John Donne and Shakespeare 1
John Donne and Shakespeare
John Donne and William Shakespeare both wrote a variety of poems that are both love poem but with very different content. This essay will compare two of their poems Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare and the ‘SUN RISING’ by John Donne.
Flattery
In ‘SUN RISING’ the poet exclaims that the sunbeams are nothing compared to the power of love, and everything the sun might see around the world pales in comparison to the beloved’s beauty and it is a characteristic of Petrarchan love poetry which is glorification and deification of the object of his desires.
Donne's poems both use and reject notions of love fostered by Petrarchan love poetry . Petrarch was an Italian poet (1304-74) who wrote love poems addressed to Laura. In Petrarchan poetry, the mistress is chaste and remote and the male lover is constant in his devotion, often dying of unrequited love for a distant and aloof mistress. This attitude to love became known as courtly love
But here the lady is no longer remote, but in the bedroom, and the poet no longer a passive servant but an active lover. While in SONNET 130 SHAKESPEARE actually satirizes Petrarch’s style and musings as his narrator describes his mistress, whose “eyes are nothing like the sun”. Shakespeare’s narrator loves his mistress, but describes her in a most peculiar way.
Insult
While the comparison in THE SUN RISING seeks to flatter, in stark contrast, the comparisons in 'Sonnet 130' are insulting. ' THE SUN RISING ' is a parody of the love poem, particularly those using dramatic hyperbolic comparisons. The first of Shakespeare’s comparisons is found in Line 1, “My mistresses yes are nothing like he sun”
Furthermore, the lover’s “lips” are less red than “coral”; her breasts are “dun” rather than “snow” “white”; her hair is black and wiry, and she bears no resemblance to a rose. The speaker’s lover also has bad breath, has a voice with a “sound” less “pleasing” than music and has nothing in common with a goddess. The
John Donne and William Shakespeare both wrote a variety of poems that are both love poem but with very different content. This essay will compare two of their poems Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare and the ‘SUN RISING’ by John Donne.
Flattery
In ‘SUN RISING’ the poet exclaims that the sunbeams are nothing compared to the power of love, and everything the sun might see around the world pales in comparison to the beloved’s beauty and it is a characteristic of Petrarchan love poetry which is glorification and deification of the object of his desires.
Donne's poems both use and reject notions of love fostered by Petrarchan love poetry . Petrarch was an Italian poet (1304-74) who wrote love poems addressed to Laura. In Petrarchan poetry, the mistress is chaste and remote and the male lover is constant in his devotion, often dying of unrequited love for a distant and aloof mistress. This attitude to love became known as courtly love
But here the lady is no longer remote, but in the bedroom, and the poet no longer a passive servant but an active lover. While in SONNET 130 SHAKESPEARE actually satirizes Petrarch’s style and musings as his narrator describes his mistress, whose “eyes are nothing like the sun”. Shakespeare’s narrator loves his mistress, but describes her in a most peculiar way.
Insult
While the comparison in THE SUN RISING seeks to flatter, in stark contrast, the comparisons in 'Sonnet 130' are insulting. ' THE SUN RISING ' is a parody of the love poem, particularly those using dramatic hyperbolic comparisons. The first of Shakespeare’s comparisons is found in Line 1, “My mistresses yes are nothing like he sun”
Furthermore, the lover’s “lips” are less red than “coral”; her breasts are “dun” rather than “snow” “white”; her hair is black and wiry, and she bears no resemblance to a rose. The speaker’s lover also has bad breath, has a voice with a “sound” less “pleasing” than music and has nothing in common with a goddess. The