Preview

Analyzing Edmund Spenser's Sonnet 54

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
415 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analyzing Edmund Spenser's Sonnet 54
Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 54"� The world is like a theater and his love is like watching drama unfold on stage. Love has it's ups and downs, sometimes you're happy and feel like you are watching a comedy, but then soon after you can become miserable just like the sadness you feel when watching a tragedy. The woman he loves doesn't seem to happy when he is nor does she try to make him feel better when he is upset, instead she makes fun of him and mocks his feelings. She doesn't seem to be affected by anything, so he comes to the conclusion that she isn't a caring person nor can she be, she's just a heartless human being incapable of love.

The rhyme scheme is that of a Spenserian Sonnet. Spenser uses conceit throughout the first two quatrains in order to get his points across of how love compares to the shows of the theater. Beginning in the third quatrain, Spenser shifts from talking about what his love is like to talking about how the woman he loves mocks him. Spenser uses Caesura in line 13 of the couplet. "What then can move her? if nor mirth nor moan,"� This pause is used to get you to understand the importance of this question. He's so distraught by the fact that this woman is so void of emotion, he can't believe that nothing affects her and that she can treat him so badly. He ponders if anything could make her feel.

It is interesting how the third quatrain makes somewhat of a different point than the first two. Typically the first three quatrains are used to restate the point of the writer. Each of the three quatrains form their own sentence, as well as the couplet. I believe Spenser does this in order to try and make each point of each quatrain important to the reader. Each quatrain describes something specific but different, they do however all keep with his description of his love. It seems that the couplet's sentence show's that the woman is the main cause for his ups and downs and he comes to the conclusion that she will never change.

Spenser uses many

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    like that of Sonnet 116. However, Courtly love is mocked for being both immature and futile in…

    • 2235 Words
    • 1 Page
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this poem, William Shakespeare illustrates a woman who is not so imposing. Throughout the piece, the narrator compares his lover to beautiful things, but she comes out with the short end of the stick. She was not blessed with desirable attributes, yet he loves her. Unlike most poets from his time, Shakespeare does not write to please the reader’s ears but to be brutally honest in a way that is endearing, in a roundabout way. His sonnet is very atypical in the way that he describes his beloved as unappealing, but yet he is in love with her for who she is.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Except for loving to hear her speak, this speaker has not described any of the woman’s attributes in a positive light. It is the last two lines of the sonnet that give way to the larger picture as to what the man intends to tell those who read along. While all of the other lines in the sonnet contain an iambic pentameter of 5 meters, this line stands out at 5.5 meters, beginning with the words “and yet,” signaling the turning point that will transform the story from being just a list of unfortunate comparisons to something greater. The man takes these last two lines as a means of conclusion, resolving that as far as he is concerned “[his] love [towards his mistress is] as rare” as any woman that has ever been “belied with false compare”…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Paris with You- Notes

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The poem has a regular rhyme scheme in the four stanzas, adding to the poem's musical quality. The rhyme scheme in these four stanzas can be described as a-b-c-c-b (with the final b in the extra line of the last stanza). The stanza in the centre of the poem makes use of half rhyme. The contrasting rhyme of "Elysees" and "sleazy" gives a comic effect.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many consider Shakespeare's poem as an elaborate joke to, or parody of, a vast amount of love poetry. Many love poems perceive the speaker's lover to be the…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare Sonnet 2 Tone

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Shakespeare uses words such as “disdains,” “repair,” and “posterity” to break up the flow of the sonnet. The sonnet does not flow incredibly easily, like most of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and does not have a really lyrical sense to it. It is more of a speech than a song. The tonal change occurs at line 12, right at the rhyming couplet. The whole sonnet up until that point is basically Shakespeare telling W.H. that all his earthly beauty will be for nothing if he does not have children. At the couplet, Shakespeare offers W.H. a way out of dying along with his image: reproduce. The last line of the sonnet is very threatening. It promises W.H. that if he does not have children then all his beauty will be meaningless because it will die with him. The poem gradually gets more serious as it progresses, starting off with a gentle nudge to get W.H. to look in the mirror and convince himself that having children is the best way to preserve his beauty, and finally in the last line Shakespeare warns W.H. that he will die with his image if he does not. The diction in this sonnet chops it up to make it more speech like than songlike. Shakespeare uses alliteration in this poem with words such as “thou though” and “thine” in line 11, and words like, “face” and “form” in line 2, along with “fresh,” in line 3. Shakespeare also uses antithesis when he puts words like “fond” and “tomb” right near each other in line 7, or the words, “renewest” and…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Let me Not to the Marriage of True Minds,” written by arguably the most prominent writer of all time, William Shakespeare, caries an incredible magnitude of meaning in such a short, compact sonnet. Written so eloquently, Shakespeare communicates his specific and unique idea of love in many clever ways. Throughout this sonnet, Shakespeare skillfully defines “love,” with the use of connotative language and metaphors. The lines that begin with: “O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,” “Love’s not Time’s fool,” and “I never writ, nor no man ever loved,” all consist of metaphors and connotative language that reinforce Shakespeare’s idea of the everlasting and unchanging nature of true love.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He uses the second quatrain to emphasis how the love is permanently upon each lover and it can never be shaken. In addition to this, in the second quatrain he also emphasises how love’s worth is not known, that however much we try and measure it we will never fully understand it and the power it has over people. The third quatrain then goes on to emphasise just how love is permanent once found, unshakeable throughout time so having the power to remain until the lovers are separated by death. As with all Shakespeare’s sonnets he uses the last couplet in order to summarise the theme he is trying to put across in the poem or to add a fresh new look to the theme. In the case of this sonnet, he adds the idea that if he is wrong and this error can in fact be proved, he would consider he has never written anything of consequence and no man has ever loved in the right sense. This summarises all ideas about how love is not insignificant because otherwise Shakespeare would have never written about anything of note. However, it also shows us another viewpoint on his work, because by saying, “if this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved,” he is…

