William Shakespeare, in his Sonnet 73 and Sonnet 116, sets forth his vision of the unchanging, persistent and immovable nature of true love. According to Shakespeare, love is truly "till death do us part," and possibly beyond. Physical infirmity, the ravages of age, or even one's partner's inconstancy have no effect upon the affections of one who sincerely loves. His notion of love is not a romantic one in which an idealized vision of a lover is embraced. Instead he recognizes the weaknesses to which we, as humans, are subject, but still asserts that love conquers all.
Shakespeare uses an array of figurative language to convey his message, including metaphor and personification. Thus, in sonnet 73, he compares himself to a grove of trees in early winter, "When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,..." These lines seem to refer to an aged, balding man, bundled unsuccessfully against the weather. Perhaps, in a larger sense, they refer to that time in our lives when our faculties are diminished and we can no longer easily withstand the normal blows of life. He regards his body as a temple- a "Bare ruined choir[s]"- where sweet birds used to sing, but it is a body now going to ruin.
In Sonnet 116, love is seen as the North Star, the fixed point of guidance to ships lost upon the endless sea of the world. It is the point of reference and repose in this stormy, troubled world, "an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;..."
He personifies the coming of the end of his life as night, which is described as "Death's second self" in sonnet 73. However, in Sonnet 116 death appears in the guise of the grim reaper, Father Time, who mows down all of our youth, but still cannot conquer love- "Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come;..."
While both poems make use of figurative language, sonnet 73 uses far more imagery than sonnet 116. Sonnet 73 uses the image of the close of man's life as a wintry grove with the few remaining leaves shivering in the cold. A person's later years are the twilight of life, to which the night of death inevitably follows. Further, the end of life is compared to the embers
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.
William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love Is Not All” both attempt to define love, by telling what love is and what it is not. Shakespeare’s sonnet praises love and speaks of love in its most ideal form, while Millay’s poem begins by giving the impression that the speaker feels that love is not all, but during the unfolding of the poem we find the ironic truth that love is all. Shakespeare, on the other hand, depicts love as perfect and necessary from the beginning to the end of his poem. Although these two authors have taken two completely different approaches, both have worked to show the importance of love and to define it. However, Shakespeare is most confident of his definition of love, while Millay seems
“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
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.
True love should be timeless. Shakespeare attempts to provide an understanding of what so many people search for but hardly ever find. Instead they get involved in relationships that eventually fail and it's all because they don't really understand what love actually means. To refer to the beginning of the poem, Shakespeare begins with "Let me not ....admit," (1) denying that anything can ever come between true lovers or act as an impediment to their love. Love or "the marriage of true minds" (1) does not weaken when the circumstances given rise to it are changed or "alter when it alteration finds." (3)
Another type of love that is important within the selected poems is storge love. Storge love is a type of love between family and friends. Two examples of this kind of love are what parents naturally feel for their children or the love that friends feel for each other. This kind of love also contains commitment and sacrifice. Storge love is portrayed heavily in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116.” In the poem, Shakespeare explains that love is not just an object or something that can be played with, but rather it is a commitment one makes to one they love. He also says that love never alters or withers through a relationship’s ups and downs. Shakespeare writes,
Millay and Shakespeare enforce into the audience the negative effects time has on a person after a while in “Sonnet 73,” and “Sonnet II,” through the use of a dreary tone. The speaker in,”Sonnet 73,” states that youth eventually ends up on,”The death-bed whereon it must expire”(11). The use of phrases such as ”death-bed,” to enforce the idea of youth ending add on to the dreary tone as “death-bed” has to do with something dying, which in this case is the youth of a person. The use of words such as “death-bed,” not only add to the dreary tone, but they also further present how terrible it is to leave one’s youth, which is an event that every person must face as time goes on, and age increases. Another example adding to the dreary tone is when the speaker discusses the,”Bare ruined choirs”(4). The use of the words “Bare,” and “Ruined” add on to the dreary tone because something that is “Bare,” means nothing is there, no real life exists in that place. The use of “Bare,” and “Ruined” also engrave the idea of how bad leaving one’s youth is by the speaker comparing that to how he feels as
In William Shakespeare piece, “Sonnet 73”, human cycle continues to flourish through the course of the season, which leads to lost of youth and finalized in death, therefore human should embrace their love and happiness before the end of time arrives. In the The Metamorphosis, The Stranger, “Sonnet 73”, the main focus of all the writings revolves around isolation, alienation, love, and death that links Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, and William Shakespeare together in order to express the idea of human and their social reality that structure their role of absurdity in society and the outcome of death that supply an effective awareness on a human’s life and how they view certain
The theme, in Sonnet 73, is the poet's aging. Each quatrain develops an image of lateness, of approaching extinction - of a season, of a day, and of a fire, but they also apply to a life (Abrams et al. 867). The poet compares his age to three images through the quatrains: autumn, the dying of the year (first quatrain); the dying of the fire (third quatrain). The first line draws a picture of himself, "in me," and in a certain time, "That time of year," of his life (surely, he is old now). We can see that the
William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayest in Me Behold" is a sonnet that examines the fears and anxieties that surround growing old and dying -- a topic that resonates within us all. Shakespeare's use of metaphor to illustrate decay and passing are striking, and sets a somber tone throughout. He uses the season of Fall, the coming of night, and the burning out of a flame as metaphors for old age and death, and then uses the last two lines to suggest that we should love and cherish life while we can.
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,
William Shakespeare's sonnet cycle is famous with its rich metaphorical style. The depth of each sonnet comes from its multilayered meanings and images, which are reinforced by its structure, sound, and rhythm. Sonnet #73 provides an excellent example. This sonnet shows the speaker's agony over human mortality and, moreover, his/her way of coping with it in an effective way. The speaker, especially in terms of his cognizance of time, experiences dramatic changes in two ways: (1) from time measured by quantity to time as quality, (2) from cyclical time to a linear one. These changes, manifested by a set of images (autumn, twilight, glowing), enable him/her to embrace
“Sonnet 130” written by William Shakespeare, is one of his most well known poems and can be analyzed and broken apart in great depth. The poem is written in fourteen lines which makes it a sonnet. Like all of Shakespeare’s sonnets the meter is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme for “Sonnet 130” is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. An overlaying theme for “Sonnet 130” is, “True love is based on how beautiful you find someone on the inside.” Shakespeare proves to have a great view on true love in this sonnet. He cares more about what’s on the inside rather than what’s on the outside. “Sonnet 130’s” theme can be proven by Shakespeare's use of poetic and literary devices, the tone and mood of the sonnet, and the motif of true love.
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.