Charges Levelled Against Poetry by Women - Essay Example

Shakespeare composed poetry with excellence. Both had their styles but both styles are eye-catching and contain depth in terms of ideas deliverance, style, and tone. Emily Bronte’s style of poetry is unique in its extent while Shakespeare’s is unique in its extent. The subject matter that Emily Bronte presented was restricted as most of her work talked about the themes of lost love and death or we can say that these were the recurring themes in Emily Bronte’s poetry, however, in Shakespeare’s poetry, we can find the themes of love, jealousy, tragedy and so on.

When we notice poems written by Emily Bronte, undoubtedly we feel the depth in reading those poems. For instance, if we notice the poem, “Stars” written by Emily Bronte, we can see that the subject matter is restricted as the poetess talks about the themes of death and lost love, similarly in her other poems, we can find the recurring theme of death, for example, the following stanza is taken from “A Death-Scene”,

“So I knew that he was dying−−
Stooped, and raised his languid head;
Felt no breath, and heard no sighing,
So I knew that he was dead” (Bronte, 2010, p. 9).

In the poem Anticipation, we can again find the theme of death quite prominently,

“Glad comforter! will I not brave,
Unawed, the darkness of the grave?
Nay, smile to hear Death's billows rave−−
Sustained, my guide, by thee?” (Bronte, 2010, p. 12)

The poem, Death, again talks about death and the title is also evident that the poetess writes about the theme of death in this poem.

“Death! that struck when I was most confiding.
In my certain faith of joy to be−−
Strike again, Time's withered branch dividing
From the fresh root of Eternity!” (Bronte, 2010, p. 25).

The theme of lost love can be noticed in the following stanza from the poem, “Honour’s Martyr”,

“Without your chamber door I stand;
Love, are you slumbering still?
My cold heart, underneath my hand,
Has almost ceased to thrill” (Bronte, 2010, p. 27).

Therefore, it is quite clear that the poetess, Emily Bronte talks about death and lost love as recurring themes in all her poems due to which, her subject matter is restricted, she expresses the same feelings in her sad emotional tone. As far as the sense of humor is concerned, Emily Bronte lacks in this sense as her poetry is mostly melancholic and sad. Most of the time, the readers go through depressing feelings while reading her poetry.

As far as Shakespeare’s poetry is concerned, we can see poems written with many topics and different themes such as he talks about Nature in “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”, about love in “The Lover’s Complaint” and so on. He talks about love, life, death, Nature, ladies, places, and much more due to which, his subject matter cannot be categorized as restricted, neither does he lacks in delivering the right emotional tone nor his subject matter is limited. His sense of humor is also greatly expressed. If the poems by Shakespeare are compared with Emily Bronte’s poems, the difference in terms of lacking subject matter, emotional tone, and sense of humor can be easily noticed.

Shakespeare’s poetry is sometimes sad in tone and sometimes glad, unlike Emily’s poetry that is only written with sad themes. For example, the theme of joy and happiness can be noticed in Shakespeare’s poem, “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”.