Obey and Defy: Shakespeare’s Sonnet as a Lesson About Time

The consistency of rhyme scheme helps underscore Shakespeare's thoughts by emphasizing certain words. Looking at the first two lines of each quatrain and comparing the rhyme with the second two lines of the quatrain, one may see some interesting pairing of words. "Sun" (line 1) and "red" (line 2) versus "dun" (line 3) and "head" (line 4), "white" (line 5) and "cheeks" (line 6) versus "delight" (line 7) and "reeks" (line 8) and finally "know" (line 9) and "sound" (line 10) versus "go" (line 11) and "ground" (line 12). The words completing the first two lines in each quatrain, when paired together, describe something pleasant while the words paired in the second two lines describe something unpleasant. This helps strengthen Shakespeare's message

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, ‘Sonnet’ bears little resemblance to its namesake at first glance. Bishop plays with our expectations, molding the well-known sonnet form into something new. She transforms the meter and rhyme scheme of the sonnet to the point of metamorphosis, but she retains the skeletal structure of the form; fourteen lines broken down into the customary octave and sestet. Her invocation and subsequent subversion of the anticipated poetic form provide her with a baseline to branch off from and without that context, the structure would not have the same effect on the poem’s meaning.

The mentioned writers from 2013 to 2016 received A’s on their papers. Comparison and contrast will be made from the provided essays and Similarity and Differences in Shakespeare and Millay Sonnets to provide visualization in areas needed for improvement to receive an A paper like: Carlos Salgado, Brenda Gutierrez, Pavlo Hutsulyuk, and Gonzalo Rosales.

In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.

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.

Billy Collins, in his sonnet “Sonnet,” describes the content of sonnets in general, the Elizabethan sonnet, and the Petrarchan sonnet. Collins develop this idea, by stating that “All we need is fourteen lines,” to explain to a reader that all sonnets consist of fourteen lines; secondly, he metaphorically describes how a sonnet’s purpose is to “launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,” to show the reader that sonnets are normally meant to be about love and the complications that come with it; thirdly, by stating that the “iambic bongos must be played and rhymes positioned at the ends of lines,” he metaphorically describes the rhythmic and rhyming limitations of the Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet; fourthly, he states that “ the

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.

William Shakespeare, arguably the greatest language in the English language and England’s national poet, has written numerous histories, tragedies, comedies and poems. Throughout his plays, his use of dramatic irony, immaculate word choice and wording, and his vast imagination has made him a successful playwright even in his time. Shakespeare’s scripts for his theatrical company, needed to pertain to the needs and fascinations of the Elizabethan audience. It is safe to assume that all his sonnets, poetic speeches, electrifying action and soliloquies in his play were created for the delicate and quickly appreciative of language Elizabethans of his time. A particular example out of the many soliloquies

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.

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.

As opposed to the majority of Shakespeare’s sonnets in the series that are addressed to an unnamed young man, sonnet 60 deals largely with the relentless approach of time and its war against humanity rather than love. In this sonnet, the breaking of the poetic form expected of a sonnet is utilized to not only enhance the specific localized metaphors in the poem, but the overall thematic content as well. By taking the traditional iambic pentameter and presenting moments of disruption, this poem draws attention to the dramatization of Time’s march against humanity, and also to the ability of the writer of this poem who appears in the final couplet. In this paper, I intend to look specifically at the utilization of trochaic feet in order to examine the ways in which the manipulation of metrical devices can create meaning.

     True to sonnet form, the second quatrain confirms the previously presented argument, and poses a similar question as the anguish of the speaker and the dilemma of time’s progression are heightened. Line 5 starts with “O,” eliciting the speaker’s great anguish at the predicament of time and it is accented, breaking the traditional iambic pentameter meter in which Shakespeare writes:

During the Renaissance period, most poets were writing love poems about their lovers/mistresses. The poets of this time often compared love to high, unrealistic, and unattainable beauty. Shakespeare, in his sonnet 18, continues the tradition of his time by comparing the speakers' love/mistress to the summer time of the year. It is during this time of the year that the flowers and the nature that surround them are at there peak for beauty. The theme of the poem is to show the speakers true interpretation of beauty. Beauties worst enemy is time and although beauty might fade it can still live on through a person's memory or words of a poem. The speaker realizes that beauty, like the subject of the poem, will remain perfect not in the

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

The poem opens by stating that his lover must behold him at the time of life corresponding to late autumn, when almost no leaves remain on the trees and the birds have flown south. The poet’s calling attention to his old age might seem incongruous, since many lovers might try to hide the fact from their companions. Yet, in this relationship, William Shakespeare not only is being forthright but also seems to be seeking the sympathy of his dear friend. (Lord 3569)