Essays on Sonnet

William Shakespeare was popular for his works in the entertainment industry where he was mainly recognized as a good play writer, poet, and a dramatist. Today there are total number of “38 plays, 154 sonnets, poems and 2 narrative poems as the surviving works of the author (Damrosch 25).” He lived in the late sixteenth and the early seventieth century in England. Regardless of the fact that he died in the early seventieth century, his works have been appreciated across the globe and been translated into many languages. Shakespeare’s literary pieces works have also been used in schools. Continue reading...

Analysis of "Outcast" by Claude McKay

Outcast written by the famous poet Claude McKay is a typical 14line sonnet that expresses the live that he went through and the life that he desired. He wrote the sonnet in the 20th century. However, an analysis of the sonnet reveals its relevance in the contemporary world.
Claude expresses the dark background of his parents (line 1). Sometimes, we are not happy with our background, and we, therefore, strive to change our environment for the better. We strive to attain that position where our body and spirit desire (line 2). We might consider our experience as a shadowy Continue reading...

(Student’s Full Name)
Literary Response to the Reading of “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” (Sonnet 18) and “The Marriage of True Minds” (Sonnet 116)

Love has been one of many poets' preferred topics, as implied by Plato's quote. William Shakespeare appears to be no different when one studies his sonnets, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day” (Sonnet 18) and “The Marriage of True Minds” (Sonnet 116). Shakespeare's sonnets were first published as a collection in 1609. The personas of both poems, with the theme of love as their focus, idealize love and Continue reading...

Poetry is an apt form for expressing inner sentiments, which can sometimes seem impossible to relate to others. When a person sees beauty, it is an individual impression. But through poetry, removed and subjective notions can be explored. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and John Keats' “Ode on a Grecian Urn” both relate a concept of, love, beauty in art, and its weathering time. As will be shown, both Shakespeare and Keats convey these concepts in unique ways. Comparing and contrasting these two widely recited and studied works allows one to get to the heart of how they use Continue reading...

Analysis of the following poems: William Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us;"

Emily Bronte, "Often rebuked, yet Always Back Returning;"
Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses" and
Emily Dickinson, "I heard a Fly Buzz-when I died"
Good poetry, like good music transcends time. The poetry of these five poets are legendary; they share one common thread, the mastery of using diction to stimulate the senses.
One cannot study British Literature without encountering William Wordsworth. In his sonnet, yes, it is a Petrarchan sonnet, "The world is too Much with Us," he politely expresses his disgust with man’s deviation from nature. Wordsworth begins his sonnet by saying that worldly advancements have cause depreciation Continue reading...

Part 1 – Explication:

O: Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
I: Mark here means “See” or “Look at”. In this line, the poet brings attention of the reader to an insignificant flea. He relates the small size of the flea to the thing that his beloved has denied him, without knowing that the thing she has denied to him is very little.

O: It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
I: He tells that the flea sucked, after sucking his blood, is now sucking hers. He is strangely happy that their Continue reading...

Among William Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets is Sonnet 18 because it is the greatest love poems of all times. Sonnet 18 presents a variety of poetic devices considering the distinctive structure Among William Shakespeare’s, most famous sonnets are Sonnet 18 because it is the greatest love poems of all times. Sonnet 18 presents a variety of poetic devices considering the distinctive structure that Shakespeare uses effectively. In as much as readers may want to look for a complicated structure, it is more straightforward, because its language is brief, concise and unto the point. Shakespeare starts by praising Continue reading...

How is The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Different from Other Love Poems?

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is one of the greatest poems ever written in English language. Ascribed to Modernism, this poem was written in 1910 and first published in 1915 by American-British writer and poet T. S. Eliot. The title gives the reader the idea that this poem is a love song; but The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has actually become so important int he history of English Literature due to the fact that it is not.
The poem does not revolve around a love story (as opposed to the title); it mostly concentrates on Continue reading...

