Don Quixote And The Sonnets : An Analysis

Donne conveys how religion is a central idea through the use of many religious references throughout the holy sonnets. In ‘Death Be Not Proud’, Donne makes a religious reference to Jesus, ‘Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee’, expressing how religion was an underlying theme when handling many issues. When the two texts are studied in alliance, it allows the responder to draw a better understanding of the themes presented in ‘W;t’. This theme, science VS religion, has been emphasised due to the contrasts between Vivian and Donne and their context.

A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that rhyme in a particular pattern. William Shakespeare’s sonnets were the only non-dramatic poetry that he wrote. Shakespeare used sonnets within some of his plays, but his sonnets are best known as a series of one hundred and fifty-four poems. The series of one hundred and fifty-four poems tell a story about a young aristocrat and a mysterious mistress. Many people have analyzed and contemplated about the significance of these “lovers”. After analysis of the content of both the “young man” sonnets and the “dark lady sonnets”, it is clear that the poet, Shakespeare, has a great love for the young man and only lusts after his mistress.

In the poem “Unholy sonnet 5,” Mark Jarman shows us a philosophical reflection about what is worth to do in this life based on a repetition of some patters during the poem. The structure of this poem make it a Petrarchan sonnet. This kind of sonnet is composed by two arguments, the first consist on two octaves with a rhyme ABBA and ABBA. Denoting repetition of the words have, hive, mean and men; highlighting these as significant to found sense to the first argument of the sonnet. In a deeper reading of the poem, this first argument is centered in questioning que purpose and meaning of life for human beings, coinciding with the pattern of rhymes and sounds. Following this structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, the second argument is composed by a sestet. This means that the sonnet has a rhyme CDECDE, denoting repetition of the words joy, death and forget; highlighting these as significant to found sense to the second argument of the sonnet. Also, the second argument of the poem centered on a practical analysis of what is worth to do in life (enjoying) before the death, coinciding with the pattern of rhymes and sounds.

Naturally, Shakespeare’s very first Sonnet deals with themes of procreation and immortality, literally and figuratively birthing his series of Sonnets. Ideas of Genesis, or the creation of the world, show strong traces throughout the poem and serve as the piece’s main focus according to literary critic Helen Vendler. The sonnet also deals with the logistics of beauty; we want the most beautiful people to have children, so their beauty will be preserved forever—when the parent dies, the child they leave behind will remind us of their own beauty. Shakespeare utilizes metaphors in his language to help promote this idea, for example the image of a bud, growing until it inevitably dies and diminishes. Unlike flowers, Shakespeare tells us here that we humans have the opportunity to keep this beauty everlasting. The very beginning of Shakespeare’s infamous series of sonnets, Sonnet 1 celebrates the beauty of procreation and offers a plea for humanity centered around our duty as humans to procreate and let our legacies live on, so our spirits can live vicariously through generations of our children.

In 2010 Billy Collins writes Sonnet, a piece of literary work I consider to be the antihero of sonnets. Collins ironically follows neither the constructs of a Shakespearean nor Petrarchan Sonnet throughout. He also creatively breathes new life into a strict art form while rejecting the historical rules a sonnet must follow in this work. Upon further review of Sonnet, it becomes clear that this deliberate rule breaking is a skilled nod & side-step to historic norms and a promotion of a new age of creativity in the making of a sonnet.

John Donne’s diction, detail, point of view, metaphysical format, and tone used in “Holy Sonnet 10” convey both a feeling of cynical and domination, and also a sense of mockery of death. The effects on the reader include assurance and confidence in facing death.

On reading Beloved by Toni Morrison and Don Quixote by Kathy Acker, there seem to be quite a few similarities in themes and characters contained in these texts, the most prevalent of which seems to be of love and language as a path to freedom. We see in Acker’s Don Quixote the abortion she must have before she embarks on a quest for true freedom, which is to love. Similarly, in Morrison’s Beloved, there is a kind abortion, the killing of Beloved by Sethe, which results in and from the freedom that real love provides. And in both texts, the characters are looking for answers and solutions in these "word-shapes" called language.

