“To my Dear and Loving Husband” written by Anne Bradstreet, is the story of a woman admiring love for her husband. On the other hand, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” written by William Shakespeare, is the story of the love a man feels for an imperfect woman. Although the two poems are about love, they interpret it in different ways through rhythmic structure, and emotional expression.
“To my Dear and Loving Husband” has an impeccable rhythmic alignment. It starts with repeating “if ever” three times in the first three lines. She uses this to express her deep love for her husband and at the same time to confirm it. In the fourth line, she compares her love for her husband with the love other women have for their own husbands.
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This is used to connect the last part of every line. Also, the poem is mainly a satire, not a serious poem like Bradstreet’s. Instead of praising his mistress, he emphasizes her imperfections and bad characteristics. On the other hand, Bradstreet only mentions the good aspects of her husband. She never says anything negative about him. From the first line to line ten, Shakespeare describes his mistress not as the typical ideal woman, but as someone ordinary. He expresses this especially in the fourth line where he uses personification to compare her hair to black wires. Some of the things he says are; that her eyes are not shiny, her lips are not red, her breast are brown instead of the perfect white, her breath odor is unpleasant and her voice is not melodious. He does this to make his poem stand out from the crowd, and also to not make it exactly as other love poems, such as Bradstreet’s. He wants his poem to be more humorous and realistic. In Bradstreet’s poem everything is perfect, and in reality it does not matter what relationship we are in, perfection does not exist. After he criticizes the woman in all possible ways, his poem takes a turn. From lines eleven to fourteen, he says that although she is not perfect, he has never seen somebody as beautiful as her. “I grant I never saw a goddess go…And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare / as any
Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Pablo Neruda’s “My ugly love” are popularly known to describe beauty in a way hardly anyone would write: through the truth. It’s a common fact that modern lovers and poets speak or write of their beloved with what they and the audience would like to hear, with kind and breathtaking words and verses. Yet, Shakespeare and Neruda, honest men as they both were, chose to write about what love truly is, it matters most what’s on the inside rather than the outside. The theme of true beauty and love are found through Shakespeare and Neruda’s uses of imagery, structure, and tone.
Shakespeare's My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun Many authors compose sonnets about women whom they loved. Most of these authors embellish their women's physical characteristics by comparing them to natural wonders that we, as humans, find beautiful. Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" contradicts this idea, by stating that his mistress lacks most of the qualities other men wrongly praise their women for possessing. Shakespeare presents to one that true love recognizes imperfections and feels devotion regardless of flaws, while satirically expressing his personal thoughts on Petrarchan sonnets.
I would like to end my analysis of this poem by stating a paradox that can be found at the end of the poem in lines 11-12. Her love for her husband is on such a level that she wants to preserve it while they live and even after they die. It's amazing to me how much love one can have for a person. The poem's main idea is not just centralized on how much Bradstreet loves her husband, but also on a Puritan woman who takes the initiative to show her love to her husband which was very uncommon back
She humbly asks him to commemorate her virtues and to forget her faults once her time has come. In this section, Bradstreet is aware that the odds are not in her favor, and that she might not survive this natural but daring event. She knows that when she dies, memories will be all that will endure, and therefore asks that her virtues “live freshly in thy memory”(Line 18). This specifically shows the author´s passion and care for her husband, because she directly asks him to remember her. She wants him to look up to her and think about all the good things that made him fall for her. For that reason, this part of the poem makes me believe that the author felt true love for her husband, despite the fact that her religious doctrine did not encourage such love for the significant other. Her ultimate goal is to maintain this love beyond the inevitable death, indirectly asking him to return this affection by remembering her in a dear
Anne Bradstreet's poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows her profound love and undying affection for her husband. For a Puritan woman who is supposed to be reserved, Bradstreet makes it her obligation to enlighten her husband of her devotion. She conveys this message through her figurative language and declarative tone by using imagery, repetition, and paradoxes.
poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.
In all of Bradstreet’s works she is constantly expressing herself through her figurative language that whoever reads the poetry
Here we face a paradox, physically that is impossible, but spiritually they complete each other's life so that in marriage, they are one. We also see throughout these lines that she gives her marriage as an example "If ever two were one", "if ever man were loved by wife", "if ever wife was happy in a man". Compare with me ye women if you can. In this verse the poet seems boastful of her relationship; she calls out to women in a bragging manner.
in the first poem "to my dear husband" she describes how deeply she loves her husband and she wonders how other women could be as happy as she is. "if ever two were one then surely we" is the biblical idea of marriage. they were equal individuals their marriage is a balanced union. they are so in love and committed to one another that even death cannot seperate them. this can be shown with "that when we live no more, we may live forever. " the reoccuarnace of "if" emphasizes meaning and to hold the reader's attention. the second poem "a letter to her husband, absent upon public employment" is much like the first with the thought of equality and commitment of love for one another for the rest of their lives and then some. the two people are
Bradstreet wanted her poetry to remain private. She accepted her poetry unconditionally, like a mother accepts her child, because if she tried to correct the poem's flaws more flaws appeared. A distinct expression of Bradstreet true love to her
As a result of Shakespeare's romantic preferences and that he wrote many poems about love, My Mistress Eyes seems to be about love between a man and a woman, but the speaker in the poem critiques his mistress through figurative language, rhythm and rhyme, and a romantic mood. In this specific poem Shakespeare uses figurative language to make it seem like a love poem but makes you read it twice to really understand what he is actually saying about his significant other. One of the main forms of figurative language in this poem is shown in metaphors. These are important to the poem to make the comparison of her features to other objects.
She does this by saying, "For my mean (humble) pen are too superior things/ Let poets and historians set these forth/ My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth" (Lines 3,5-6). Bradstreet first describes her writing as being too superior, or too good, to be along with the rest of the poets at that time. She then contradicts that statement within the next two lines by making the claim that she does not consider herself to be among the top poets and she feels inadequate about her work. She oppresses her writing further by saying that her writing is "obscure" and their worth is very "dim".
Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” the magnificent writer strongly uses vocabulary, tone, figurative language and imagery to show that the only way true love can be repaid is by that in heaven.
William Shakespeare's 18 Sonnet, more popularly known as the "Shall I Compare Thee" sonnet, is about a lover who is speaking to his beloved. Most sonnets serve this same function; to profess love from the sonneteer to some individual whom he loves. In these poems, the lover always uses the most amazing adjectives to describe the woman, or sometimes the man, that he loves. The poet describes every component of his beloved, such as her hair and her lips and her eyes. Although not a sonnet, Robert Burns' poem has the same function; it is a love poem from the unnamed narrator to the
is talking about how in love he is. In the first line he says that I