Introduction

Form in poetry refers to the physical structure of the poem. This can mean the length of lines, the repetition, the rhyming, and the system of the rhymes. When these features have been organized into a recognizable pattern, then they can be described to belong to a certain form. The commonest forms of poems include sonnets, villanelles, blank verses, and sestinas. The form of a poem aids the poet in expressing the theme and the feelings that accompany the poet’s expression.
Form of a poem can be the manner of the complexity of the poem. The poem can Continue reading...

A Critical Analysis of the Poem "What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
A sonnet refers to Italian poetic form invented by Giacomo Da Lentini. Sonnet derives from the Italian word sonetto meaning a little song or sound (Miller 1). Two kinds of sonnet exist; the Italian sonnet and Shakespearean sonnets. Italian sonnet has a fundamental break between the last six lines, sestet, and the first eight lines, octave. It has a typical rhyme scheme abbabba cdecde. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “What lips my lips have kissed” is an example Continue reading...

Love is an all-too-common subject of poetry, the short poetic form being an elegant and evocative way to convey the complex ways people can love and be loved by others. To that end, examining and comparing the ways in which love is presented in the works of some of history’s greatest poets allows us to see the broad spectrum available to us for poetry. William Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 147 both demonstrate an idealized form of personal love, in which the lover supplicates themselves before the beloved (and is figuratively made sick by this love). Comparing and Continue reading...

1. Research the term “sonnet” and indicate which the two main forms are in the sonnet tradition. Cite your sources in doing so. MacNeice refers to the term “sonnet” in line ten. How does MacNeice’s sonnet differ from traditional sonnets? How does it resemble those other sonnets? Explain in detail.
Sonnet is a poem that consists of fourteen lines with variable rhyme scheme and structure. Sonnets are considered to be of Italian origin and from Italian the term means “little sound or song”. There are two traditional sonnet forms: the Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet and the English (or Continue reading...

Classic English Literature

What makes Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Much Ado About Nothing is that they portray women representing two qualities associated with love; appearance and character. While Shakespeare’s lady love in the sonnet is ‘dark and average,’ his play shows Hero’s love conquering ‘deceit and infidelity.’ His play Much Ado About Nothing and poem, Sonnet 130, share similar theme as the lovers struggle to achieve true love through their struggle against deception, music, and punishment. Love can be deceiving, and it can be the cause for heartbreaks resulting in failure.
After Claudio leaves Hero’s wedding angrily, Friar, Continue reading...

Every person knows William Shakespeare, who is considered to be one of the greatest English writers. He was born and raised in Stafford-upon-Avenue. Right in his hometown, he had found his wife -Anne Hathaway. During his writing career, he wrote down 154 sonnets, 2 poems and 38 plays. Two of his best known sonnets are ‘Sonnet 18’ - “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” and ‘Sonnet 130’ - “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like a sun”. They both have present similarities and difference between them.
They are written in the same Shakespearean format - sonnet. Both Continue reading...

The poem is a narrative, giving a close encounter of how life has been in her sphere. Millay narrates how she wasted out her love after an encounter with numerous lovers. Though a change occurs in the poem where Millay applies comparative image in expressing her personal feelings of love loss. Millay indicates” I cannot say what love have come and gone”, this indicates that never loved her young lover men by enjoyed with them. She has lost all the lovers since she changed from one lover to another. From the line, it’s clear that she feels a Continue reading...

Classic English Literature

In drawing comparison between Shakespeare’s Sonnets 130 and 148, it is quite clear that Shakespeare uses the topic of vision (descriptions), and emotion (expressions) to highlight his feelings for his mistress. He has, by using themes such as love, beauty, emotion, and uncertainty, been able to draw the subconscious mind of his readers to relive what he himself must have experienced. Using contradictory and contrasting unconventional styles, Shakespeare was able to set off a precedence of intuitive thinking in his readers’ minds. When juxtaposed with each other, it looks like Sonnet 130 is the predecessor to Sonnet 148, Continue reading...

