any good to dwell on or complain about it. The only use that this interpretation really has is to evoke pity in the author, or the speaker of the Sonnet.

Shakespeare’s sonnet 60 expresses the inevitable end that comes with time and uses this dark truth to express his hopefulness that his poetry will carry his beloved’s beauty and worth into the future in some way so that it may never die. This love poem is, as all sonnets are, fourteen lines. Three quatrains form these fourteen lines, and each quatrain consists of two lines. Furthermore, the last two lines that follow these quatrains are known as the couplet. This sonnet has the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, as most Shakespearean sonnets follow. In each of the three quatrains, Shakespeare discusses a different idea. In this particular sonnet, the idea is how time continues to pass on, causing everything to die. The couplet connects these ideas to one central theme, this theme being Shakespeare’s hope for the beauty of his beloved’s immortality through his poetry’s continuation into future times.

Shakespeare’s ninety-first sonnet continues to address the young man to whom he has been writing the procreation sonnets. The theme of this sonnet is the incomparable value of the young man’s love. For Shakespeare, the pleasure of the young man’s love is greater than any other pleasure. His rejection of worldly pleasures for the greater joy of love also appears to highlight a distinction Shakespeare wants to make between true wealth and poverty. In doing so, he insinuates a social criticism about the notion of what is truly valuable in this world. Shakespeare emphasizes these points through the structure of the poem, which employs repetition and chiasmus, and through diction.

Depicting the reality of love, “Of Shakespeare’s Sonnets” contrasts the traditional idea of everlasting love with the actual experience of the speaker. Through personification, allusion, irony, imagery, and dialogue, the speaker initially portrays the idealistic view of love, but later rejects and mocks the belief in such love. The poem incorporates elements from both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet, which emphasizes the traditional everlasting love and hints freedom of love by the unconventionality of mixing both forms.

In Sonnet 7 (“Lo, in the orient, when the gracious light..”), one out of the 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare, focuses on the burden of beauty and how human life can be compared to the passage of the sun rising and setting. Throughout the whole poem, the advice is given to the young man, to follow the sun and its direction. This sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, consists of three quatrains and ends with a couplet while following the rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The poet 's way of using poetic and literary devices such as rhythm, alliteration, and caesuras strengthens the poem’s argument that the sun and man must coexist to live on and that the only way for the youth to ensure their