Comparing and Contrasting Sonnet LXXIX and Sonnet 116

Introduction

One point is clear about the two poems; that true love is inscribed in oneself despite the obstacle she faces. The two proems try to show that the inborn love is stronger than what others perceive of that person, and even if people may describe love differently and circumstances may change, love can make someone to overcome all obstacles and rise to the top. According to Edmund Spenser, in his poem, “Men call you fair, and you do credit it”, he notes that people have different attitudes and different ideas about love and express love in many different ways. Edmunds ideas and attitudes are similar to those of William Shakespeare described in the poem, “Sonnet LXXIX”. In his poem, Spenser is speaking to a woman whose reputation precedes her beauty. Throughout the poem, Spenser notes to the reader that the woman knows her own beauty. It seems that the persona of this poem is speaking to his lover and he makes it clear that she is in fact beautiful. He adds that other men had opinions about her beauty. The speaker know that she sees herself as beautiful and states that one of the most outstanding traits is her “wit”, and over all, her charm. The speaker admits that her brilliance overwhelms him compared to her beauty and even has a lasting effect on him. The persona likes to point to the idea that because of her wit and charm, they stand to be the most important things to her and that there is nothing that can interfere or “corrupt” her (Spenser, 2008).

The poem can be compared to the Shakespeare’s poem, “Sonnet LXXIX”. In this poem, Shakespeare note that true love always perseveres, and goes on to express what love is by explaining what it “doesn’t do”. To support this claim, he goes on further to state that love remains constant even if people change, and when they do, love never dies. Love is not something that comes and goes; instead, love is unchanging and eternal. So much is the poet’s expression of love that he compares it to the North Star. Similar to the poet’s proposition of love as being unchanging and eternal, the star is always constant in the sky, but it guides lost ship back home. The use of the star in the poem brings out an element of metaphor. Perhaps it is the use of metaphor in both poems that the two poets are able to express love in a fragile, elegance and a natural, but with carefully crafted plot (Burt & Mikics, 2010). Ostensibly, there are several styles that have been used to develop the plot in the two poems. The paper will compare and contrast the two poems by examines how these styles have been employed. For example, when discussing the theme of love, Shakespeare uses metaphor to show how the speaker was rooted to her beauty. Spenser uses has included hyperbole to show how the persona admired the woman.

Comparing and contrasting the two Poems

There are various styles that have been commonly used in both poems. For example there is alliteration is both poem. In the poem, “Men Call You Fair”, there is alliteration of letter “P” in the twelfth line, “And perfect beauty did at first proceed” (Spenser, 2008). Here, alliteration helps to emphasize the speaker admiration for the woman. In the second poem, “Sonnet 116”, there is alliteration of letter “L” in the line “Admit impediments. Love is not love”. First of all, the poem alludes marriage, and to the actually ceremony of marriage, the poem equates it to the true love. The alliteration in the second line develops the basis of true love. Although we are not sure whether this refers to the plutonic love, but, we are inclined to see the capital-L as the perfect, ideal love. The two poems have also employed repetition. Spenser has used repetition of the word “fair” in the line, “He only fair, and what he fair hath made” (Spenser, 2008). Repetition helps the persona to express his undying affection for the woman with outer beauty and wit. Shakespeare has used repetition of the word “remove”, although it is very confusing to puzzle out; “Or bends with the remover to remove” (Bloom, 2009). Here, the use of repetition is very important because we see love being described as what it is not. That is to say, true love remains the same even if lovers themselves change. Furthermore, the two poems are perfect examples of a traditional “specerian” sonnet, a type of poem that uses A, B, A, B, B, C, B, C rhyme scheme. The use of rhyme is a genius way of opening a statement that drives the reader through the changing tones in both poems. In both poems, the rhyme scheme conveys a kind of calm, but striking tone at the beginning. As one proceeds to through the poems, beauty and love are explained in a lightly way, then emphasize their profound meanings at the end of the poems. However, there are various contrasting characteristics between the two poems.

One of the main differences between the two poems is the use of metaphors and hyperbole. Spenser has used hyperbole to in his expression of the persona’s true love for the woman while Shakespeare has used metaphor to express the meaning of true love. Examples of hyperbolical expressions in Spenser’s poem include, “To be divine, and born of heavenly seed” and “And perfect beauty did at first proceed” (Spenser, 2008). These two expressions have been used to show how she was deeply rooted into the timeless beauty. On the other hand, Shakespeare poem has the first line as metaphor; “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”. The first line is used to recognize the modern equivalent of real marriage that is done in sessions of weddings, but it is not actually talking about the actual marriage. “Marriage of true minds” in this case, has been used as a metaphor of true love. The North Star in Shakespeare’s poem has been used as a metaphor. The metaphorical star is mysterious and sometimes difficult to comprehend. Same to love, it never dies even if someone tries to destroy it; instead, it remains unchanging and is eternal (Bloom, 2009).

There is use of the style of imagery in Shakespeare’ poem while Spenser has not used it. When reading line 5 and 6, we already know what the poet thought love is-unchanging and eternal. In the lines, “O no; it is an ever-fixed mark” and “That looks on tempests, and is never shaken”, the poet brings the nautical imagery into mix. The poet brings the image of storms and ships. In line 5, the poet dramatically changes his tone when he says “O no”, in order to create a shift from negative to positive affirmation of love’s qualities. When Shakespeare says, an “ever-fixed mark”, he simply implies a marker that never moves. In line 6, the poet emphasizes this steady and solid quality of love by expressing that it weathers storms which he refers to as “tempest”, but it remains undisturbed. However, one may start to wonder, what kind of marker can it be? The answer to the question is revealed in the 7^th line, “It is the star to every wand’ring bark”. So, the “ever marked star comes in line with the star, and not just any star, but the North Star. The imagery here is used to show that similar to the way the start charts location for the sailors, love is eternal, unchanging and it also guides people in their lives (Bloom, 2009).

Conclusion

As mentioned above, the use of different styles in the two poems come in the enjambment between what the speakers wanted to say and what we understand in our minds. The use of styles is to let us know that the perfect love is a partnership of two forms of thinking. One of it is that created by willing individuals, who are not driven by emotional desires, but by brilliance and beauty. The second thinking love and which is not genuine, is created by the corruption through the flesh.

References

Bloom, H. (2009). Shakespeare’s poems and sonnets. California: Infobase Publishing

Burt, S., & Mikics, D. (2010). The art of the sonnet. Harvard: Harvard University Press

Spenser, E. (2008). Amoretti. New York, NY: Crescent Moon

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