Valuing Power During the Elizabethan Era, the English thrived in the ways of culture. Literature, poetry, theater, and music all saw tremendous advancement. Love sonnets became particularly popular due to the opportunity they offered their authors to express their most alluring desires, while sticking to the strict guidelines of a sonnet. One particular 16th century writer, Sir Philip Sidney, wrote love sonnets that followed the relationship of the desire-ridden Astrophil and the object of his affection, Stella. Poetry at this time often had political or religious influences, and Sidney’s work was no exception. Focusing specifically on Sonnet 69, Sidney metaphorically relates a personal experience to a political gain, suggesting that …show more content…
There was constant speculation over whether or not a woman was fit to rule, so a man no doubt would have stolen not only her power, but the people’s respect as well. In order to understand the political agenda present in the sonnet, one must notice the power Elizabeth I would have lost with a marriage, versus the power that Astrophil figuratively gained through obtaining Stella’s love. In order for suitors to gain power from either woman, the women had to have had power for them to acquire. Similar to Queen Elizabeth, Stella is portrayed as a woman of power and appears to be highly sought after. Her love was an indescribably, wonderful prize to the speaker, just as Queen Elizabeth’s hand in marriage would have been quite an accomplishment for any nobleman. Words such as “nobler”, “kings”, “covenants”, and “monarchs” are all present in the poem, not only alluding to the political agenda present in the work, but possibly Stella’s societal position. Elizabeth I was showered with ravishing gifts and compliments routinely by her courtiers. These men of her court sought to woo and impress the unattainable queen. This need to grasp the queen’s attention also pertains to the relationship between writing love sonnets and court politics as a whole under Queen Elizabeth. The frustration that follows loving someone and that love not being reciprocated was a vital aspect of much of the love poetry at the time. This popular
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.
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
So the lover, the poet, treats the loved object, the young man, as he would himself. The loved object serves as a substitute for some unattained ideal. In the case of the sonnets, the ideal is love. Being in love allows the poet to have what he wants but could not acquire before and serves as a means of satisfying his self-love.
Throughout the sonnet, For That He Looked Not upon Her, George Gascoigne uses different literary devices to demonstrate the speaker’s caution of women as a past victim of a misleading love. This poem deals with the spirit of desire and that desire resulting in suffering. These literary devices help underline certain plots and the speaker’s response to them.
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
A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love is a poem series by Lady Mary Wroth, but this essay will focus only on the first sonnet of the sequence. Wroth had a particular writing style that appears within this poem. This sonnet follows the Shakespearian formula rigidly and uses it quite effectively, though it isn’t just a sonnet. The poem itself addresses love and the many roads it can lead to, and not many of them are truly desirable. Surprisingly, the poem does not use literary elements like alliteration and assonance to make the poem interesting, instead it harnesses repetition and rhyme to compel the readers. The sonnet feels seamless, which can be
Some people even say Sidney wrote this about his own personal love life first about Lady Penelope Devereux, and later on Lady Rich. In Sonnet 87 Sidney express his love for Stella. He goes on to say, “Stella! food of my thoughts, heart of my heart”, in other words he is saying she
This sonnet serves to invoke a strong sense of realism in love, arguing that as strong an intensity of emotion as may be held, may be held, without the need for delusions of grandeur, taking the view that trying to reconcile two essentially different and diverse things as equal is to do true justice to neither. The beloved in this case thus represents more the need for a character developed to challenge stereotype than an actual real-life woman,
‘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 each poet’s experiences. In ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare illustrates how capability is weakened by its metaphysical stereotype and ideals such as, love, 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.
Like in the European explorers of their time, Artists were known to try and prove themselves as lusty and masculine as their peers; in Philip Sidney’s life and in his work he yearned for his better half but she was unattainable in life, Would his sonnets work if Astrophel and Stella ended up together?
Poetry in Elizabethan time was based on courtly love conventions which included conceits and complements. Themes such as the unattainability of the lady, sleeplessness, constancy in love, cruelty of the beloved, renunciation of love, fine passion of the lover versus icy emotions of the beloved, praise of the beloved’s beauty and eternalizing her as being subject of the poem; these all are
The spirit of Elizabethan England was greatly manifested in the life and literature of this eminent courtier of Elizabeth. Sir Philip Sidney. His Greatest work is Astrophel and Stella, a series of sonnets on the various facets of love. The bitter sorrow for his lost happiness, the unconquerable longing to possess his love, the despair into which he was flung, the struggle between honour and passion - all is intensely portrayed in Astrophel and Stella.
The majority of Elizabethan sonnets reflect two major themes: time and love. William Shakespeare, too, followed this convention, producing 154 sonnets, many of which deal with the usual theme of love. Because the concept of love is in itself so immense, Shakespeare found several ways to capture the essence of his passion. Therefore, in his poetry he explored various methods and used them to describe the emotions associated with his love for a mysterious "dark lady." These various ideas and views resulted in a series of sonnets that vibrantly depicts his feelings of true, undying love for his lady. Instead of making the topic less interesting, as some might expect, Shakespeare's myriad approaches
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.