Analysis of the Shakespeare sonnets

The 1st seventeen Sonnets send a message to the poet close friend, he has an unknown identity, and he assumes that the friend exists. He is trying to convince the friend to make a move and start a family. The main aim is to install his beauty to the offspring’s that will be born as a result of marriage. The poet says that, “From the fairest creatures, from all beautiful creatures, we desire increase, we want offspring, riper, more ripe (1-10).
The major theme in the Shakespeare sonnets is Love; it conquers all the other themes. Apart from Continue reading...

Shakespeare’s sonnets treat time as an enemy of mankind. In many of the sonnets, the speaker worries about the ravages of time and expresses disgust at the way time takes away the things that human beings cherish. In the first seventeen sonnets, for example, the speaker juxtaposes time and beauty. As the speaker praises the youthful vitality of the young man (described in the sonnets), he also conveys his worries about ravages of time. The speaker’s concerns arise from past experiences. Nevertheless, the speaker devises several means to reduce the harmful effects of time on the young Continue reading...

In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 92, a very pragmatic yet idealistic lover talks to his lady about how much he loves her, and the place she holds in his heart. In essence, the sonnet itself is about the man arming himself against disappointment – a constant motif in the sonnet is about whether or not the woman will hurt him, to which he claims that “need I not to fear the worst of wrongs / When in the least of them my life hath end” (lines 5-6). The poet loves the woman so much that, even if she were to hurt Continue reading...

William Carlos Williams’s poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” is a simple, image-based poem in which an unknown speaker describes a red wheelbarrow and chickens. The simplicity of the poem, which is demonstrated by its length and subject, combine with the statement made in the first line of the poem to realistically depict a slice of reality.
The structure of the poem helps to establish how a reader should view the poem. It is comprised of four stanzas with two lines each. The poem is made up of only one sentence which is not capitalized at its beginning. This sentence Continue reading...

The poem that one chose is “How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43). This poem was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1845 while Robert Browning, an English poet, was courting her. It is part of the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”, which is a collection of 44 love poems written by Elizabeth, with Robert as his inspiration. Sonnet 43 is the most popular love poem of Elizabeth.
One is drawn to this poem because of its universal message, and that is love. Although, there are a plethora of love poems written, one thinks that this poem is one of Continue reading...

Ray Robert, comments on Shakespeare’s use of the word “complexion” in Shakespeare’s sonnet 18. Editors and critics of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 all agree that the word “complexion” refers to both facial complexion as well as the face of the personified sun. The face of the sun is at times dimmed by clouds and similarly internal clouds of melancholy darken the disposition or complexion of the young man. The author notes that, Shakespeare in his sonnets refers to a “combination of humors of the body” which determines a person’s “complexion” or his/her temperament. As such, the Continue reading...

Sonnet 18 is one of William Shakespeare's best-known poems, a declaration of love for someone who is deeply adored for simply being who they are. The work itself is one of the finest examples of the sonnet format in the English literary canon, and its beautiful language transcends identity and personage to become an incredibly influential and powerful poem. This is due to the poem's lack of specific description of the person who is being adored in the poem; the qualities Shakespeare describes are universal enough to be nonspecific, and many are impossible to reach, like immortality and eternal Continue reading...

In the 1923 modern Italian sonnet, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” Edna St. Vincent Millay narrates how numerous loves in her life ultimately came to an end and how miserable she felt because of those losses. Millay depicts the explicit meaning of sonnet by using many of different aspects of its form, such as its mood, structure, turns, and particularly the powerful metaphor. This sonnet is centered on two major themes, namely change and loss. The season imagery used by Millay makes the theme of change most apparent. Although most of the sonnet revolves Continue reading...

