Explanation of Shakepeare's Sonnet 147

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.

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All” both attempt to define love, by telling what love is and what it is not. Shakespeare’s sonnet praises love and speaks of love in its most ideal form, while Millay’s poem begins by giving the impression that the speaker feels that love is not all, but during the unfolding of the poem we find the ironic truth that love is all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts love as perfect and necessary from the beginning to the end of his poem. Although these two authors have taken two completely different approaches, both have worked to show the importance of love and to define it. However, Shakespeare is most confident of his definition of love, while Millay seems

The ideas of love being expressed in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Sonnet 130 are genuinely contrasting. In Much Ado About Nothing, one of the many focal points are Beatrice and Benedick’s foolish relationship, also the most captivating, whereas in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is talking about the misrepresentation of the “Dark Lady”, who he refers to as his mistress. Regardless of a person’s flaws disfigurements, the stress they cause, and the bickering that occurs, love can withstand time, and under the circumstances love doesn’t change for anyone, that it does not substitute itself when it finds differences in the loved one.

“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.

Sonnets are known for having a rigid format and being the hoard of poets’ flowery love confessions and tormenting heartache. While most poets generally stick to that cliche topic of love and the traditional English or Petrarchan structures, sonnets are not defined by these common features. Both Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are…” and Collins’s “Sonnet” satirically poke at typical sonnets, however, Shakespeare follows the standard English sonnet style while parodying the classic subject of love to show how ridiculous and idealistic love sonnets can be. On the other hand, Collins breaks free from those stern sonnet rules to joke about the strictness of sonnet structures while defining typical sonnet rules.

Within sonnet 116, Shakespeare personifies the abstract noun of love when he states ‘Whose worth’s unknown’. Through personifying his ideology of true love, it makes it increasingly

One of love’s most prominent characteristics is its ability to engulf the human mind in floods of pure emotion. In the short term, love is often associated with phrases such as hearts “skipping a beat” or “butterflies” in one’s stomach. As an act of intuition and instinct, love can have immediate physiological and psychological effects. As a result, love’s psychosomatic manifestations often lead their bewitched to direct as many efforts as possible toward winning another’s heart. With regard to this motif of physical and emotional infatuation, Shakespeare argues, being in love causes us to become inconsistent and to allow ourselves to be buffeted by the wild waves of our ever-changing desires. In the play,

‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay are both sonnets that discuss companionship and a glimpse of the poets’ experiences. In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare illustrates how capability is weakened by its metaphysical stereotype and ideals such as, love which never seems to wither away according to Shakespeare while on the contrary, in ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” Millay feeds on the chaos between the ideal of love and its harsh reality, heartbreak. Both poets seem to be love struck but there is a significant difference in the two. I will compare and contrast ‘Sonnet 116’ by William Shakespeare and ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I will also inquire and analyze why this particular form of poetry established different effects.

These characters together describe love as an unstoppable force that can defeat any obstacle. The character in sonnet 116, love is an immortal force; love overcomes age, death, and even time. “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come” Sonnet 116. Love defies times effects on youth and beauty, it repels old age and wrinkles. It’s an unshakable force that unlike the physical being does not decay. Shakespeare doesn’t just describe love as physical beauty. He also describes love as a great friendship and a great

To see love written in poetry is a common thing. There are copious forms of love as poets throughout the centuries exemplify it to be happy, physical, or even downright delusional. Love can whip its iron cast hand around one’s heart and squeeze the very breath out, or it can invigorate all senses and make one nonsensical. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” uses various formal differences such as metaphors, imagery, and irony in order to portray two ends of the love spectrum: Shakespeare’s being that romantic love is grand and beautiful while Browning offers a more darker glimpse on how obsessive and controlling love can be.

Shakespearean Sonnets consist of 154 Sonnets that are well know for their themes such as passage of time, love, beauty, and mortality. Out of all the Sonnets, Sonnet 130 is the most significant because Shakespeare mocks the concept of traditional Sonnets. The traditional sonnet were usually love poems or Sonnets that person would show how much they praise someone or thing by exaggerating their beauty through imagery and comparisons. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare does the complete opposite compared to his peers and compares his mistresses beauty in an unflattering way. He compares her beauty to the ideal Elizabethan female of that era but he still expresses his affection to her because of the way she truly looks. After a close analysis of the language and imagery that Shakespeare uses it shows that even with the harsh comparisons, he truly loves his mistress and that its better to express the truth rather than exaggeration of the truth.

Light/Dark. Comfort/Despair. Love/Hate. These three pairs of words manage to sum up William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116" and "Sonnet 147," while also demonstrating the duality of Shakespeare's heart. "Sonnet 116" reveals to a careful reader the aspects of Shakespeare's concept of what ideal love is. However, "Sonnet 147" shows the danger of believing in this ideal form of love. These two sonnets perfectly complement and clarify each other while also giving the reader insight into William Shakespeare's life.

Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. The first four lines, or the first quatrain, show that love is constant and will not “alter when it alteration finds” (l. 3). The lines that comes after that say true love is indeed an “ever-fixed mark” (l. 5) that can make it through anything. Shakespeare claims that we can measure love, “whose worth’s unknown” (ll. 7-8), only to a degree or not in an understandable way. The perfect nature of love is unshakeable throughout time, and it remains so “even to the edge of doom,” (l. 12) or death. In the couplet, he declares that if he is wrong about the constant, unmovable nature of love then he must take back his writings on love. He states that if he has judged love in the wrong way, no individual has ever loved.

He accepts her essentially, because of her mediocracy. At times, he is outraged by her additional lovers, but he still is wrapped around her finger. He blames himself for staying with her even though the relationship is toxic and copes with her infidelity. Shakespeare turns the traditional feeling of a love sonnet to that of hatred, resentment, and lust. It seems more in line with the reality and harshness of falling in love, as opposed to the traditional googly-eyed admiration of a lover. Since Shakespeare avoids this fictional theme, he gives readers a good reason to believe his Sonnets may actually be true.

Shakespeare, who wrote the sonnets in 1609, expresses his own feelings through his greatest work of literature. The theme of love in the poems reflect thoughts from the Renaissance period. Love is one of many components of Shakespeare’s life shown in the sonnets. Love can be defined in many ways other than a strong affection for a lover. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the concept of love can be seen through many uncommon means such as the love of life before death in “Sonnet 73,” love in marriage in “Sonnet 116,” love through sexual desire in “Sonnet 129,” and love through nature in “Sonnet 130,” proving that love can be expressed through many different feelings and emotions.