Reflection On 'Reading Sonnet III (To Orpheus'

Heaney and Raffel’s translations are both phenomenal works of literature. Heaney, however, concentrates more on how poetic and similar the

In "Sonnet 73", the speaker uses a series of metaphors to characterize what he perceives to be the nature of his old age. This poem is not simply a procession of interchangeable metaphors; it is the story of the speaker slowly coming to grips with the finality of his age and his impermanence in time.

“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.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (“Sonnet 18”) is one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems. It is the model English, or Shakespearean sonnet: it contains three quatrains and a finishing couplet.. The poem follows the traditional English sonnet form by having the octet introduce an idea or set up the poem, and the sestet beginning with a volta, or turn in perspective. In the octet of Sonnet 18, Shakespeare poses the question “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day” and basically begins to describe all the bad qualities of summer. He says it’s too windy, too short, too hot, and too cloudy. Eventually fall is going to come and take away all the beauty because of the changes nature brings. In the sestet, however, his tone changes as he begins to talk about his beloved’s “eternal summer” (Shakespeare line 9). This is where the turn takes place in the poem. Unlike the summer, their beauty will never fade. Not even death can stop their beauty for, according to Shakespeare, as long as people can read this poem, his lover’s beauty will continue to live. Shakespeare believes that his art is more powerful than any season and that in it beauty can be permanent.

In modern times, youth and beauty is an image seen everywhere. For example, a Versace billboard, magazine ad, TV commercial, all of which displays images of beautiful people. But what happens when this beauty fades? Shakespeare in his 12th sonnet talks about his experience and fading beauty. The purpose of this poem is to encourage a young man to not lose his beauty to the ravages of time. In order to do this, one must reproduce so beauty will live.

“Letter One” of Letters to a Young Poet was the beginning of the correspondence between the young, nineteen year old aspiring poet Frank Kappus and writer Rainer Maria Rilke. At the time, Kappus was a student at a military academy, similar to one Rilke had attended. Kappus felt that poetry was his true calling, therefore, he sought advice from Rilke. Rilke made it abundantly clear in his letter that criticism is what destroys art and is irrelevant since art comes from within. He remains perceptive throughout his writing, and he chooses specific words that convey a particular tone and helps establish two central ideas.

Franz Kappus, a 19-year old student, wanted to solicit a career advice and a literary critique for the poems he had written (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Kappus solicited the advice and critique of Rainer Maria Rilke, a pioneer Austrian poet (“Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet” 1). Rilke wrote ten letters in order to provide assistance to the needs of Kappus. These letters were in Rilke’s work, entitled, “Letters to a Young Poet.”

“From the sphere of my own experience I can bring to my recollection three persons of no every-day powers and acquirements, who had read the poems of others with more and more unallayed pleasure, and had thought more highly of their authors, as poets; who yet have confessed to me, that from no modern work had so many passages started up anew in their minds at different times, and as different occasions had awakened a meditative mood.” (2) (paragraph 31).

Poetry is an art of words, a painting of language. Their work influences all of their writing, they tend to carefully select words that leave a heavier impact. Few things in any art form are left to chance, instead, choices are made to ensure articulacy and steadfast value. As such, Rilke, a poet, uses very deliberately placed and selected words in his letter to the young poet. Rilke's shrewd choosiness and eloquence in his letter to Franz (the younger poet) add to the tone of advising and wisdom that runs through the majority of the text.

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

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

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

Sonnet 6 is notable for the ingenious multiplying of conceits and especially for the concluding pun on a legal will in the final couplet: "Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair / To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir." Here, as earlier in the sonnet, the poet juxtaposes the themes of narcissism and death, as well as procreation. "Self-willed" echoes line 4's "self-killed," and the worms that destroy the young man's dead body will be his only heirs should he die without begetting a child which shows the theme of death. The whole sonnet is about trying to persuade the man to have a baby hence the theme if procreation. And lastly, the man is being selfish in wanting to die without passing on his beauty.

In Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke writes letters to Kappus giving him advice and helping him figure out solutions to deal with his problems. Themes such as solitude, childhood, criticism, and love tied in into his life lessons trying to give Kappus a different perspective. Rilke taught Kappus to enjoy solitude, maintain childhood innocence, ignore people’s opinions, and to value the true meaning of love. Not only does Rilke help and inspire Kappus but his readers as well. These letters allow readers to form a new perspective on life due to Rilke’s wisdom and knowledgeability.

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