The sonnet was a common literary work in the Middle Ages and continues to remain an enticing form of literature. Furthermore, the sonnet is often regarded as the ‘rite of passage’ for new poets to demonstrate their mastery of this heavily structured and themed form of poem. Within the genre of poetry and specifically, sonnets, there are two predominant types of sonnets.
The first, prevalent sonnet form was the Petrarchan sonnet developed by Francesco Petrarch, an Italian writer in the fourteenth century. Petrarch’s sonnets, first and foremost, were written in Italian verse. These Italian sonnets were divided further from the initial fourteen lines into two stanzas, the octave, or the first eight lines, followed by the answering sestet, the …show more content…
Then he moves back to a slightly strange comment, discussing that “the breath from [his] mistress reeks” (Line 8). Certainly this comment is bold and uncommon among loving almost worshipful love poems and sonnets. This is potentially the closest the speaker moves towards blatantly insulting this woman. He mentions her breath is unfortunate, certainly no comparable to the “delightful” perfumes of his time, a personal point, yet he also parodies other sonnets. As aforementioned, traditional sonnets, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 count and relate the perfect image of an ideal female figure which the male speaker adores. Her virtues and perfected physical characteristics are compared to beautiful elements of nature and she becomes worshipped by her admirer. In these lines, however, Shakespeare allows his speaker to begin to insinuate this physical beauty is …show more content…
In his first appearance in the work, Lucifer is notably, “stretch out huge in length… / Chain’d on the burning Lake,” in Hell after his fall from heaven (Milton lns. 209-210). The audience rapidly learns that Satan’s crime is not aspiring above his peers, other angels, rather attempting, “[t]o set himself in [divine] Glory.” Essentially, Satan aspired to be equal to God and the glory and power of God. In heaven, Satan was called Lucifer, the angel of light, however, after his great sin, his named was changed, a common occurrence in Biblical times, to Satan, meaning “enemy,” to reflect his new position (Milton line
The first, prevalent sonnet form was the Petrarchan sonnet developed by Francesco Petrarch, an Italian writer in the fourteenth century. Petrarch’s sonnets, first and foremost, were written in Italian verse. These Italian sonnets were divided further from the initial fourteen lines into two stanzas, the octave, or the first eight lines, followed by the answering sestet, the …show more content…
Then he moves back to a slightly strange comment, discussing that “the breath from [his] mistress reeks” (Line 8). Certainly this comment is bold and uncommon among loving almost worshipful love poems and sonnets. This is potentially the closest the speaker moves towards blatantly insulting this woman. He mentions her breath is unfortunate, certainly no comparable to the “delightful” perfumes of his time, a personal point, yet he also parodies other sonnets. As aforementioned, traditional sonnets, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 count and relate the perfect image of an ideal female figure which the male speaker adores. Her virtues and perfected physical characteristics are compared to beautiful elements of nature and she becomes worshipped by her admirer. In these lines, however, Shakespeare allows his speaker to begin to insinuate this physical beauty is …show more content…
In his first appearance in the work, Lucifer is notably, “stretch out huge in length… / Chain’d on the burning Lake,” in Hell after his fall from heaven (Milton lns. 209-210). The audience rapidly learns that Satan’s crime is not aspiring above his peers, other angels, rather attempting, “[t]o set himself in [divine] Glory.” Essentially, Satan aspired to be equal to God and the glory and power of God. In heaven, Satan was called Lucifer, the angel of light, however, after his great sin, his named was changed, a common occurrence in Biblical times, to Satan, meaning “enemy,” to reflect his new position (Milton line