Sonnet 116 and Love Is Not All

When love is typically described, it is thought of as a joy, almost pure. Most people want to be in love. Millay, on the other hand, seems to represent passionate love as almost burdensome. When referring to the act of love itself, she describes the women she identifies with “bearing as I bear/love like a burning city in the breast” (lines 7-8). She also states “[I] Do suffer love” (line 11). The words here are all negative, in contrast to what the reader would expect. Yet, the narrator also seems to look upon this way of loving with longing. She seeks the stories of the past, “Hunt[ing] the amorous line” (line 6). This way of love is how she wants to feel, and

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.

Mel says, 'There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do.'; (p 114) Mel's former relationship was once full of love, but eventually the love withered away until it was gone. Also, Mel talks about how love can continue even if you lose your first love. Mel says, 'And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us–excuse me for saying this–but if something happened to one of us tomorrow I think the other person would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough.'; (p 114) In this quote, Mel reveals that if any one of them dies, his or her spouse would eventually lose the love they once had for him or her, and would then go and love another. So, the author has shown us that love can die off and be replaced by anger or hatred, or even love for another.

“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.

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

Edna Millay, in her sonnet, “What Lips,” describes her solitude after spending her life searching for love by having romances with several men. Firstly, Millay asks a rhetorical question: “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” to explain that she has forgotten her past lovers and the reasons they were together; secondly, to provide a visual image of the speaker’s lonely, quiet, and empty state caused by not finding love, Millay states that “the rain / Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh”; thirdly, Millay uses an oxymoron, “quiet pain,” to explain that although the speaker does not remember her past lovers, the hurt from not finding love still lingers in her; fourthly, Millay provides the image of a “lonely tree” as another

Throughout the novel Morrie puts a special emphasis on the importance of loving relationships with those you care about. He even believes that people must “love each other or parish” (Albom 149). Though to most this assertion may seem incongruous, it really means that, to have a healthy, productive life, one must surround oneself with those that understand and love them that they understand and love in return. This theme is discussed in Meribah Abbott’s poem, “The Best Friend”. The poem describes the relationship between a dog and its crippled master. It exposes the importance of unconditional love in the last line when stating, “Ye taught me trust when man's dull logic failed” ( Abbott 11). This last line is undeniably the most important when attempting to describe the importance of loving relationships. It demonstrates how, by loving others, a person can improve upon themselves. Morrie also believed that love was what gave meaning to life.

‘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.

Sonnet 95 follows what I would categorize as the hinge poem, meaning that Sonnet 94 is the poem that, through its flattery underlined with some sort of malice, opens the door for the anger that follows in the proceeding sonnet. The speaker has now fully understood that the young man has decided him, having relations with another, and confronts him in this sonnet. There is such veracity in the lines that a reader could easily imagine how the speaker would have said them to the young man, at a reasonable volume with such edge to the voice it would seem some sort of malevolent contempt. Although, one must not ignore the longing held in the undercurrent of the speaker’s voice, a type of realization that the person whom you loved does not

Shakespeare’s sonnets are numbered in a sequential order and adjacent sonnets often have similar content. Throughout Shakespeare’s sonnets, he covers many subjects, such as interest in the life of a young man, his love for a young man, and his love for a dark haired woman. In sonnets 57 and 58, Shakespeare discusses how love is like slavery in its different manifestations. The object of the narrator’s love has a dominating power over the narrator, which controls him and guides his actions. Shakespeare shows in sonnets 57 and 58 that love can be displayed by using many different routes such as viewing love as a controlling force, exploring the theme of time and waiting in regards to love, and the question of the physical state of being of

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

The belief that distance and time can alter everlasting true love is exactly what poisons love. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” was written for a lover who does not know of his love for her. John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” was written for his lover to show her that he will still love her no matter how far away he is from her. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” similarly explores the theme of everlasting true love. However, the poems differ in rhyme scheme and the techniques used to convey the message. The poets use these tools to convey that everlasting true love does in fact exist. Although both speak passionately about said love, only Donne has actually experienced it.

In Plato’s Symposium, the discussion on the nature of love between Socrates and his companions in the house of Agathon clearly discerns key ideas that Shakespeare uses in the sonnets. Beauty, youth, and love are all topics of discussion in the conversations, and Plato’s ideas show up again and again when the sonnets are explored. In Symposium, Aristophanes gives a detailed description of a time when humans were not in their present physical form (Plato 353). His tale posits that the original form of humankind differed from the present in that “sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number,” to which he adds, “there was man, woman and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature,” which is

What is love? At the risk of sounding cliché, this question warrants closer inspection, for the answer to this age old question has been a topic of discussion for the millennium. Due to the complexity of love and the different applications of the term, from loving foods to cars to people, it is difficult to come up with one standard definition of love. Even when people narrow the scope of love to just human interaction, there is still ambiguity, namely between whether love is rooted in physical attraction or spiritual union. John Donne offers his own version of love in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” a vision of love grounded in spiritual, refined connections over physical attachments. Geoffrey Chaucer’s, “The Miller’s Tale,” on the other hand, interprets this same concept differently, with crude allusion, humorous scenarios, and characters driven by sex. Although these two stories are extremely different, Chaucer and Donne both try to create a philosophy about the same concept, love, and, as seen by their works’ different endings, both come to the same conclusion that true love is an emotional, unified connection that transcends mere physical attraction.

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.