Critical Analysis

Poem Critical Analysis
Introduction
This article is about the poems Sonnet 116 written by William Shakespeare, Holly Sonnet 14 written by John Donne, and Ballad of Chocolate Mabbie by Gwendolyn Brooks. In this article, we will share the backgrounds of each poem so we can somehow get the idea behind these poems. These renowned writers of our history can consider these a work of art. These poems also show how the writers wrote their piece in a different manner using different terms. Also, in this article, we’ll have the idea on how these authors expressed their thoughts about Continue reading...

Dickinson’s “Crumbling is not an instant's act”and Shakespeare’s “That time of year thou mayst in me behold”

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Crumbling is not an instant's act,” is a fascinating description of how a person’s life or self disintegrates. Reading this text by Dickenson gives the feeling of seeing a deeper truth about a common concept, which in this case is personal “crumbling,” “dilapidation,” or “slipping” (1, 3, 12). Emotions that are depicted in the poem include wonder, detachment, and resignation. The wonder felt about “crumbling” comes from the visual descriptions that Dickinson gives to the process, calling it “a Cobweb on the soul” and “Devil’s work” among other things (5, 9). Dickinson describes Continue reading...

‘How do I love thee let me count the ways’ – Elizabeth Barratt browning

‘Sonnet 138’ – William Shakespeare
Both these sonnets are very famous in the English-speaking world and both deal with a relationship between a man and a woman. However, Barratt Browning and Shakespeare adopt a very different tone and attitude when talking about love; use language in very different ways; manipulate the form of the sonnet in contrasting ways; and produce very different emotional effects on the reader. In short, the sonnets represent two very different attitudes to love in their content and different attitudes to the sonnet as well.
The subject matter of each sonnet is vastly different. Barratt Browning’ Continue reading...

Which is the Better Love Poem?

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 are both famous examples of his love poetry; however, the two poems are extremely different. Sonnet 18 appears to be the more traditional love poem, with its sweet words and imagery. Sonnet 130 has blunt descriptions that seem more like a slur than a love poem. In spite of its odd nature, Sonnet 130 seems like the better love poem than Sonnet 18 because of what it implies about the writer and the sonnet’s reader.
Judging the sonnets by their first lines alone, the results would be different. Sonnet 18 Continue reading...

Compare and Contrast Pablo Neruda’s “I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You” and Edmund Spenser’s “My Love is Like To Ice”
Pablo Neruda’s “I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You” and Edmund Spenser’s “My Love is Like To Ice” Share certain characteristics of these sonnets for, and certain techniques of expression, but overall are very different in treatment of love and in the mood that their sonnets creates.
The sonnets form transcends time - Spenser is writing in the 16th century, Neruda in the 20th century - and space Continue reading...

Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet Twenty-nine

Often time writers writing express their inner turmoil. Although there is no record saying that sonnet twenty-nine is a result of tumult facing Shakespeare at the time the sonnet was produced, it is safe to say that he did draw some inspiration from the state of his mental and financial well-being during that particular time of his life.
Some of the best writings are the writing one has lived. Fifteen ninety-two, the year sonnet twenty-nine was written, was not a good year for Shakespeare. The theatres closed due to the outbreak of a plague, bringing a halt to his Continue reading...

‘She walks in beauty’ is a luminary piece of literary work by George Gordon Lord Byron. This short poem was first published in the ‘Hebrew Melodies’ in the year 1815. Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous works of the Shakespeare and was published along with other sonnets in the year 1609 in a huge series. This paper intends to discuss poems, ‘she walks in beauty’ as well as ‘sonnet 18’ and further compares both of them in view of several related aspects.
When we look at both the poems, beauty appears as a common theme in both Continue reading...

For many centuries, this sonnet divided scholars in their responses to it. Many felt that Shakespeare was being deliberately critical of his lover and, therefore, were inclined to dismiss it as a rather cynical poem disparaging his mistress – unconventional for its time, but still straightforward. (Matz, 47). However, there is now a wider critical consensus that this poem is a comic parody of the type of exaggerated love poems written by some of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. (Matz, 48). Crutwell writes:

Vendler says, “ this sonnet is a reply poem to a poet who has just written a sonnet to his Continue reading...

