Essay about Shakespeare's Sonnet 30 and Tennyson's In Memoriam

After reading the Carlos Salgado (2013) essay about the two sonnets the areas of needed improvement is visible. Carlos’s essay is well organized, talking about Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30” and then talking about Millay’s “Sonnet”. The order of organization provides a better impact and flow to the overall essay. Salgado talks about the main concept, “time as one filled with much sorrow and loss”, of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30” in the first body paragraph and then talks about Millay’s “Sonnet” in the second body paragraph. Salgado also does a good job of using quotes as evidence and backup. When describing “Sonnet 30,” the writer says, “The speaker recounts his, “remembrance of things past,” (2) saying he has, “the lack of many a thought”. Both quotes are well integrated into one sentence demonstrating that the level of support for the essay is critical. From the essay written by Carlos Salgado, it shows the absence of a well thought out layout and quoted material in Similarity and Differences in Shakespeare and Millay Sonnets.

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.

McKay borrowed Shakespeare sonnet format for his poem in order to portray his social protesting message against white people. As a sonnet, this poem has 14 lines and it is divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains and the fourth part is called the couplet. In addition, just like the Shakespearean sonnet, the poet is used a lot of metaphors or ideas one in each quatrain and he also uses the couplet (the last two lines) to give a summary of his thoughts. Furthermore, the poet also uses similar rhyming pattern like Shakespeare which has rhme in every alternative line, and the couplet always end with two rhymes one after another which usually called a rhyming couplet. If we assign a letter

In the first Christmas, Tennyson is depressed and confused and caught in the past. But by the second Christmas, he is more firmly in the present and involved with the company of the living, the thoughts of his dead friend a little less present in his mind (Genug 93-94). Evaluating the Christmas cycles in this way does lend credence to the idea that the poem explores the stages of grief in a more linear, less complex pattern, but that analysis leaves out everything that came before and in between the first two Christmas scenes. True, Tennyson is finally making progress at this point, but as Rosenberg points out, while the Christmas scenes provide structure to the poem and show how loss becomes less painful over time, that does not mean that “In Memoriam” is not complex. The poem is not formulaic

(Tennyson 11-12). Showing how when one looks upon themself, they will find death as a matter of fact, and view it as something unable to be fought. Throughout Tennyson's poem he reveals the purpose of his poem, death is natural and inevitable. Tennyson alludes to the fact he wants no one to be sad at his death unlike in Thomas’s poem who clearly shows sadness is normal an even necessary, to encourage the fight of death. As one can see a major contrast is drawn up through the high difference in the purpose of these two poems, also revealing there are many contrasting thoughts associated with

In “Sonnet” the opening line,“That built the child and hardened the soft bone” (2), demonstrates the beginning of life and the beginning of one’s life journey, indicating the sonnet will discuss the course of the speaker’s life. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30” the speaker remembers former times in his life, specifically the “things past” (2). He, the speaker of the sonnet, is attempting to bring up moments that happened in his prior life when his friend played a great role in it. Within the first two lines of “Sonnet” and “Sonnet 30,” the difference of the interpretation of time is visible. Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30” focuses on the positive outcome, the feeling of comfort, from a situation in the past while Millay’s sonnet focuses on the negative outcome, aging, from a situation in the future.

Tennyson began writing poems to help deal with his emotional pain, a skill which would help him later on in life as he faced more emotional hardships. His early poetry received harsh criticisms, but Tennyson later in his life would write wonderful poetry and receive praise and even the honor of poet laureate. Tennyson attended Cambridge and surprisingly left without a degree. While at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam, who would soon become an extremely close friend. When Hallam died in 1833 at the young age of 22, Tennyson gravely mourned the loss of his dear friend and colleague. He began writing one of his greatest works, In Memoriam, an elegy to Hallam, whom he even named one of his sons after. In Memoriam took Tennyson many years to write, and the “long poem began as a series of brief, disconnected elegies that Tennyson began to write

Lord Alfred Tennyson is a Victorian poet who was born in Somersby, England in 1809. Tennyson was known for his dramatic writings, which represented the Victorian period. The way Tennyson wrote poetry was dramatically changed after the death of his dear friend, Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833. In honor of Hallam, Lord Alfred Tennyson dedicated In Memoriam to his deceased friend. In the poem, In Memoriam, Tennyson describes the grief and misery he felt in the poem in section LXVIII by explaining the amount of grief he feels, particularly when he is trying to sleep. Throughout the poem however, in section LXXXII, he is able to start overcoming the sadness and begins to move on. By the time Tennyson reaches section LXXXV, he wants to open up to new friends. This poem explains the years to follow after the death of Hallam; in sections LXVIII, LXXXII, and LXXXV Tennyson is at different stages of grief and mourning.

Throughout history, death has always proved an enticing mystery to mankind. One way this curiosity and wonder displays itself is through writings, poetry in particular. In the poems Because I Could Not Stop for Death, by Emily Dickinson, Death, Be Not Proud, by John Donne, and Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost, rests this common underlying theme of death. However, this interwoven theme does not only consist of mortality itself, but its inevitability as well. Thus, through the shared theme underlying these three specific poems, the human wonder of death becomes evident.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #55 is a Shakespearian sonnet. It contains three quatrains, or four line stanzas, and ends with a couplet. The poem is written in iambic pentameter.

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

“Sonnet 71” written by William Shakespeare, and “Annabel Lee” written by Edgar Allen Poe are two poems written with a common theme but also had distinct differences. A similarity shared in these poems is both poets putting their lovers first and show nothing but love for them. Shakespeare focuses on how he does not want his loved ones to mourn his death. Instead he wants them to remember he loved them, but as his body decays their love should as well. Poe writes about his lover, who was more than a crush as a child, it turned into a lifetime of love. He tells the readers about his lover dying and how he will not be able to completely live again. These poems both shared the theme of death and how painful this experience can be for

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.

          When I first got this assignment I racked my brain for a topic that would interest me as well as something I could learn from. When I came across Alfred Lord Tennyson it sparked my interest and as I read on I decided that I would write about him. My next decision was to pick one of his poems to research. I finally chose In Memoriam I read the background on it and it interested me. In Memoriam is very long so I'm only going to discuss some it. But I want to begin by discussing the Victorian Doubt in God.

In Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Diary, one of his notable characters Grace says these words right before she perishes in a hotel fire, “We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” (Palahniuk, 2003). There is an inevitable human desire to want to be remembered even after death. It is the need to create a legacy that will last beyond the individual lifespan. Edmund Spenser’s Sonnet 75 and William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 demonstrate this ambition. The two works were written a century apart. However, despite their differences, it is evident that their intentions are identical. By using the raging patterns of nature to illustrate the inevitabilities of death, the sonnets provide the ways art can transcend the unavoidable. As well, the language and structure of the writing is selectively used to bring light to the true focus of the poems. In all, through their use of language, structure and metaphors, Spenser and Shakespeare both highlight their writing capabilities and allow us to question the authenticity of their poems.