Comparing Sonnets with the Themes of Immorality and Love

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David Linton-Smith    

Sonnet Coursework

Comparing Sonnets with the Themes of Immorality and Love

Not many people know what a sonnet is. It is actually a special form of poem; it contains fourteen lines and a Volta.  It is designed to have a tight rhyming scheme but not as so it is apparent when reading it. There are two styles of sonnet, Shakespearian and Petrach. These poems I have studied are a mixture of both but they all contain the emotions and messages of immortality and love through the telling of personal stories.

The first poem “One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand”, deals with the ideas of immortality through the love you share with someone. Spenser bases the sonnet on trying to prove a point with his spouse;

“A moral thing so to immortalise”.

It sees the character try to write the name of the woman he loves on the beach. This is a symbol of him trying to prove his side of the argument, but the sea comes and washes it away, much like the idea of time destroying all, as his wife said it would. He tries again but this time with a different hand, this is him changing his style to see if it will work, but it doesn’t;

“But came the sea and made my pains his prey”

Spenser refers to the sea as “he” this could also be referring to the character of father time, that time destroys all and he cannot stop it. The reason he is so upset and reluctant in his task is the task of trying to eternise his love for this woman, and because he loves her so much he wants to share her with the world.

Spenser makes bold opinions upon the idea f immortality and how he can capture it through writing;

“Let baser things die in dust”, “virtues rare shall eternise, “all the world subdue”, “later life renew”.

In the second bit of the poem, Spenser has his wife talk and express her opinions on his bold claims, she doesn’t share the same view as him, she hurts him when she says;

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“I myself shall like to this decay”.

Spenser sets the next section of the poem to him contradicting hr, putting his argument forward;

““Not so,” qouth I “let baser things devise to die in dust”.

He makes his quest to immortalise his love for her seem like some sort of godly quest to defied time and decay;

“And in the heavens write your glorious name”.

I believe that Spenser knew all along that he was right as his last two lines are very relevant;

“Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life ...

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