Some of the most important literary figures in Spain’s history came from this golden period, one of them being the famous Garcilaso de la Vega. His sonnet, Sonnet XXIII, perhaps one of the most significant sonnets of this epoch, focuses on the relationship of beauty and time. The message is successfully conveyed through the careful use of structure and poetic devices. This particular poem is made up of two quatrains and two tercets, of which often provide the conclusion of the argument developed in the quatrain. Each line contains eleven syllables making this sonnet hendecasyllable which is Italian in origin and was widely used in the early modern period. Like most sonnets in the Romance language, Garcilaso’s sonnet is Petrarchan in form.…
Lodovico Ariosto is one of the great humanists of the Renaissance. He was poet from Italy who had a large impact on the Renaissance. Ariosto was born September 8, 1474 in Reggio Emilia Italy. He grew up in a neighboring city Ferrar and had a good education. His first teacher was Luca Ripa, who was a humanist and he taught Ariosto grammar and rhetoric. Ariosto’s father forced him to study law and he didn’t like it all, but his education came to an end when his father died in 1500. After his father’s death he had to help support the family so he joined the military. Ariosto commanded a bordered fortress in the military, but when he returned home he was put in service for the Cardinal. In 1505 he began to write poems in Italian which included…
Quasimodo, Salvatore. "Ancient Poets," in The Poet and the Politician and Other Essays, translated by Thomas Bergin and Sergio Pacifici, Southern Illinios University Press, 1964, p 46-108. Rpt in World Literature Criticism Supplement 1, ed. Polly Vedder, Gale press, New York, 1997.…
This sonnet's thought can be divided into four parts. Firstly, chivalric romances are praised and put aside. Secondly, the effects they provoke are contrasted with those…
Poetry is often meant to be smooth, flowing, pleasing to the ear and the mind. To achieve this effect, many poets use different poetic techniques to help convey the meanings of their poetry. In the sonnet, "Yet Do I Marvel" written by Countee Cullen, many different features of poetry is used. In this essay, I will discuss the relationship between the meanings and the theme Cullen tries to convey in his sonnet and the techniques of metaphors, both religious and non-religious, allusions to Greek mythology, different rhyme schemes and repetition that he uses.…
Light and happy or dark and lonely, both “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “The Facebook Sonnet” are similar in that both of their themes describe solitude. Still, William Wordsworth and Sherman Alexie use opposite ideas to take this concept in different lights. While Wordsworth describes an enjoyable evening walking through a meadow and speaks of his contentment thinking of this day when he is alone, Alexie describes forlorn wishful nature of an average Joe reminiscing on his past through social media. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the meaning of both works using the poets’ images and symbols, and will compare how each poet used the notion of Wordsworth’s humans and nature versus Alexie’s humans and machine.…
Bibliography: Helen Gardner (ed.). Donne, John. The Divine Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1978 [1633]. Print.…
In many literary texts produced by male authors, Diotima is often presented as a Breatrice-like spectral muse, an erotic guide, who is just a slightly altered form of an erotic object. Thus, in a Bengali poem by Sibnarayan Ray, Diotima becomes a Beatricean guide in the male subject’s journey to love and wisdom (Ray 81-82). And, in the celebrated figurations of Holderlin, Diotima becomes Hyperion’s beloved, just like Dante’s Beatrice (Grange 161; del Caro 86). She is no more the majestic teacher who speaks with pedagogical authority, but an erotic object. The same thing happens in the case of the female teachers today, whether in India or abroad.…
The excerpts from Elegiac Sonnets by Charlotte Smith come across as very sad. From the four separate readings by her it is seemed like Smith was maybe depressed. Beginning with Written as the Close of Spring the beginning is beautiful with talk about flowers blooming and spring. Then, begging at line 9 it gets sad. She begins talking about humanity and how frail and fair it is. She is talking about how when we age we loose our youth and don't bud anymore, as flowers do. The next excerpt in Charlotte Smith's Elegiac Sonnets Is To Sleep. I had a little difficulty with this excerpt. All I was able to gather was that Smith has trouble sleeping, obviously. This is signified from the last 2 lines. No kind of aid could calm her enough to help her sleep.…
employed in European literature of the time. The love of the knight for his lady was regarded…
In his poem, “A Sonnet,” Dante Gabriel Rossetti uses a series of paradoxical statements and concepts to establish the sonnet’s multi-faceted character and importance. Likewise, Christina Rossetti’s poem, “In an Artist’s Studio,” also uses juxtaposition, as it presents art and painting as a mirror. However, these poems interpret this binary nature of art in opposite ways; while Dante uses binaries to celebrate the depth and diversity of art, Christina ultimately uses dichotomies to establish an inherent inauthenticity about art. These different interpretations largely depend on how each poet attempts to reconcile the duality of art into one, complete concept. While Dante portrays the sonnet as a composite of two distinct characters, these two…
The ‘American Sonnet’ is not like any other sonnet, and is proud to be different. Billy Collins opens his sonnet by saying, “We do not speak like Petrarch, or wear a hat like Spenser, and it is not fourteen lines.” This illustrates straight from the beginning of the sonnet that he wants this sonnet to stand out as an original sonnet in terms or the writing techniques, the sonnet structure, and the elements used in it.…
But how can we really prove that? This work will help us to understand the characteristics of courtly love and to prove to what extend this concept influenced English poetry. In the first part (2.) I will give a short description of the concept of courtly love. After that I will reconstruct the development of the most used medium for this, the sonnet (3.). A final analysis (4.) and comparison of two sonnets (5.) will prove my thesis that the concept of courtly love was indeed reflected in English poetry generations beyond its courtly era.…
Sonnet 69 was written by Pablo Neruda in the 20th century. As I was reading the original sonnet, I was filled with inner joy and love. The original sonnet brings profound feelings, flashbacks, and makes you and the sonnet feel as if one. However, the translation of sonnet 69 does not. It is rather dull and brings no sense of joy.…
William Shakespeare "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer 's Day? (Sonnet 18) - Poem by William…