Throughout the whole poem Shakespeare engages all of the senses, it’s this senses that are able to give you the perfect image of the ideal women, then the perfect image of his mistress. Shakespeare uses sight as the main sense throughout the poem “coral is far red than her lips” here you are given the image of red quite clearly, then given the complete opposite image of his mistress, giving you two images in one. The other senses Shakespeare uses are (“touch”) “if hairs be wires, then black wires grow on her head”, (“smell”) “and in some perfumes is there more delight, than in the breath that from my mistress reeks” and finally (“hearing”)”that music hath far more pleasing sound”. As you can see these sensual imageries are able to gives you a stronger comparison between the idealistic women and his mistress.
This poem has been written like a traditional Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet has 14 lines consisting of three sets of 4 lines called quatrains and 2 indented lines at the end of the poem, a rhyming couplet. Unlike most traditional poems Shakespeare uses far less metaphors and similes. Shakespeare uses colons after every comparison in every quatrain, which is a good mechanism for making the poem easier to read. The general rhyme scheme of the poem is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F then there is a rhyming couplet at the end G,G.
Overall I think the poem is very clever how the elaborate joke of the poem, mixes with the imagery. Shakespeare’s mockery of the ideal perception of women still lives today. He shows unconditional love for his mistress.
Elizabeth Barret Browning was born at Coxhoe hall, Duram, England in 1806. Elizabeth was educated at home. In 1821 Elizabeth injured her spine as a result of a fall. When her bother dies in 1838, she became a permanent invalid. She spent the majority of her time writing poetry in her room. In 1844, Robert Browning wrote to her admiring her poems. IN 1846 they were secretly wed as her father disapproved. She carried on writing poem, in 1850 “sonnets from the Portuguese” was published in 1861, and Elizabeth Barret Browning died at the age off 55.
In Elizabeth Barret Browning’s sonnet XLIII, she relates back to her fall she experienced in 1821. She converts this sorrow into passionate love for her husband, “Robert Browning”. The structure and style of the poem is set in a conventional way as she glorifies love. It was bizarre for a woman to publish work, so it made the poem unique. She doesn’t use the idealistic perception of love, as she places love and Sorrow in the same category, but it still is a conventional poem as she emphasizes on love.
She starts of the poem with a rhetorical question, immediately adding interest to the poem; she also starts with the theme of the poem “how do I live thee? Let me count the ways”. The nest three lines are spiritual , and the sound of the words fell soft, giving you the image of a soft breeze on a warm summers day, ”depth and breadth and height” that immediately give you spiritual connection. She furthers on to sat she loves him in everyway possible” my soul can reach”.
I a lot of the poem it sounds like she is relating back to her previous accident, she says when she is feeling down she forgives her enemies because of him. She then mentions that she will love him “to the level of everyday most quiet needs” she will love him through all the difficulties, she will love him just as much when their sitting reading together then when they are having passionate sex. The next part, finishes do the line perfectly “by sun and candle light” she will love him day and night, and to her he is her light. She then uses a double rhyming scheme in the next two lines” I love thee freely, as men strive for life, I love thee purely, as they turn from praise” by having freely and purely she is personifying on this word, those ate the two words that best describe their love for one another.
Elizabeth again, relates back to her injury and all the efforts she put into being miserable, she wants “the passion put to use in my old grief’s” converted into loving him. “I love thee with a love I seemed to loose with my lost saints”, here she is making her love infinite , I think overall the basic meaning of the poem is she last three lines that she loves him “ with the breath,smile,tears of all my life” to her he is her life.” I shall but love thee better after death”, I think in the last line of the poem she might be saying she felt like she dies when she had the accident, but went to heaven when she found him, making their love infinite.
The structure of sonnet XLIII is effective at building up emotions. Its very typical of a conventional sonnet of those times, there is 14 lines, live is the main theme, The rhyming scheme however is different it starts of A,B,B,A in the first two quatrains, in the last two quatrains there seemed to be an A,B,A,B rhyme scheme making the poem unconventional in some ways. Although the poem seems to be repeated point of a cliché, the powerful emotions of this piece conjure up a mighty climax at the end of the poem. There isn’t much use similes and metaphors on the poem, making it quite basic.
Overall I think the poem is very versatile as you can’t say it’s conventional or unconventional. The way it is written expresses love so widely, you could get a range of images from it, I personally think the whole purpose of the poem is to show her love for him is infinite.
John Donne was a member of a group of poets known as “the metaphysical poets”. These seventeenth century poets combined emotion and intellect to produce a unique academic and yet acutely emotional form of poetry. He was born in London in 1572 into a strongly catholic family. He was educated by a private tutor and further on went to oxford.
John decided to join the established church due to limitations of his original faith. He was married to Anne more, Lady Edgerton’s niece who inspired most of his love poems including the Good Morrow. He was caught in a religious controversy over his writing, but in 1615 he was finally accepted. He became one of England finest preacher. He later dies in 1631.
The Good Morrow written by John Dunne is an extremely romantic poem. It concentrates mainly on the emotional side of love. The man is telling his lover how strong there love is and how there love will never die; he portrays this by using language which related to the subject which in this case “pleasure” and “mixed equally”
The language used in the poem is mainly archaic, the stanzas are conventional, there seems to be an A, B, A, B rhyme scheme throughout the poem.
