Sonnets During The Romantic Period

While both Keats and Longfellow often reflect on their own unfulfilled dreams and impending deaths, the poems however contrast on their own dispositions towards death and the future. Here, Keats expresses a fear of not having enough time to accomplish all that he believes he is capable of doing, but as he recognizes the enormity of the world and his own limitations of life, he realizes that his own mortal goals are meaningless in the long run of things. On the other hand, Longfellow speaks of a regret towards his inaction for allowing time to slip away from him in his past and is at a crossroads for the ominous future that looms ahead of him. Through the use of light and dark imagery, and personification, Keats and Longfellow similarly yet also differently, reflect on their own ideas for death and the futures that lay ahead of them.

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.

But, we should first and foremost put this sonnet back in its context. We can easily presume that it is autobiographic, thus that Keats reveals us his own worries. In 1818, he is aware that he has short time left to live due to the fatal illness

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

Keats poem, “When I Have Fears” expresses the writer’s fear of dying before he is able to fulfill his life as a writer. He wants to experience fame, become a writer and find someone to love. The very first line of the poem tells us that he has a fear of dying, because it states, “When I have fears that I may cease to be,” (Keats, Line 1). It is later on in the poem that the readers find out why he fears death.

However, the impending death that creates the incapacity to write down thoughts does not detract from the complexity of the thoughts. On the contrary, Keats’ comparison of his imagination to harvestable grain shows confident self-recognition of his own ability, highlighting the awareness of “the poet’s own ripeness in his art” (Grosholz 604). This art “teems” in his brain and is “rich,” and these qualities compel him to pour out his feelings into this one sonnet, despite his belief that this will be the last sonnet he writes. However, his fervent but vain desire to express the entirety of his poetic notions “imparts to [him] the hunger, or poverty, necessary for production, but…also dwarfs whatever [he] has already written” (Hecht 116). Accordingly, by longing to write his unspoken wisdom, Keats rejects any greatness associated with his previous works. This untapped potential consequently creates a paradox for Keats as he is both the field of grain and its harvester (Saksono 97). Thus, he alone is capable of cultivating and sharing his work despite his waning health. The prospect of this work is still tantalizing to him, though, as Hecht states that “‘The high piled books, in charactry’ promise that if they could only be written, meaning would outlive the

Both men feel that time is escaping them. While keats is fearful that time is moving too quickly for him to accomplish anything, Longfellow fears he has wasted his time: “half of life is gone”. The difference is that Keats is hopeful that he has the chance to accomplish something. Keats begins each line with a dependent clause, leaving room for possibility, possibility that his life can become anything if he wills it. He also includes metaphors to represent the possibility of his success in his writing with “high-piled books”. This presence of hope is what differentiates Keats from Longfellow. In the middle of the of “When I Have Fears”, Keats has a change in tone which also illustrates his hopefulness. He admires the mystery and power of love with its “shadows” and “magic hand of chance”. His enchantment of the concept reiterates his youthfulness and ignorance to life. While Keats longs for love, Longfellow has “sorrow” from “care that almost killed” him. Longfellow was able to experience love in his past yet was unhappy with its outcome. Therefore, Keats is in desperation for love as a symbol of fulfillment, and Longfellow regrets that love has taken away his time ergo not having achieved his

In John Keats poem, “When I have Fears” the author uses various literary devices that included an extended metaphor in an effort to help describe his fears throughout the sonnet. He describes his fears in the following manner, “ Before high piled books in characters held like rich garners full of ripened grain.” By using an

Francesco Petrarch, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey were three of the greatest poets in history. They were truly visionaries in their work and with their origination of the sonnet, they crafted poems of love in all its incredible forms. With these poets, we are able to see how the sonnet evolved into the form popularized by Shakespeare and even how it still influences the modern poetry of today. Petrarch, known as the "Father of Humanism," first wrote the Italian sonnet during the 14th century. Wyatt and Surrey, who lived and were close friends during the tumultuous reign of Henry VIII in England, composed respective translations of some of Petrarch 's

‘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.

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 sonnet, being one of the most traditional and recognized forms of poetry, has been used and altered in many time periods by writers to convey different messages to the audience. The strict constraints of the form have often been used to parallel the subject in the poem. Many times, the first three quatrains introduce the subject and build on one another, showing progression in the poem. The final couplet brings closure to the poem by bringing the main ideas together. On other occasions, the couplet makes a statement of irony or refutes the main idea with a counter statement. It leaves the reader with a last impression of what the author is trying to say.

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.