During the Middle Ages, medieval romances were popular among popular among aristocrats from the start of Early Modern Europe. However, in the 1600s, these stories of chivalry and knighthood were no longer popular. In The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, author Miguel de Cervantes attempts to satirize the medieval romance through his character, Don Quixote. The tale tells the story of a man who loses his sanity out of his desire to become a real-life knight. This story was highly acclaimed for the time; even though it poked fun at the main character and medieval romances in general, it brought back the ideals of this genre. The legacy of Don Quixote continues with Joe Darion’s songs from the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha.

This essay will address how Shakespeare and Rossetti engage with the sonnet form, through Rossetti’s “A Sonnet” and Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 52”. Both poets arguably subvert the traditional Petrarchan sonnet genre, though in different ways. Rossetti’s ‘A Sonnet’ explores the sonnet as an art form rather than as a means of currency, as sonnets were seen to be at the time, and how if treated as a commodity, the value of a sonnet is diminished. Similarly, Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 52’ explores the connection between frequency and worth. However, ‘Sonnet 52’ adheres more closely to traditional sonnet form, as the prevalent theme is romance, and the idealisation of the “fair youth”. In contrast to Shakespeare’s adherence to the traditional romantic focus of sonnets, Rossetti subverts the genre by using “The Sonnet” as a metatextual device to explore his ideas around the form of a sonnet itself.

John Milton’s ‘Sonnet XIX: When I Consider How my Light is Spent’, uses the literary techniques of metaphorical representations, irony and satire to convey it’s themes of religion, specifically concerning the use of ones God given talents, and the issue of disability upon and individuals religion to an audience in a political climate enduring through a drastic state of change in structure and values in a cultural revolution that valued a persons by their measure such as a poet through their authorial work, yet still remains significant to audiences today through satirical interpretation.

Poets and authors alike evoke emotion and pictures from one single word. The imagery and thoughts put into the readers’ heads by these different writers are the base of one’s creativity and imagination while reading the author’s work of art. William Shakespeare is one of the most well-known poets of all time that is able to elicit these emotions from the reader to allow the reader to fully understand what Shakespeare is trying to accomplish with his poems. Shakespeare keeps his audience entertained with a whopping 154 sonnets, each having a different meaning and imagery associated with it. Sonnet 18, “[Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day]”, and Sonnet 55, “[Not Marble, nor the Gilded Monuments]”, are both one of Shakespeare’s most famous works. Shakespeare uses these sonnets to explore the powerful relationship between humanity, art, and time.

Donne’s tenth sonnet, and perhaps the most famous of his Holy Sonnets, “Death be not proud, though some have called thee”, is more of a comfort to his readers than the previously discussed sonnet. He makes death, the inevitable time at which God will judge an immortal for his sins, as something not be feared. Donne personifies death as somebody with an abundance of pride but states that it really is not so. He continually belittles this person, “Death”, by concluding that it doesn’t have any actual power. Man can achieve the same state of being through sleep or a potion. In the final, triumphant lines of this sonnet, “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die”, Donne concludes that when he reaches heaven, the way in which he died on earth ceases to matter.

“Sonnet 18” and Sonnet “130,” were some of William Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets that he ever wrote. Both sonnets are very similar with the theme of love and beauty; however they contrast each other in their purpose, style, and whom William Shakespeare is writing the sonnet to. The sonnets are both written in two different styles of writing. “Sonnet 18” was written in a more traditional format, which paints the woman in a divine spotlight. “Sonnet 130” however contrasts “Sonnet 18” by instead of describing their subject as being beautiful they rather describing them as with imperfections and how they love that subject. Shakespeare uses a complimentary tone when he wrote “Sonnet 18” and uses a more ironic and satirical tone in his “Sonnet 130.” With the help of a complex metaphor, the tone he uses in each sonnet, and imagery, Shakespeare gives two very different takes on love and beauty.

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.

     The sonnet, being one of the most traditional and recognized forms of poetry, has been used and altered in many time periods by writers to convey different messages to the audience. The strict constraints of the form have often been used to parallel the subject in the poem. Many times, the first three quatrains introduce the subject and build on one another, showing progression in the poem. The final couplet brings closure to the poem by bringing the main ideas together. On other occasions, the couplet makes a statement of irony or refutes the main idea with a counter statement. It leaves the reader with a last impression of what the author is trying to say.