In today’s culture, the word “sonnet” is often associated with Shakespeare and boredom, but many sonnets span beyond Shakespeare’s realm, delving into different techniques and themes. William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet CXVI,” John Donne’s “Death, be not proud,” and Christina Rossetti’s “Remember” are all sonnets that fall into the same poetic category, yet they each maintain a unique theme through the use of the sonnet’s essential turn; these three sonnets show the powerful elasticity and careful craft that this type of poetry calls for.
There are two different types of sonnets: the Italian and the Shakespearean. The first section of this poetic form presents an argument or issue, yet the most important part of the sonnet is the turn, which brings about the resolution to the poem’s …show more content…
In other words, if this entire defense for love and marriage is false, then no man has ever truly loved because “[l]ove alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom” (11-12). The sonnet’s speaker uses the sonnet’s turn to not only rest his case for love and marriage; the couplet also dares to state that if this sonnet wrong then no one has ever genuinely experienced this wondrous, unconditional love. This turn shows how strongly the speaker believes in his argument as he places his own artistic talent on the line.
John Donne uses the Italian sonnet form in “Death, be not proud” to express how God can save people from sin and death. This poem personifies Death by ordering this entity to “…be not proud” (2). Death is of hell and the devil, according to Donne. Death is pompous and views itself as “[m]ighty and dreadful, for thou art not so” (2). The speaker acknowledges that all men, even the best of men, must go to Death, but the turn reveals that Death should not be pompous for obtaining such a
There are two different types of sonnets: the Italian and the Shakespearean. The first section of this poetic form presents an argument or issue, yet the most important part of the sonnet is the turn, which brings about the resolution to the poem’s …show more content…
In other words, if this entire defense for love and marriage is false, then no man has ever truly loved because “[l]ove alters not with his brief hours and weeks, / But bears it out even to the edge of doom” (11-12). The sonnet’s speaker uses the sonnet’s turn to not only rest his case for love and marriage; the couplet also dares to state that if this sonnet wrong then no one has ever genuinely experienced this wondrous, unconditional love. This turn shows how strongly the speaker believes in his argument as he places his own artistic talent on the line.
John Donne uses the Italian sonnet form in “Death, be not proud” to express how God can save people from sin and death. This poem personifies Death by ordering this entity to “…be not proud” (2). Death is of hell and the devil, according to Donne. Death is pompous and views itself as “[m]ighty and dreadful, for thou art not so” (2). The speaker acknowledges that all men, even the best of men, must go to Death, but the turn reveals that Death should not be pompous for obtaining such a