Shakespeares and Spensers Sonnets - Assignment Example

Comparison of Sonnets Shakespeare’s sonnet 18, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?’, and Spenser’s ‘Amoretti’ Sonnet, as a literary form, has been widely accepted even after hundreds of years after its birth in Italy. The words of Michael et al make it clear when they write in the book, “The development of the sonnet: an introduction.” According to them, “the sonnet was invented about the year 1230 AD in south Italy, and by the end of the thirteenth century about a thousand sonnets had been written” (Spiller, 1992). It was the great Italian poet, Petrarch who introduced this form and Thomas Wyatt brought it to England in the 14th century. Later, writers like Shakespeare and Spencer used it effectively by addding their own contributions, especially in rhyme scheme and stanza patterns. Shakespeare’s sonnets generally address either his friend or a ‘dark lady’ who still remains in the darkness as a mystery. Some of the sonnets of Shakespeare are notable for the expression of sexuality and his Sonnet 18 stands as the best example. Regarding sexuality in Shakespearian sonnets, Richard Dutton et al comments, “their homoeroticism is here confronted positively, and is newly contextualised within the powerfully ‘homosocial’ world of James I’s court” (Dutton et al, 2009). It is one of the famous sonnets of Shakespeare. In it the poet tries his best to express the immense vigour of youth. The poet is confident of his verse and says that it will prove right. The poet is in search of an imagery to compare the beauty of youth to; he looks for things to compare this to. This sonnet has had an influence on other poets too, like Wordsworth. It is often argued that the poet is addressing a young man of great beauty in his sonnet. It is also said that the poet is engaged in recounting the beauty of his beloved. “Critical assumptions have accrued over many years and the phrases ‘the young man’ and ‘the dark lady’ are often used to refer to sonnets 1-126 and d127-154 respectively. this way of reading is unhelpful and leads readers to deduce all sorts of biographically unprovable notions about Shakespeare’s life” (Questioning the Sonnets, 2009). Whatever the case be, the poem abounds in great beauty as the poet has displayed his fantastic ability in bringing in a lot of imageries and comparisons which would be understood very easily as they use very simple language but which provoke our thoughts to higher levels to find deeper explanations. Typical of the Shakespearean sonnets, this sonnet too, displays characteristics which make Shakespearean sonnets noteworthy. Divided into three quartets and a couplet, it follows the characteristic rhyme scheme of English sonnets: AB AB CD CD EF EF GG. In short it is a fourteen lined poem of iambic pentameter. Normally a sonnet contains one idea, which runs all throughout it, finally being summed up in the final couplet. The idea of the first line – the beloved being compared to a summer’s day—is not amply echoed in the final couplet, but the last lines take a new direction, it may appear. Till line 8, the focal point discussed is his beloved and from line 9, poetry appears to be proclaimed as immortal. So we can say that there is a shift. Arguing in this manner we may say that sonnet 18 does not typically follow the pattern of English sonnet. This is a fact and it does not become, in one way or another, an exaggeration. The poet wonders as to what he would compare the beauty of his beloved. The poet seems to have resolved the conflict by choosing to compare his beloved to a summer’s day in the first place. “In sonnet 18 the reader gets a picture of the perfect summer as well as the perfect woman.  Moreover, the line “Thou art more lovely and more temperate”, tells us that the woman is even more beautiful than the summer” (Peterson, 2009.). His beloved does not have in her any imperfection, as she is more perfect and gentle than the summer’s day. But line 10 may bring in confusion as we are unable to grasp whether the poet is really comparing his beloved to a summer’s day, since it is mentioned in line 10: thy eternal summer shall not fade. However it unfolds before us many images and the lyrics do fascinate us. To the poet his beloved is preferred to the sunny day as it may seem that he remains reminded of the fact that summer season is only temporary. To the poet the youth’s beauty (or his beloved’s) is more perfect and gentle compared to the violent nature of summer’s day. The horrors he goes on to explain; ‘rough winds of May’ are indicative of the fact that May was a summer month in Shakespeare’s time. Darling buds of May suggest that it was early summer. The poet, however appears very hopeful….the speaker in Sonnet 18 speaks about love and the beauty around it… (Peterson, 2009.). By using what amounts to a legal terminology ‘”summer’s lease”, the poet says that the lease the summer holds is too short. Shakespeare says that the golden colour of the sun may at times be hidden, but that of youth can never be hidden. It always expresses its power and vitality. One can see a comparison of it with William Wordsworth’s “To A Butterfly,” when he sings, “We'll talk of sunshine and of song, And summer days when we were young, Sweet childish days which were as long As twenty days are now.”