The Perfect Nature Of Love And Sonnet 130 By William Shakespeare

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

The ideas of love being expressed in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Sonnet 130 are genuinely contrasting. In Much Ado About Nothing, one of the many focal points are Beatrice and Benedick’s foolish relationship, also the most captivating, whereas in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is talking about the misrepresentation of the “Dark Lady”, who he refers to as his mistress. Regardless of a person’s flaws disfigurements, the stress they cause, and the bickering that occurs, love can withstand time, and under the circumstances love doesn’t change for anyone, that it does not substitute itself when it finds differences in the loved one.

These characters together describe love as an unstoppable force that can defeat any obstacle. The character in sonnet 116, love is an immortal force; love overcomes age, death, and even time. “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come” Sonnet 116. Love defies times effects on youth and beauty, it repels old age and wrinkles. It’s an unshakable force that unlike the physical being does not decay. Shakespeare doesn’t just describe love as physical beauty. He also describes love as a great friendship and a great

Therefore, according to my close reading analysis the poem (Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare) is a fourteen line poem that is organized into three quatrains, ending with a rhymed couplet. It also has a regular stress pattern which makes the reader to go through some difficulty in understanding what the author is trying to convey in his poem. The first quatrain of the poem began with a statement to puzzle upon ‘’Let me not to the marriage of true mind/Admit impediments (1-2),’’ this line means that love cannot be disturbed by disaster or calamity neither be changed over time. Rather, it is one unchangeable emotion that is

William Shakespeare was (allegedly) an English poet and playwright, and he is still among the most well-known playwrights nearly half a millennium later. In addition to his plays, he is also credited for the creation of the Shakespearean Sonnet. Published in 1609, “Shakespeare’s Sonnets” is a compilation of 154 of his sonnets. It is often speculated that the sonnets are most prominently divided into two sections: Sonnets 1-126, which detail a relationship with a young man, and Sonnets 127, which relate to a relationship with a woman. “When my love swears she is made of truth” is Sonnet 138, which explains the nature of the sonnet describing his relationship with another woman.

On the other hand, there are being that are able to fall in love and confide in each other without being sexually attracted. This type of union is considered very genuine and unadulterated. In William Shakespeare’s, Sonnet 116, love is characterized in its most ideal form. The sonnet is congratulating lovers who have come to each other freely. The first four lines identifies the Shakespeare’s admiration for how love is stable and “will not alter when alterations finds” (Shakespeare 345). In the fifth line, he speaks about love being a guiding star to lost ships (wandering barks). The love theme of this sonnet expresses love in a positive way. When love comes first there is some other force that attracts them, which is not the desire of intercourse.

An Elizabethan sonnet is a poem that contains 14 lines. Each line is usually 10 syllables long. However, Shakespeare created his own type of sonnet that also has 14 lines, but also follows a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. Not only that, but the Shakespearean sonnets also have iambic pentameter which give the sonnets a rhythm or beat by emphasizing every other syllable. Shakespearean sonnets are very similar to those of Petrarchan lovers. The main idea of these sonnets are usually about exaggerated and romantic love. These sonnets were created by a man named Francesco Petrarch. He was an Italian student during the Renaissance who lived in Petrarch, Italy. Petrarch then fell in love with a woman named Laura, and shortly after he began to write sonnets about her. Many people who also lived in the city continued what Francesco had started. The ideal woman of the time and in Petrarchan sonnets was blonde, had a high forehead, had bright eyes, and had pale skin. In the sonnets, they are exaggerated so much that they are almost viewed as angels or goddesses. In William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” he compares his “mistress” to the ideal woman from Petrarchan sonnets, and in a way, mocks them for their ridiculous flattery. In “Sonnet 130,” William Shakespeare’s use of similes, metaphors, and tone illustrate the complex nature of love, and reject the cliché concepts of ideal love.

Sonnet 116, written by Shakespeare, is one of the most popular love poems to this day. The poem explains thoroughly what true love really is. It starts off with stating what true love does not do. Throughout the poem it begins to explain that love does not change. No matter what the circumstances love does not “bends with the remover to remove” (Shakespeare 4). Shakespeare means in this quote that no matter what circumstances love does not change. Even in the worst circumstances where possibly one partner would be unfaithful, the love would never change if it is true love. True love is forever, like a permeant marker. It “looks on tempests and is never shaken”(Shakespeare 6). Although the road of life will be tough, love will never be swayed. Love itself does not change even thought the partners may hit a few bumpy roads along in life there is one thing that is consistently there, love. Overall “love bears it out even to the edge of doom” (Shakespeare 12). This means that love is with you to the grave and beyond. The poem ends, with a couplet where Shakespeare

Sonnet 130 is a famous poem written by Shakespeare. Shakespeare is a famous writer and wrote a lot of sonnets and poems. Sonnet 130 is a good poem to analyze with the TP-CASTT.

‘Sonnet 130’ is a pre 1914 poem, by William Shakespeare, about love although it is not a traditional love poem. The poem is not a flattering poem but is more insulting. The opening line of Shakespeare 's Sonnet 130 is a simile "My mistress ' eyes are nothing like the sun". Unlike other poets who may exaggerate on describing the one they love, Shakespeare tells it as it is. Shakespeare continues to describe his mistress in terms of the senses of sight, smell, sound and touch. Shakespeare describes his mistress’ lips as “Coral is far more red than her lips’ red” This is giving the impression that lips of his mistress’ are a very pale colour. He continues

Before Shakespeare, many poets compared their loves to the goddesses and unattainable standards of beauty. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare compares his lover to these unattainable beauty standards, but says that she is not like them. In lines 1-6, Shakespeare tells his readers that the woman’s eyes are not like the sun, her lips are not red, her breasts are not white, and she has black wiry hair. William Shakespeare shows his readers the difference between real and clichéd love in Sonnet 130 by contrasting the woman that he loves with the idealized woman of that time.

MLA Works Cited- Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 130." Shakespeare Sonnet 130 - My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.

William Shakespeare was a poet that has been acknowledged as one of the greatest play writers and dramatist of all times. He had a gift to transpire heartaches, love, and outrage, throughout all his literary creations. This gift protruded all through his many plays and sonnets that he ended up leaving as a part of his legacy. "Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict." [1]. In my eyes, what allows Shakespeare to have become so incomparable, was his creative capability of simultaneously using the correct choice of word, tone, and structure, to allow one sonnet, to have so many different interpretations. In Sonnet 138, "When my love swears that she is made of truth", Shakespeare once again crafted different levels of interpretations to portray his opinion once more on love. Edward Snow, an American poet, and translator, who was the winner of the 1985 Harold Morton London Translation Award, as well as the recipient of an Academy of Arts and Letters Award for the body of his Rilke translations, calls the sonnet "a touchstone for Shakespeare's dramatic imagination" [2]. Many think that the sonnet is a continuance of the topic Shakespeare started to talk about back in Sonnet 127, which was about "The Dark Lady" [3]. The Dark Lady, or also known as his mistress, was so called this, because of what is said in earlier poems in which it was made clear that she had black hair and had dun-colored skin [4].

The central theme running throughout the 116 sonnet of Shakespeare is “love”. In this sonnet, Shakespeare defines love by saying what it is and is not.

Society’s standards and requirements in order for one to be considered beautiful, William Shakespeare's persona in sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” states though his mistress (lover) is average compared to the society’s taste, she’s still consider special. Throughout the poem, Shakespeare utilizes conceit, imagery, and diction to describe his mistress’ beauty allowing one to visualize her. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is written in an iambic pentameter divided into three quatrains and a couplet. However, in lines 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 have slight variations depending on what parts of the mistress Shakespeare is comparing her to. On the surface, one may think the poem is about pointing the mistress’ flaws and beauty and accepting it. With further analyzation, one starts realizing that Shakespeare is mocking and making a parody of traditional love poems. Traditional love poems mainly exaggerate (ideal fantasy) how beautiful their partner (mainly a woman) by comparing them to goddess or nature. With the author use of alliteration, assonance, conceit, and diction, one can sense Shakespeare’s tone as well as opinion about traditional love.