Sonnet 130 – “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” – is an original and witty poem which satirizes the excessive imagery used by other love poets of Shakespeare’s time, and also pokes fun at the stereotypes of feminine beauty that were the dominant norm in Shakespeare’s era – and still are to a certain extent. Those stereotypical, hackneyed images of what women should look like have parallels in our culture too, because through the media and films, images of what the ideal woman should look like are used to manipulate us. Shakespeare’ Continue reading...

A Response to a Sonnet by Shakespeare

Abstract
I am going to write about my response to ‘Sonnet 130’. I chose this sonnet because it made me laugh at Shakespeare’s stated attitude to his lover, because it is so unexpected when you first read the poem, but the the sonnet is read you come to understand that Shakespeare is also making a serious point baout love and the stereotypical images of feminine beauty that were dominant in his day. Those stereotypical images have their parallel in our society too, because through the media images of what Continue reading...

Organization

Abstract
The world of literature encompasses numerous feelings and emotions in its wide array of literary works. As readers, we are not unknown to use of centralized themes in the works of literature which vary according to many factors, like the type of work, the author and the plot of the work. In this paper we will compare a few renowned works of literature based on their usage of the central theme of love. This paper will be an analysis of the concept of theme which can be found in both prose and poetry. For our reference, we have Continue reading...

Through “Sonnet 43”, Elizabeth Barrett Browning introduces a love declaration that transcends through time and space, the world of living and the one beyond life. Love is the central theme of the sonnet, and an in loved person is the main character. The peom is written in the first person, so there can be interpreted that the author is the one that declares her love for somebody. She does not describe the person to whom she addresses the love poem, but she does describe her love for that person, by employing an enumeration, which represents the main part of Continue reading...

1)
In Don Juan by Byron, the character of Don Juan is a womanizer for much more complex and negative reasons than are normally attributed to the characterization of the figure in popular culture. Instead of his womanizing simply coming from a place of playfulness and hedonism, it comes from a place of nihilism - Juan has little respect or faith in life and its potential, as well as himself, so he merely hides himself in the comfort of empty relationships with women in order to make up for not having an overall 'mission' in life. As Byron sees Continue reading...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” alternately knows as “How May I Love Thee” is a declaration of her feelings for her husband to be, who was courting her at the time; Robert Browning. It is part of the series of sonnets she wrote for him “Songs from the Portuguese”, a title which she deliberately made to mislead by letting people think that the poem were written by a Portuguese person and she only translated them. Later however, it was established that she herself had been the author of the series and the reference to the Portuguese in the Continue reading...

Inspired by Greek historian Diodorus Siculus’s record of King Ramses II of Egypt, poet Percy Bysshe Shelly wrote the sonnet Ozymandias, which is the Greek form of the king’s name (Black, 2010). The sonnet resonates with the free-flowing imaginative and emotive style distinctive of the romantic era (Morner, 1997). Shelly had written the sonnet in a friendly competition with his friend Horace Smith, and it was first published under the pen name Glirastes in 1818 in a weekly London literary paper, The Examiner (Ozymandias). The fourteen-line sonnet is expressed as the contemplations of a traveller on Continue reading...

Why Poetry Cannot Emerge From GOFAI and why The Extended Mind Approach is a Better AlternativeGOFAI was once thought of as a pathway that could eventually lead to the emergence of a machine intelligence that supervenes from circuitry and in the same way that human intelligence was thought emerge from the connectedness of neurons. Intelligence breaks down to reasoning, which is the manipulation of representations (PHIL342, Lec 7b). GOFAI does is based upon symbolic logic. GOFAI was once theorized as the way that machines could have minds. But while GOFAI systems have been able to mimic human behavior, and Continue reading...