Preview

Ap English Marriage Poetry Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
508 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ap English Marriage Poetry Essay
Meaka Brown Brown 1
English 1102
Mon. /Wed. 12:30

“Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” by Shakespeare Compared with “Why Should A Foolish Marriage Vow” by John Dryden

As a female I enjoy reading poems about love or marriage. In “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” Shakespeare is optimistic about marriage and believes that love will not become any less throughout time. “Why Should a Foolish Marriage Vow” by John Dryden has a different opinion towards the love in this marriage poem. In this poem the married couple is no longer in love and they are now suffering.
…show more content…
He illustrates the love as a “fixed mark” a metaphor to the North Star which can never be shaken. “Loves not Times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks” acknowledges that time has the power to change the human body but the love will not be undermined. According to Shakespeare love of the “true minds” will bear it out even at the worst times. The first three stanzas in the poem are quatrains and the last is a couplet and it may be the strongest statement that backs up his opinion about marrying for love. “If this is an error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved” the speaker implies that he is so sure of what he believes about the nature of true love that if he is wrong, than he never wrote and no man has ever loved. His view is idealistic and he knows he has written and that people have

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “That’s the way of the world… for every man that is faithful to his true love, a million end up running after a different lover.” (pg. 91) Shakespeare uses the comedy of Midsummer’s Night Dream to show the many complexities of love. For example, Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she is in love with Lysander and him with her. Meanwhile Helena is in love with Demetrius, who obviously does not feel the same about her. Even the play that the rude mechanicals put on for Theseus is based around the humor and complexities of love.…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    So in class we just read the play Midsummer night's dream. I thought that the play was very interesting because this play was taken place a long time ago. But in this essay I got the question. What is Shakespeare saying about love?…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    How is Love presented in Romeo and Juliet and two poems from the Shakespeare Literary Heritage…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Love is one of the most perplexing manifestations in human existence and artists have long debated over what it is and what it means to them. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love is seen through a tragic lens, ending in suicide. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is a folly and used to evoke laughter. However, some of the notions of love presented in either play tend to coincide, as in Friar Lawrence’s speech in Act 2, Scene 6 and Lysander’s lines in Act 1, Scene 1. Each speech features rhetoric used to create imagery about love usually representing light in the darkness. The Friar’s words are used to caution Romeo on the violence of his passion, and hint at his dark conclusion. Lysander’s words on the other…

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    <br>The two seem to have the same ideas on marriage even though we learn through the play that this is not true, they both know it is important to get married but have different viewpoints on the matter, they both appear to want their individuality. We can see this idea in the passage provided and many other parts of the play…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love is a beautiful thing, it is the feeling that some people get when they want to be with someone forever. Shakespeare was born in Stratford, England, his dream of becoming a play writer came true. That lead to Shakespeare establishing his acting company The King’s Men. Late in his career he creates a play about love called “A Midsummer Nights Dream” Shakespeare creates this play to show the impact that love has on people including the four lovers: Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia. Shakespeare uses the four lovers and their actions to his advantages and the disadvantages that love has. Eyes are a window to out soul, some people can tell a lot from someone’s eyes, including love. Along with showing how much you love someone, so does…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It’s very clear throughout the poem what Shakespeare’s view on love is; it’s something which is unalterable and lasts forever. Shakespeare describes love as timeless, constant and no matter what comes your way it will never affect the way you feel about that one special person. “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” suggests the lovers will love each other forever and even when death parts them, they will continue to love one another in the afterlife.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 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
  • Good Essays

    - Capulet Act 3, Scene 5, Lines One-Hundred and Fifty-Five Through Lines One-Hundred and Fifty-Six. This means marriage from Shakespeare’s time period was not of love, but of a parent choosing who their daughter will marry. On the other hand,…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare reveals to us that love at all levels, whether it is the royalty or the ordinary folk, or in the supernatural has to undergo a rigorous trial before it succeeds.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Love in Twelfth Night

    • 2517 Words
    • 11 Pages

    “The course of true love never did run smooth” is one of Shakespeare’s infamous quotes from one of his plays, namely, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is a quote that remains timeless throughout the ages and is centered on the theme of love and it explores the hardships associated with being In ‘true love’. Such is the same in Shakespeare’s depiction and presentation of love in another play written by him, which will be the main focus, Twelfth Night. The quote addresses Shakespeare’s depiction of the theme of love especially in regards to the two main themes of love—unrequited and true love. Additionally, he highlights minor types of love such as brotherly (love between siblings), friendly love (love between friends) and narcissistic love specifically the idea of being in love.…

    • 2517 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The final Sonnet, Sonnet 116, focuses on Marriage. Since love and friendship is paramount to Shakespeare, so is marriage, since it’s like love combined with friendship. Shakespeare thinks marriage is sacred and if you love someone you should stay married to that…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the second quatrain, Shakespeare uses a metaphor to tell what love is “it is the star to every wand’ring bark.” It is a guiding star to lost ships that is not susceptible to storms “that looks on tempest and is never shaken.” Shakespeare then goes back to what love is not and that is susceptible to time “love’s not times fool” also using personification to emphasis his point. Although the beauty of it fades, love is endless and doesn’t change.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare’s sonnet, “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds,” expresses his strong belief that true love exists—and if it doesn’t last, it’s only because it wasn’t true love from the beginning.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    OLD COUPLE

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Everytime I see an old couple I feel good, there is something sublime about them, something beautiful about them-Love. I think all young couples should spend sometime with old couples and seek inspiration from them, listen to their song of life's journey and how they crossed the deserts soaked in Sun's fury, how they fought the highs and lows of the seas, challenegd the peaks that seemed impossible to scale, down to the jungle full of dangerous wild animals holding each other's hands, smile on their faces and love in their hearts. When at the last moments of your life's journey you pause and look back its not the the wealth, the bungalows, the cars and the positions you achieved you will see but the moments that you spent with those you loved. And love is all that matters, love is all that remains in this world. Evertything else withers away with time but love.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics