Sonnets

Sixteenth century poet John Donne author of the Holy Sonnet Fourteen; ‘Batter my Heart’ is known as the founder of the Metaphysical Poets a term used to refer to 17th-century English writers whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. Donne adopts Petrarchan sonnet form for the majority of this poem which aids the seamless fluidity of this sonnet. Donne’s Religious poetry demonstrates turning…

about whom the speaker is talking, instead of the typical praise of the mistress, which is the more frequent path a poet takes on a love sonnet. Indeed, the untraditional and seemingly rude comparisons are what makes Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” different than the love sonnets of his time. After reading the examples, one is led to believe that the purpose of this sonnet was to belittle a specific woman. At the end, however, the speaker essentially says that he still loves this mistress, to the…

A combination of Petrarch and English sonnet conventions construct love and desire in Sir Thomas Wyatt 's “Whoso List to Hunt”. However, from Petrarch 's perspective, love is transcendent and idealizes the beloved. The poet places his love on a pedestal. Desire, on the other hand, focuses on longing and frustration. The poet 's love is unwanted and injustice (Riddell). In this essay I will examine Petrarchan conventions such as the conceit, as well as illicit, thwarted, and unrequited love, and…

“Sweetest Sovereignty,” (Astrophel and stella, sonnet 71) and natural grace. Yet, renaissance poets know that “Beauty draws the heart to love,” (Astrophel and stella, sonnet 71) but Sidney twists this norm by claiming that “Desire still cries, “Give me some food.” (Astrophel and stella, sonnet 71). This statement turns the complements of a lover to the beloved, into a lustful trap, because, “Virtue may best be lodged in beauty be.” (Astrophel and stella, sonnet 71). We can see Sidney discard his…

popular and controversial poets from the early seventeenth century. Donne often wrote sensuous and spiritual poetry, while Wroth had written Petrarchan (in nature) sonnets concerning love from a woman’s (practically unheard of for that time) perspective. In both Donne’s “A Valediction: forbidding Mourning” and Wroth’s “Sonnet 22” (in the sonnet sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus) the issue of separation between lovers is explored by means of nature, metaphysical conceits, and complex metaphors.…

observed or conserved by the authors unlike the sonnet. A sonnet has many restrictions such as its length, the iambic pentameter and the rhymes. Although the sonnet takes a lot of skill to be written and some consider it beautiful to read, the same effects as a short story cannot be replicated through a sonnet. The sonnet tells a complete story but in a short and brief way. The story of Carla in “Runaway” could be summed up and written as a sonnet. The general idea about her unhappiness and…

though that that beauty will rebirth with each coming spring. “The entire collection of Elegiac Sonnets reflects her sadness: the beauty of the flowers closely observed gives way to her loss of happiness and the certainty of no second spring.” (Selected Poems, 67). Because of this, Smith's poem Sonnet Written at the Close of Spring, has a mournful undertone and a tinge of jealousy to it, unlike the sonnets written before Romanticism, which were mostly cheerful and light. “No more shall violets…

the Sun” and “Death, Be Not Proud,” are sonnets, with fourteen lines and a form of rhyming scheme known as iambic pentameter. These sonnets, by William Shakespeare and John Donne, approach the themes of death and beauty through uses of different literary devices and distinct individual beliefs, but both relate back to the overarching idea that people’s expectations of these two ideas are nothing like the reality, at least in the eyes of the speakers.…

John Keats was an English Romantic poet born in 1795 in London. Much of Keats’ work was not well received by critics during his short life. His reputation grew after his death at the age of 25 from tuberculosis. He had a difficult childhood and experienced the loss of most of his family, which probably contributed to his concerns about his own life and mortality. In “When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be,” Keats expresses his fear that he is alone in the world and his young life may be cut…

well-known works include Sonnets from the Portuguese, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point, A Musical Instrument, and many more. The Sonnet from the Portuguese is an example of an Italian Sonnet, also known as the Petrarchan sonnet. An Italian Sonnet is a sonnet that includes an octave, eight lines, usually following the rhyming scheme abbaabba. Next, the Italian sonnet transitions into a sextet, six lines, which usually follows the rhyming scheme cdcdcd. The Italian Sonnet has 14 lines,…