H starts of the poem by asking a couple of questions, asking how he lived without her. How did they spend there time apart before they meet? In a rhetorical sense; the next line is very effective how he links childhood to love “but sucked on country pleasures childishly?”
He then links back to his, religious background by mentioning “the seven sleeper” who were seven Christians who supposedly slept for 87 years, here he is using them to say he must have been asleep his whole life before she came as he did not live his life fully. He goes on to further complement his lover by giving you the image of how beautiful she was, that other beauty’s “twas but a dream of thee”
At the start of the second stanza Donne uses spiritual connections and for the first time on the poem, mentions the (“Good Morrow)” suggesting that the whole idea of the poem is there souls connecting. He concentrates on how they need each other and “all love of other sights control” showing how deep his love is.
The last few lines of stanza two, john hone creates the image of him and his lover in a room for eternity, them living off each other love, that their love make the impossible possible “one little room and everywhere”. He then relates back to (“the metaphysical poets”) he said that the outside world has no reflection to them, he uses
Geography references to show this “let sea-discoverers” and “let maps to thors”
The first line of the third stanza is very effective at giving a clear image in your head of Donne and his lover staring into each others eyes, with love hearts floating around them. Donne yet again gives reference to geography to express his love “where can we find two better hemispheres”, I think here Donne is trying to say that he can search the world, but will never find love so strong.
The last couple of likes “whatever dies, was not mixed equally”, done uses scientific framework, just as four elements earth, air , fire and water were supposed to form new substances, so two souls mix to form a new unity. The strength of the new unit is dependent upon how well the elements of the two souls are balanced. Donne is suggesting that they are mixed equally making them a strong unit, because of this their love “that none slacken” that they will be together for eternity.
Throughout the poem John Donne uses alchemy, geography and psychology to emphasis his lobe towards his lover. This is a very unusual way at creating romantic imagery. Overall the poems are very conventional and passionate with some intellect; the poem was further on sent to the women, whom in the future he married.
In my essay I compared the John Dunne “The good morrow” which is a very conventional romantic poem, William Shakespeare “sonnet 130 which is unconventional, and looks at unconditional love, and lastly Elizabeth Barrett Browning “XLIII” which look at infinite love.
Each poem uses different approaches to show their love; in XLIII she uses the sorrow from her accident and turns that into passion for her husband making him out to be her life, The Good Morrow also makes out there love to be there life, but he just uses simple romantic poetry to show this. Shakespeare however mocks typical sonnets like XLIII, showing he doesn’t have to use false comparisons to show his love, that he has unconditional love for his mistress. I think out of the three Shakespeare uses love in the best way because unlike XLIII and The good morrow he doesn’t use typical love themes that they used for example in the good morrow “If ever any beauty I did see, which I desired and got, t’was but a dream of thee” This is a typical cliché in love poems. XLIII also uses clichés “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach” again using a very common perception of love. Shakespeare however toys with the ideal connotation of love expressed in the other poems. By doing this he is saying there love is much more precious and rarer than any other, making it to me the strongest love.
All three of the poems uses archaic language, XLIII and Sonnet 130 are both sonnets so the style and setup are very similar, the rhyme scheme however is different, Shakespeare uses a very conventional rhyme scheme, and XLIII however uses an odd rhyme scheme. The good morrow again is conventional, no odd lines set in regular stanzas, I think with love poems you don’t need irregular layout to add impact, it is mainly the words that do that. The good morrow and XLIII uses a lot of metaphoric language, which is common in love poems, whereas normal poems generally seem to use similes, love poems use metaphors to emphasis their love. However Shakespeare uses none metaphors or similes as the main purpose of his poem is to have no false compares.
Both the good morrow and XLIII start of the poems with a rhetorical question, I think the effect of this is in both poems is show there love has questions that need to be answered as do all relationships, but there’s can be answered because there’s is pure. But I think in sonnet XLIII it is also used to set the theme of the poem, whereas the good morrow isn’t, Dunne uses questions throughout questioning what they did with out each other.
The good morrow is also set in a logical order because he starts of by questioning there childhood. XLIII however doesn’t she mentions her earlier life in the middle of the poem and towards the end, “In my old grief’s, and with my childhood's faith”.
Each of the three poems use imagery in a different way, Shakespeare tends to use a lot of sensual imagery of natural beauty to contrast with his mistress, he uses most of the senses including smell, sight, sounds and touch, out of the three poems I think Shakespeare imagery is strongest because he uses sensual imagery, it really gives you the whole picture.
The good morrow on the other hand uses metaphysical poet to give imagery, he uses a lot of geography to create images “where can we find two better hemispheres without Sharpe north, without declining west”, although this is a very clever way of using poetry, I still think sensual imagery is better.
XLIII uses soft gentle words, to create peaceful imageries “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” These soft sounding words, are written in such away you are made to whisper them, this gives you calm image of the sea.
As you can see the imagery used in all three poems are all very different, I personally think Shakespeare gives the most precise images, and overall I think his poem I the most effective.
The language used in all the poems is quite similar as they are love poems. In all three poems the language is fairly basic, the most complicated is the good morrow, and archaic language is used in all three swell.
I think overall all the poems are different, even though two of them are sonnets; the main similarity between them all is their are love poems and that two of them are sonnets, but the main difference is they all have different perceptions of love.