(Wordsworth, 16-20). Such reminiscences are indeed anachronistic, but with the recurrence of words such as 'summer', 'days', 'song', 'sweet', it is not difficult to see the permeating influence of the Sonnets on Wordsworth's verse. Shakespeare says that the golden colour of the sun may at times be hidden, but that of youth can never be hidden. the beauty of his beloved is not the beauty of a passing nature, it is capable of remaining forever. Now that the poet has expressed the beauty of his beloved in to the form of poetry, he remains guaranteed of this beauty lasting for times to come. It always expresses its power and vitality. The poet then further adds that so long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long the beauty of his beloved expressed through his poetry will remain, probably meaning to say that the fruition of two lovers’ love, in this case being the poem, will not disappear indeed. We do not know whether the persons described in the sonnets by Shakespeare are real persons or whether they rose from his imagination or observation of the human sentiments and understanding. Sonnet: 18 may be said to be of great importance as the poet attempts to keep the young person’s beauty a lasting one. “The person speaking in Sonnet 18 has a very positive attitude which gives the Sonnet a nice flow. The speaker is talking about a beautiful woman who he describes as a summer’s day. Moreover, the line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” the speaker says that the woman is something beyond our world” (Peterson, 2009). Regarding the sonnets of Elizabethan age, one can see that they portrayed the themes of unattainable love. It is evident with Shakespearian sonnets. But the sonnet “Amoretti” of Spencer moves away from the traditional ways and it looks upon love in an optimistic manner. Reading through the sonnet 75 of Spencer, one can see the poet’s optimistic view of love. This is a sonnet of the petrarchan tradition which generally speaks of the instability and discontinuity in the love tradition. Readers can feel the changing face of the speaker in the poem where his feelings thoughts and motives continually change. Here the poet beautifully sings of the transience of man- made things on earth and the permanence of love, portrayed in his poetry. Poet sings, “My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,/And in the hevens wryte your glorious name.” (Spencer, 11-12). “…in his treatment of sexuality that Spencer is most innovative, working towards reconciliation between the humanist and Protestant perspectives on human love.” (Joan Curbet et al, p.27,1999). Shakespeare’s sonnets have remained most capturing in the area of English literature. They have always been though inspiring since then. Sonnet 18 begins with the poet recounting the beauty of his beloved which he goes on to state as being superior to the summer which is too short. The phrase the poet uses is very capturing, “more lovely and more temperate .” The phrases and terms used to depict the beloved occupy a place of high importance. The words used to qualify the beloved reflect a gentle and soft attitude as against describing the summer’s day. Summer’s day to which the beloved is compared, is marked by rough winds which shake the darling buds of May: here again, the poet’s attitude towards the beloved is stressed and the blissful element of the beloved is highlighted so as to show the permanent quality of the beloved. When the eye of heaven which is the sun shines too hot in summer, which may appear to be unpleasant, the beauty of the beloved ever shines and it stands towering even in the midst of what is unpleasant. We get a glimpse of what is transient and what is permanent, when the poet depicts the beloved’s beauty in his verse which he vows to be everlasting, and this point is stressed by the poet when he says that so long as there are men on this earth, so long this beauty of the beloved depicted in his verse will remain without losing any value. Similarly echoing this permanent quality of his beloved’s beauty is Spenser’s amoretti. In Amoretti too, the poet reflects the power of poetry which sustains the unfading memories of beauty. The waves of sea may wipe out the manmade things: what is left behind by man may be swept away by sea but the beloved’s beauty can never be erased because it has been made immortal in verse by the poet. The passing of Time, the destroyer of all things can never have a hold on what is the only unchanged element—love. What men have gained may be lost in the passing of time, even the bodily beauty. But beauty which is given an immortal shape in the poem will never be lost. There was a peculiar mark on the Elizabethan love sonnets. They normally spoke men who were in love with women who were difficult for them to win over. But Spenser’s sonnet looks at love in an optimistic manner. The abstract and eternal concepts like love and beauty survive the onslaught of the greatest destroyer. Fruition of love is the progeny. Beauty attracts any one and sexuality brings in to fruition the love of two people and it is love for this concept that is sublimely echoed by the poets, Shakespeare and Spenser who have brought to fruition the love for beauty of the beloved in the form of poetry, which they claim to be immortal. Sexuality helps to sustain the breed, there is a poetic immortality attained as the result of the poets effort to uphold the sublime love for beauty. Works cited: Dutton, Richard , Elizabeth Jean , A Companion to Shakespeare's Works: Poems, problem comedies, late plays. Wiley-Blackwell, vol. 4, 2003 Joan Curbet., Hand, Felicity., Alegre, Sara Martín, Introduction to English Literature. Editorial UOC, 1999. Questioning the Sonnets, “To whom the addressed ". Shakespeare Birth Place Trust. 10 Sep 2009 . Peterson., Frederic "Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 & 129". 10 Sep 2009 . Spiller, R. G., Micheal. The development of the sonnet: an introduction . Taylor & Francis, 1992. Read More