The theme of love is presented in different ways by various poets through the use of diverse linguistic techniques, such as metaphorical and emotive language, and personification to express their strong viewpoints on love. Many poets, including Shakespeare, believe that love is spontaneous and immeasurable. However, other poets such as Carol Ann Duffy bring out the negative consequences of love. She believes love starts and stops, one minute you are together and the other you are isolated. She emphasises the intimidating and overpowering aspect of love. Overall, the poets present three focal aspects of love which are; love, separation, and betrayal.
In the poem ‘Sonnet 116’, Shakespeare highlights love as being everlasting and the key part
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Carol Ann Duffy challenges the traditional perception of love and highlights the negatives of love. In the first stanza, the negative adverb “not” indicates rejection of the general concept of love. In the second stanza, Carol Ann Duffy introduces the metaphor of the “onion” as the symbol of love. An onion contains many layers, similar to love has to peel the different layers. Another key link between them is how both love and onions can make a person cry uncontrollably.In addition, the taste of an onion is sharp and acidic similar to love. Carol Ann Duffy addresses the reader directly using “ I give you” and “here” giving the poem a personal tone, also further making the tone very intimate and bold. Carol Ann Duffy uses the simile “blind you with tears like a lover” this compares how both an onion and a lover can leave a person in tears. Furthermore, Carol Ann Duffy structures the poem using an irregular stanza pattern symbolising how love is irregular and starts and stops. One minute you are together and the other you are …show more content…
William Shakespeare believes love to be an everlasting unbreakable bond, whereas Carol Ann Duffy tends to challenge the traditional belief of love and highlights the negatives. In 'Sonnet 116', Shakespeare uses “Love’s not time’s fool” this use of metaphorical language implies true love is endless and will last from the first to last second. However, in 'Valentine' Carol Ann Duffy uses an “onion” as the symbol of love, the “onion” rots showing how love will end. This shows the diversity of Carol Ann Duffy’s and Shakespeare’s views of
Love is not always an easy adventure to take part in. As a result, thousands of poems and sonnets have been written about love bonds that are either praised and happily blessed or love bonds that undergo struggle and pain to cling on to their forbidden love. Gwendolyn Brooks sonnet "A Lovely Love," explores the emotions and thoughts between two lovers who are striving for their natural human right to love while delicately revealing society 's crime in vilifying a couples right to love. Gwendolyn Brooks uses several examples of imagery and metaphors to convey a dark and hopeless mood that emphasizes the hardships that the two lovers must endure to prevail their love that society has condemned.
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
“Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims is an excellent of example of an author using many types of literary terms to emphasize his theme of a love that is imperfect yet filled with acceptance. In, this poem Nims uses assonance, metaphor, and imagery to support his theme of “Imperfect, yet realistic love”.
Since the beginning of human existence love has earned a meaning of pure bliss and wild passion between two people that cannot be broken. Through out time the meaning of love has had its slight shifts but for the most part, maintains a positive value. In the poem “Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields,” the author, Susan Griffin expresses that this long lost concept of love is often concealed by the madness of everyday life and reality. In the poem, Griffin uses many literary elements to help convey the importance of true love. The usage of imagery, symbolism, and other literary techniques really help communicate Griffins’ meaning
In this essay I shall explore the way poets Phillip Larkin and Elizabeth Jennings both show love. For Larkin I shall look at An Arundel tomb and Wild Oats and for Jennings I shall look at Absence and Disguises.
How is Love presented in Romeo and Juliet and two poems from the Shakespeare Literary Heritage
Through the use of poetic devices such as repetition or alliteration, the author originally describes what love is not capable of providing and defines love as unnecessary but by the end of the poem, the author reveals that love has some value.
Carol Anne Duffy presents love and romance in a unique way that differentiates valentine from any other love poem. Throughout this poem carol expresses love though the original metaphor of an onion. This essay analyses how she does this so effectively and how she presents a range of ideas about love and romance.
A Comparison between To His Coy Mistress and Sonnet 116 The poem "To His Coy Mistress" was written in the mid 17th century by Andrew Marvell, being written in this time Marvell's poem was unable to be published as its taboo content was unfavoured by the puritans in power at the time. Whereas "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare was written in the late 16th century, a time of liberation and freedom for the stage and literature. Both poems are similar in theme and yet different in approach, they both pursue the theme of love although Marvell in a satirical Carpe Diem love style whereas Shakespeare in a traditional sonnet style. "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell is about a young mans attempts to lure a woman into bed
“Sonnet 116” written by William Shakespeare is focusing on the strength and true power of love. Love is a feeling that sustainable to alterations, that take place at certain points in life, and love is even stronger than a breakup because separation cannot eliminate feelings. The writer makes use of metaphors expressing love as a feeling of mind not just heart as young readers may see it. To Shakespeare love is an immortal felling that is similar to a mark on a person’s life.
"Sonnet 116" can be viewed by the reader in two different ways. It can be seen as a soliloquy by the author written to his young friend about their friendship or it can be seen as a letter written to the young friend about Shakespeare's view of what ideal love is. In either case, it was written after the affair between
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
Shakespeare examines love in two different ways in Sonnets 116 and 130. In the first, love is treated in its most ideal form as an uncompromising force (indeed, as the greatest force in the universe); in the latter sonnet, Shakespeare treats love from a more practical aspect: it is viewed simply and realistically without ornament. Yet both sonnets are justifiable in and of themselves, for neither misrepresents love or speaks of it slightingly. Indeed, Shakespeare illustrates two qualities of love in the two sonnets: its potential and its objectivity. This paper will compare and contrast the two sonnets by Shakespeare and show how they represent two different attitudes to love.
Within sonnet 116, Shakespeare personifies the abstract noun of love when he states ‘Whose worth’s unknown’. Through personifying his ideology of true love, it makes it increasingly
Shakespeare, who wrote the sonnets in 1609, expresses his own feelings through his greatest work of literature. The theme of love in the poems reflect thoughts from the Renaissance period. Love is one of many components of Shakespeare’s life shown in the sonnets. Love can be defined in many ways other than a strong affection for a lover. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the concept of love can be seen through many uncommon means such as the love of life before death in “Sonnet 73,” love in marriage in “Sonnet 116,” love through sexual desire in “Sonnet 129,” and love through nature in “Sonnet 130,” proving that love can be expressed through many different feelings and emotions.