Analysis of Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day, First Love and Let Me Not

Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Pablo Neruda’s “My ugly love” are popularly known to describe beauty in a way hardly anyone would write: through the truth. It’s a common fact that modern lovers and poets speak or write of their beloved with what they and the audience would like to hear, with kind and breathtaking words and verses. Yet, Shakespeare and Neruda, honest men as they both were, chose to write about what love truly is, it matters most what’s on the inside rather than the outside. The theme of true beauty and love are found through Shakespeare and Neruda’s uses of imagery, structure, and tone.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

where he goes on to say, “…and by my love”. This is more of a gentle

Similarly, the phrase ‘the next moment, you are no longer there’ is perhaps suggesting that he was shocked at seeing her go so suddenly. However, the fact that when she next reappears she is ‘perfectly framed shows us that the joy of seeing her after thinking she has gone for good is a surprise to him. ‘Fragrant survivors of last night’s frost’ shows us that the flowers are strong, which is a suggestion that their love is strong. In the fourth verse the phrase ‘my heart misses a beat at love for you’ shows us that the love was so intense that time seemed to stop too. ‘Knowing a time will come when you are no longer there’ shows us that he is not looking forward to that time and that he knows it is inevitable. ‘Meanwhile let us make sure we clasp each shared moment’ shows us that he wants to make sure they use their time together wisely, and ‘in cupped hands, like water we dare not spill’ shows us they know that their time together is precious.

Summer by Josiah Conder , is describe as an a completely opposite Summer than the one everyone is familiar with. When thinking of the summer, thoughts of heat, vacation, and fun are usually associated with it. Conder describes the Summer as being a miserable time, where the skies are gray and gloomy. The sonnet itself is English/Shakespearean model which makes it easier for Conder to express different ideas in each quatrain but still relate them. Also Conder was a poet during the Romantic era where any feeling could be expressed towards anything. And that is what Conder does when describing the Summer. In the poem the speaker is having a conversation with no one , while they describe the Summer. Conder uses diction, imagery, alliteration and metaphor to help convey the idea that the Summer is not as fun and appealing.

kind,” (line 16) and “An’ almost lose ma mind.” (line 17). Finally he shows us his complete

After first reading Edna St. Vincent Millay’s lyric poem, “If I Should Learn, in Some Quite Casual Way,” one may be taken aback by just how unconcerned the speaker, possibly Millay herself, seems to be with this scenario. Only after going back through the poem a time or two can one understand what Millay truly means. Figures of speech are methodically placed to give the impression that not much effort went into this mere thought.

The poem The Summer I was sixteen describes the summer of a sixteen-year-old American in the nineteen sixties. The writer of the poem, Geraldine Connolly, compares the shortcomings experienced by the United States to a sixteen-year-old summer. The theme of this poem is to remind the audience of childhood and calls for the need to enjoy the good fruits that life has provided.

The tone then changes in the next stanza. An unknown voice (typical of the ‘romance’) speaks to Soledad and says:

The speaker can no longer take the pain and consequently her "mind was going numb" (line 8).

“Summer” by Joanna Fuhrman is a very touching poem. I believe that the poet, Joanna, has lost her best friend. Her best friend is believed to the a host of some sort of party, but we are told that the host died from cancer. It’s also said that there was never a party, so most likely, Joanna is imagining this in her dream because she doesn 't want it to be true. Moving on to concluding that the poem is based on a so called, bad dream.

This connotes that he is angry and frustrated or he is just ready to pounce on the vampire.

There are certain themes and ideas which appear over and over again in literature, no matter what the genre or form. Poems which were written centuries apart can echo similar ideas about life and humanity. Love is one such theme which presents itself repeatedly as seen in the poetry of William Shakespeare and that of Robert Burns. Each poem, though written more than two hundred years apart, explains what it feels like for the poet to feel love for the singular object of their affection. The poem "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" by Shakespeare and Burns' "A Red, Red Rose" share common images and themes with the intention of instilling in the reader the impression of their love and in explaining the depth of their emotion for the beloved as well as the respective poets ideas about the very nature of love and how it can be both passionately fulfilling and devastating.

The poem “How Do I Love Thee”, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed”, by Edna Vincent Millay are both well-known poems that both have themes of love. (LIT, Kirszner & Mandell, Pg. 490). In both poems the poet helps the reader experience a lot of emotion with the use of certain words. There are speakers in both poems. In Mrs. Browning’s poem, the speaker is undefined, leaving open that the speaker could be a he or she. Millay’s poem which is written in first person, the speaker is more defined leading the reader to believe it is a she who is talking about love in the past tense. Both poems are sonnets written with fourteen lines, and written in Italian style. When comparing these poems we will be looking at the use of rhyme scheme and metaphors and how they were used to express emotions in these two sonnet poems.

Love in "To His Coy Mistress", "Shall I Compare Thee," "Let Me Not," and "The Flea"