    • 4706 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poetry Comparison Essay

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The subject matter is about relationships, affair and age. This poem refers to the understanding of the speaker, as he knows his mistress’s unfaithful dishonesty. The mood of this tone is somehow humorous and confusion, Shakespeare clearly knows the mistress is unfaithful yet maintains their love affair alive. The poem refers to white lies, outlining infidelity as it connects to my theme. The tone is reflective but again shifts in the last quatrain when Shakespeare This poem mentions about the age of the love affair. The speaker questions why his mistress cannot admit that he is old, but rather the two lovers let the truth be concealed.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love Is Not All

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Love is not all” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a sonnet about love written in iambic pentameter, with traditional structure and follows traditional sonnet rules. It expresses the confusion and emotion of the poet in a way to give the reader the idea that he has suffered or is suffering. It also goes from speaking broadly about love, to making it more specific and then finally making it personal with the last line. After the first eight lines of the poem the speaker completely flips the way the poet feels about the theme. The poet used alliteration and repetition to further emphasize the theme.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Complicated Love

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Most people could agree that all have been in some sort of love over the course of their lifetime. As a relationship is built off the love for one another, what is to be done if you are in love with one who has less than admiral feelings for you in return for your very best. Sonnet 30 by Edmund Spenser and an excerpt from “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare touch upon the feelings of the two authors at the time of a complicated love they felt for someone. In the two poems, Shakespeare and Spenser use visualization and symbolism to get across the theme of not being able to achieve the love they desire.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Lest the wise world should look into your moan, and mock you with me after I am gone”, it is suggested the world is its own person. The world comforts her and treats her well while with the beloved, but with her back turned the beloved is being mocked. This also means that her friends and family, who are trying to comfort her to ease the pain, are actually making fun of her for having such an older husband. No one genuinely feels sorry for her. Shakespeare provides great imagery for this sonnet. When the “. . . surly sullen bell…” is mentioned, one can picture a church bell in the cathedral. In Line 10, “when I, perhaps, compounded am with clay,” the reader can picture a buried man. Also in line 12 when it is said, “But let your love even with my life decay” (Ln. 12) people picture something…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It can be said that love, in all aspects, has a broad yet distinct ability to conquer the lives of those who are fortunate enough to encounter such fulfillment. There are individuals who will spend an entire lifetime searching for the correct and adequate meaning to a single-syllable word with nothing more than four simplistic letters to comprise its body. Affection, fondness, adoration, devotion and ardor are all emotions that symbolize and thrive in the presence of love. William Shakespeare’s, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds,” uses symbolism to depict his own portrayal of love by using a range of examples such as death, the constellations, vicious weather, lost vessels at sea, and time, by doing this, he gives the term love an incalculable characterization.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The sonnet, being one of the most traditional and recognized forms of poetry, has been used and altered in many time periods by writers to convey different messages to the audience. The strict constraints of the form have often been used to parallel the subject in the poem. Many times, the first three quatrains introduce the subject and build on one another, showing progression in the poem. The final couplet brings closure to the poem by bringing the main ideas together. On other occasions, the couplet makes a statement of irony or refutes the main idea with a counter statement. It leaves the reader with a last impression of what the author is trying to say. Shakespeare's "Sonnet 65" is one example of Shakespearian sonnet form and it works with the constraints of this structure to question how one can escape the ravages of time on love and beauty. Shakespeare shows that even the objects in nature least vulnerable to time like brass, stone, and iron are mortal and eventually are destroyed. Of course the more fragile aspects of nature will die if these things do. The final couplet gives hope and provides a solution to the dilemma of time by having the author overcome mortality with his immortal writings.…

    • 1885 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet 79 Analysis

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the first quatrain Spenser starts by saying that men call the women beautiful and she herself knows it is true also. Then he states that he believes the truly beautiful are the ones with "gentle wit" and "virtuous mind." In the next quatrain he talks about the ones with only external beauty that will eventually fade. Because flesh is corruptible and cannot avoid the effects of age the outwardly beautiful will eventually "turn to naught and lose that glorious hue." Also there is a consonance of "t" sounds in "shall turn to naught" which contributes in creating a harsher sound. It gives an impression of a sort of "tsking" sound that makes Spenser sound like he was disapproving or pitying the women with only external beauty. In the third quatrain Spenser further explains what true beauty is and the reason the woman is truly beautiful. According to Spenser the woman possesses true beauty because God has created her and thus she is "divine and born of heavenly seed." The "v" sounds are apparent in "divine" and "heavenly" and links the words together. Also words such as divine, heavenly, perfect, and references to God gives the impression that the woman is some kind of being higher than a mere mortal, making her seem angelic.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays