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Which of the sonnets read this week was your favorite? In a post of at least 150 words, explain why you liked this poem best. Be very specific in your response, touching on both theme and particular phrasing that struck you. Please include direct quotes from the poem.
Also, address comments to others by name so we can all follow along.
115 thoughts on “Week 10 Discussion”
Of the all the sonnets we were assigned to read, my personal favorite would definitely have to be “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” For starters, the story caught my attention from the start, why would a man who loves a women speak of all the negatives he sees in her, it was an interesting twist. He speaks on her lips, her hair, her body, “ My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun. Coral is far more red than her lips’ red. If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun.If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks” The theme of the story from my perspective is Beauty. Although he spoke about the bad in her, he did mention that his love for her was special, she was still special and rare to him. The message behind this is to look beyond the naked eye, the appealing looks that others speak so highly of, it’s the character of a person that matters and all other intangibles and I love that message especially in today’s era where looks are so important to fit in our society.
Hey Manuel,
I was taken back by “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” at first when I read it and realized he was describing his mistress in an insulting way. Then, in the ending he said that despite all her flaws his mistress was still rare to him, meaning she was still the “apple of his eye” and his special lady, which, I guess made me feel better about it… Yet, kind of not really, because it was still kind of weird that he played down this woman in the way he describes her. It could be that the intention of this poem was for him to make a point similar to what your point is: looking beyond appearances and seeing the worth in someone based on their character. This is a good value in my opinion. Especially, since arbitrarily, looks are what it all seems to revolve around these days. I agree that today’s society puts too much emphasis on looks and material things to basically feel validated and adequate.
I forgot to include my class section again, sorry. My section is ENG 201 0534[65104]
Migena, I know exactly the feeling you describe here when it dawns on you that the poet is heaping insults on the subject of the poem. It’s pretty funny, I think.
LIT201 0534 Hi Migena, To be honest, when I started reading “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” I was confused. I figured ok, I guessed that this would be a new kind of Sonnet we would be learning about before I got to the very end I read the first few lines over and again to see if I was misinterpreting what I was reading, especially when I got to the lines, “And in some perfumes is there more delight.Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” Oh My! I really did not think there was a way of turning this into any type of love story when the first 12 lines on a 14 line Sonnet are dedicated to horrible insults, but cleverly Shakespeare pulls that off with just 2 lines… “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare, As any she belied with false compare.”
Like you, I believe Shakespeare to be pointing towards the stark contrast between what might be considered an average woman and a pretty and pleasant woman by societies standards in those days and that there are other characteristics that should be more important. I also believe, or at least I hope the insults may have been intentionally exaggerated by Shakespeare, so that going beyond looks, he’s symbolically defending the point that in spite of unpleasant and sometimes ugliness of the behaviors we may have to deal with in our loved ones, if we look under the surface, we can still find that we love them. I really believe you can love someone and not like a lot of ways about them. I know I have experienced this but not everyone can and instead expect love to be an absolute of only good things that make up a person we love. I think Shakespeare thought that kind of love is rare for some to see past … “yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare.”
Even though the mistress is not perfect he loves her regardless mistress and states it, that’s s at the very least some kind of love story if not the norm. I liked your views on Sonnet 130.
Manuel, yes, this sonnet is a real departure from the usual gushy love poems we often read. In fact, Shakespeare may be commenting on the insincerity of overly flower love poetry.
Hey Manuel, I agree with you that the theme for Sonnet 130 is beauty, in traditional love poems, the author describes their significant other through the lens of perfection. Meanwhile, Shakespear describes his lover in an unflattering light through a comedic lens, making his use of strong language stand out. Throughout the whole poem, he points out her flaws and paints her as an unattractive or average-looking woman but at the end, he states that he still appreciates her. I find it refreshing that Shakespear took a trope and flipped it for comedic value while also playing on our perception of beauty.
Manuel, I love your outlook or opinion of this poem when you say “look beyond the naked eye”. It is very true that love has a stigma of physical appearance. Where if you were to love a person, you’d have to love their looks first. When you first read this poem, you think that Shakespeare is insulting his mistress when in truth he signifies his love for her even though she looks nothing like the prettiest woman.
Manuel,
I felt the same when I start reading the poem. I was shocked, and I could not believe what I was reading. I asked myself how a man could possibly talk to a woman like that. It wasn’t until the end that I realized that besides all of the flaws he described about her, she still remains the “apple of his eye” which is the love of his life. I am positive that in this world today, if you talk to a woman like that, you will definitely get a slap across the face.
The poem I liked the most is Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning because of the message that it gives about love. In the poem, it talks about how much the author loves someone through her poetry. I think that this sort of poem is positive and romantic poetry which I think that many people can relate to because of how people nowadays, use poetry as a way to express their feeling about someone or something. This is one reason why I like poetry, because of how it can be used to express all sorts of emotions, especially love.
Marvin, your observations are great, but please be sure your posts meet the length requirements and include phrasing from the poem.
LIT201 0534 Hi Marvin I agree with you about Sonnet 43 and liked your remarks. It is human nature to want to be loved but in a positive way like you mentioned. There are situations in which people think they love someone or are loved but the relationship is full of negative talk and negative behaviors and control factors. I actually don’t think poetry is used enough now a days to express their feelings really. In todays age It’s often looked at as lame by many teenagers and as a thing of the past which i think is a shame. Back during the Renaissance it was respected because a Sonnet is not an easy thing to write, it takes work to find just the right words to express the right emotion. If one received one from his/her suitor, it meant you were on their mind and heart of that they found an importance to take the time and thought, to very carefully craft what the emotions they were feeling. The author in this case was able to convey that love using positive comparisons of mans emotions and spirituality.
Marvin, I agree with you, the poem does a very well job describing how much the author loves this person and how immense its the love she feels for this person. The part in which you say, “positive and romantic…. many can relate” its completely true, everyone can relate to love, a love that would feel as it will go on forever and without mention love is a positive emotion that everyone likes to have.
Hi Marvin Mnegro, I agree with your statement and I also choose the same pome. I also felt that this pome it so romantic anyone would fell in love with it. Because nowadays people does not have smooth and don’t express the way Poet did in the pome. I wish in every relationship one person should be poet than the relaxation would be strong.
I really liked “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning because I thought it was sweet. But I think my favorite is the Italian sonnet, “What My Lips Have Kissed and Why and When” by Edna Saint Vincent Millay. In this sonnet, I felt the depth in her emotions was more complex and did not represent cliché expressions of love. It is interesting that she has a sense of emptiness from not remembering her past experiences with love, yet, she grieves her sense of loneliness.
Immediately, since the beginning line,
“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten”
I thought that it was peculiar that she could forget these experiences, and I thought perhaps maybe she had grown very old alone. In my mind, I thought this could be anyone who at some point in their lives, maybe after many disappointments from relationships, had given up on love and before they realized it, time had passed them by and the idea that they could find love again was implausible to them; perhaps they settled for being alone even though, eventually, they would find themselves very lonely and regretful.
Sorry, I forgot to include my class section. ENG 201 0534[65104]
Migena, I love the St. Vincent Millay sonnet too. You’re right that it is about an older woman looking back on the summer of her life. We see the seasonal imagery running through the poem. She is awake on a rainy night remembering boys from her youth, realizing that she is like the lonely winter tree. The metaphors are all about the seasons of life.
The poem I enjoyed the most was “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare. Although this poem is far from flattering, I enjoyed its mockery of traditional love poems, which in my opinion, can be cliche and corny at times. Shakespeare’s use of strong words draws out his mistresses flaws and paints them in an unflattering light. In one stanza, he writes, “Than in the breath that my mistress reeks ” He implies that his mistress’s breath has an unflattering smell. Throughout the whole poem, he describes her as conventionally unattractive compared to traditional love poems that describe their lovers as almost goddess-like. Even though Shakespear had described his lover in a negative light, towards the end he states that she is rare and loves her despite her flaws. In my opinion, this poem says a lot about how we have been conditioned to believe our lovers must be perfect when in reality everyone has their flaws, some might be more visible than others. But despite our lover’s flaws, we can still appreciate them and enjoy their presence in our lives.
I completely agree with Serafina. This was a welcomed break from the other sonnets we discussed. I think the love that people felt in those times is unrealistic to our current times. Reading a sonnet like this, I can relate to a lot more in this poem than others. I can find many more instances in our daily lives now with this sonnet than others. While people will always be falling in love, what stands the test of time is the disdain one will have for another, and how we find love in the uniqueness of others.
Serafina, yes, Sonnet 130 works on a couple of levels. There’s humor in it, but an important statement is also being made about superficiality, both in real life and in literature.
Hi Serafina, I agree that “This poem says a lot about how we have been conditioned to believe our lovers must be perfect when in reality everyone has their flaws.” This poem speaks of a love that is truer than denoting a woman’s physical perfection. Shakespeare exclaims his true love by revealing her personality traits that caused his love. Although this poem is short it has so much meaning to it. Shakespeare made it a point to show how common the mistress is in this poem by comparing her to beautiful things and in turn making her seem non-attractive. But in the end Shakespeare gives a twist in writing that the narrator still finds his mistress a rare as any.
Serafina, Indeed this poem is far from flattering. In this poem the writer is actually making fun of the way other writers praises women. When he writes, ” Than in the breath that my mistress reeks” the statement does not mean that he does not like the breath of his mistress, instead, it just means there are perfumes that smell more delightful than her breath, which is true. The ending of the poem Shakespeare expresses his love for her despite her flaws. As you mentioned, we think our lovers must be perfect and without flaws when in reality no human is without flaws. In reality no woman is beautiful as roses or as sparkling as the sun.
Hey Serafina, I really like the way you’ve described “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” because really almost the whole poem speaks about traditionally unattractive. But ends up wrapping it up by saying how despite all these things you can still love a suppose no matter the flaw if you really love them and enjoy being around them.
Hi Serafina, I agree with you. The poem satirizes the cliches of other poets, and the repudiation of a mistress is a sincere praise for a living, ordinary, real woman. Rather than the “goddess” created by other poets. This seeming negation is actually a compliment. As you said, Shakespeare fully expresses his love for his mistress at the end. Although the mistress is not perfect, Shakespeare still loves her very much.
Hi Marvin Mnegro, I agree with your statement and I also choose the same pome. I also felt that this pome it so romantic anyone would fell in love with it. Because nowadays people does not have smooth and don’t express the way Poet did in the pome. I wish in every relationship one person should be poet than the relaxation would be strong.
Hi Serafina, after reading your statement I was think the same thing that how back in a day. Also I felt the in the other pome the poet was saying good words about women. We all want our relationship to be perfect but in real life we all have ups and down in our life.
Serafina, I agree with Anthony’s comment. Love wasn’t what we people of today regularly think of when we use that term. It is pretty overused and in the sonnet we see an opposite of what is regularly looked at. Love isn’t and shouldn’t be based off of appealing looks, it should be based off the character of a person, how they help you and themselves grow. But I do agree with initial comments on the story.
My favorite sonnet this week was reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. I enjoyed it because it was different front the rest. Instead of describing love with over-the-top elaborate comparisons, he chooses to describe how downtrodden and plain his mistress is. It’s quite humorous. He uses tons of metaphors to paint this dull boring picture of a woman. He practically complains about every aspect of her being yet, holds her in some regard at the end of the Sonnet. I think when he states his love as rare, Shakespeare intends to say that she is unique. While she may lose in comparison to others in terms of her looks and smell, but she still holds a rare uniqueness that separates her from all others. He finds this interesting unique. It’s in this where his love for her lives.
Anthony, yes, Shakespeare really does go down the list of all possible features one might extol in a poem—the lover’s eyes, mouth, skin, hair, voice, smell, way of moving—each more horrible than the last. It is different and it’s funny and refreshing and surprising.
ENG 201 Sec. 0527
Anthony, I agree with you, I found humor in his poem as well. The manner in which he delivers the sonnet was not what one would expect when expecting a poem of romance. He describes his mistress in such a revolting manner the reader would wonder why is it then he continues to be with her. You are correct in Shakespeare’s use of metaphor in sonnet one hundred and thirty. There are two good examples within the lines in the first quatrain “If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head”, or “coral is far more red than her lips’ red”. The reader can get a figurative idea of his mistress’ disorganized hair or pale lips. As we arrive towards the end of the poem we notice that Shakespeare highlights his mistress, appearing in such an unfavorable manner to magnify the true love he has for her by showing a beauty that is skin deep.
Lit 201 0534 – I really enjoyed all these poems but my absolute favorite is the Italian Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barret Browning. In this weeks short video “Reading and Learning,” the speak says that the Sonnet of the Renaissance dealt with the beauty of life around them via topics of love, exploration of man, nature faith and predestination. This poem speaks to several of these topics but still has a main topic of love.The first thing that stuck out to me is that in the 1st and 2nd sentence the author states she is going to attempt to count the ways in which this being is loved. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.This strikes me as different because counting the ways in which you love someone is not usually something most try to do, they just love because they do. I also find it ironic because although we can count the number of ways the author list, we cannot count the things the author is comparing her love to, because those things cannot be counted, only compared because they are emotions. “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach,” When the author states, “I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” It made me think about what are the most basic needs of everyday? I think the very first is to breath, so by saying “by sun and candlelight” that would mean loving to the same level that you have to breath 24 hours a day. I read this love poem as also being a spiritual one. Not only does it mention God but also words like faith, soul, purely which are words which are words often associated with things of a spiritual nature of man. Also the ending, “if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” expresses the authors belief that even when the inevitable death comes the love will still be inseparable beings and the thought that there is a God, and perhaps there can be an afterlife in which this love can live even grow.”
One thing that also struck me after reading this poem several times is that even though we know it as a love poem to her husband, the depth of the love is not exclusive of gender or relationship. It can be from a man, a woman, a parent, child or any relationship even the relationship with God. Sonnet 43 is now one of my favorites, beautiful work of literary art in which Brown somehow miraculously is able to capture the intenseness and passion felt when deeply loving.
Janine, thank you for this beautifully written post about “How Do I Love Thee?” I think it’s a wonderful poem too because it expresses what is inexpressible, using every measure known. It always reminds me of when small children open their arms as wide as possible and say, “I love you this much!” or “I love you to infinity.” It seems to touch on all the moments of a life, and you are so right that it does not have to apply only to romantic love.
The poem is love the most was the Italian sonnet ” How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I love this poem because it speaks volume in respect to loving someone. The poem is about the speaker proclaiming her unending passion for her beloved. She loves him with all of her being, and hope God will allow her to love him after she has died. The write describes her love as being deep, wide and tall as it can possible be when she states, ” I love thee to the depth and breath and height”. The writer does not want thanks or attention for her love, she loves her husband freely because it is what she has to do, she states ” I love thee freely, as men strive for right, I love thee purely, as they turn from praise”. I especially love the ending of this poem because it shows how strong the writer love for her husband is and not even death could destroy it. ” and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death”.
Treshel, your post is so expressive in its discussion of “How Do I Love Thee?” I love the lines you’ve chosen to quote too and the good interpretation you bring to them. It’s such a heartfelt attempt to express something that is ineffable and very hard to describe, so the poet uses measurements we can all understand.
Of all the sonnets I’ve read this week, my favorite is Sonnet Number 130, “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare. I love the message and the interesting perspective this poem brings. Poets usually speak about “true love” and how beautiful and magical it is, but in this poem Shakespeare writes about “true love” in a way that makes you see how special it is by seeing the beauty in simple things. “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” depicts a man talking about his mistress in a way that makes her seem boring and ordinary. He compares his mistress’ eyes and say that they are nothing like the sun, “coral is far more red than her lips’ red,” and compares her hair to black wire. However, at the end of his poem he says “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she,” which states that no matter how much a person lacks in physical appearance there is love to be found in their person. This poem makes the reader realize that love is always beautiful and that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, everyone sees it in a different light and in different people.
Altynai,
I completely agree with your thoughts on “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun”. “Love is in the eyes of the beholder is a great summation of the themes of this poem. I think there is another meaning to the line “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she” being that Shakespeare think that he is saying true love is a rare thing and a woman like his mistress is as rare as the love he feels for her.
Hi Altynai! I completely agree with you on how it shows the idea of true love in a different light. Most stories you see or read make it seem like everything is perfect in a relationship when in reality it isn’t. This sonnet didn’t sugar coat anything. Shakespeare understands that a person will have many flaws but it shouldn’t stop you from loving someone. He still continues to love this woman despite all of her flaws. I love how you worded that it doesn’t matter what a person lacks in physical appearance, there is love found in the person. It truly shows that a person can have beauty inside them, meaning their personality or soul is pure and beautiful.
Altynai, yes, the reversal that occurs in the last two lines is very gratifying after that long list of insults. Shakespeare is quite humorous, but he is also making commentary about overly flowery poems. It’s interesting that both his sonnets refer to poetry itself, both bad and good.
Altynai, I agree with all that you say, but I always smile when I read Sonnet 130. Would any of us want to be memorialized in this way, even if the last two lines say how rare we are?
Altynai, I agree and love your perspective on the reading. Shakespeare writing of true love in a way that makes you see how special it is by seeing the beauty in simple things is probably the perfect way to put it. He described her in a bad way and yet in the end gave us the “but i still love her” reply to twist it. Many people would ask but why when describing her but it shows what true love really is about.
My favorite sonnet this week is Sonnet 43. This is my favorite poem because it expresses unconditional love with imagery and personification. I love how this poem asks how many ways you can love a person and then proceeds to answer it with so many different ways to unconditionally love person. I love the different comparisons used. For example, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right.” This stood out to me because human’s on the whole have everlasting urges to always stand for what they feel is right. That is something that can never be taken away from a person and because of that it becomes and unconditional action of love. We stand for things that are right because we love them. This was a perfect example of unconditional love because striving for what’s right has no conditions. Its more like a daily principle that has a continuous concept and so does love.
Regina, thanks for the good comments, especially your discussion of that quote from the poem. “I love thee freely, as men strive for right.” This is such a powerful evocation of a kind of love that feels like an expression of a most basic and natural human inclination. I think the measurements the poet offers increase in passion and abstraction as the poem goes on.
One of my favorite poems of all of them is Sonnet 43 By Elizabeth Barrett Browning because of how she expressed her intense love through poetry, and we all know that true love never dies. I really like this poem because that is the kind of love we need in our life, which is pure, strong, unconditional and no strings attached. One of the most important aspects of this poem is that lot of people can use it to express their love to someone because it is very romantic. I love the line when she said “ I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light “(5). She loves him enough to meet all his simple needs during the day and even during the night. If this is not love I do not know what is. Finally, what is the most mesmerizing about this poem is the repetition of “ I love thee” in eight lines and “ I shall love thee” in the final line. This repetition builds the rhymes while bolstering the theme. And I just want to emphasize this kind of love is unique because she loves him even after life.
Fatu, I like how you select two very different lines from the poem. One is about a love that persists through the most ordinary moments of a day, while the other line is about the eternal nature of love that persists even after death.
I agree with Fatu, about no matter what happens in our lives, love will never die in our society, in the past or future, you will see that special relationship that we need. The most interesting thing that Fatu mentioned was that this poem expresses love in many ways to someone that we love, by the deep meanings that they say and also feel. The way that love is unique, even if many years come it will never change how the author looks at it.
Hello Fatu,
I too loved how Elizabeth Barret Browning expressed her love. She was selfless to me, she was willing to give all of her love to someone even if it wasn’t reciprocated. There was nothing she wouldnt do for him. I agree we need more love like this. Her poem was a simple “I love you” but thoughtfully written.
My favorite sonnet that was posted was Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning for its theme of true love. This poem is famous for expressing a love that has no limits or conditions or even end, saying if god would choose her love would only grow in death. The line that struck me the most was, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”. The reason this line struck me was that she is saying that the love she has for this person has no boundary or end, it reaches as deep and wide and tall as anything can go. The author’s love comes in part from her faith, it seems. When she says “If god choose” it could imply that God has chosen to given her this love in the first place. The theme of this poem is undoubtedly true love that expands and encompasses everything for the author, that will never fade save divine intervention, but there are notes of her faith that are also clear. I very much enjoyed not only the main theme of this poem but how the prose is so layered.
Eli, thanks for this beautifully expressed post. Yes, I think that first measurement offered by the poet to express the limitless quality of her love is then followed up by a list of examples to support this idea of unconditionally. It’s interesting that you comment on the speaker’s faith. That’s a wonderful observation; there are several points in the poem where faith is invoked.
Elif, I love your comments on the poem. I love the unconditional and limitless love the write has for her husband and not even death can destroy the love. The lines ” I love thee to the depth and breath and height” is powerful because it shows that her love can stretch and go beyond to any point. Indeed, the love she has for her husband comes from her faith and due to her faith she will love him without wanting praise because it is what she has to do. Love and faith are the main themes of this poem
Hey Eli! This was also my favorite sonnet because the theme is true love. As i’ve said in my response I could envision myself expressing a love like this to future children and I can relate to this type of endless love with my mother. The love I have for these people are and will be never ending and true. This sonnet represents every way her love is never ending and ever lasting.
Out of the three sonnets I read this week, the one I enjoyed the most was sonnet 130. This sonnet visits the ideas of female beauty expectations, flaws and femininity. William Shakespeare compares his love to several different types of beauties in a negative way. For example, the lines 7-10 says, “And in some perfumes is there more delight/ Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks./ I love hearing her speak, yet well I know/ That music hath a far more pleasing sound;” This illustrates Shakespeare comparing this woman’s voice and breath to music and perfume. Perfume and music are types of beautiful things. The use of the word reek has a negative connotation and shows that her breath smells horribly and far worse than perfume. Perfume smells better than her breath and music sounds better than her voice. Although he knows that the sound of her voice is unpleasant to the ears, he still loves to hear it. I love the fact that even when listing all of her “flaws” and disliked qualities about her, he still loves her despite it all. The line that struck me was, “I grant I never saw a goddess go,” which portrays how he still views her as beautiful. Her beauty never left but he’s also aware of her flaws. He calls her a “goddess” which is positive. The way he described her was harsh but in the end he showed his love for her. I was able to understand that nobody is perfect and that’s okay. Everyone has flaws and beauty as well.
Sheilaya, thank you for pointing out some of the most striking examples from Sonnet 130, such as that powerful work “reeks.” I think he humorously saying that she is not at all like a goddess (especially in the way she stomps across the ground) though he can’t claim to have ever seen an actual goddess. I think this also plays into his gentle criticism of overly flowery poetry which does, in fact, compare women to goddesses.
Out of all the sonnets that I have read , my favorite poem is the Sonnet #130 by William Shakespeare. I enjoyed reading this poem because it was written in a very unique way compared to the other poems. The author was describing his wife in a very unusual way that a husband would. He critiqued things about his mistress like the way her eyes, mouth, skin, and hair look compared to other women. He also spoke about her voice, smell , and the way that she moves around. In the poem it states” Than in the breath that my mistress reeks.” William is implying that his mistress has a bad scent of breath. The reason why I enjoyed this story is because this is the definition of true love. Even though William can critique his mistresses physicals traits he still says that he is in love with her. His love for his mistress lies in a rare place that is not affected by her physicals flaws. The reason why this is true love is because his love for her is a personality trait and not because he is attracted by her physicals body.
Alexsander, yes, if a husband referred to his wife the way Shakespeare refers to this woman, he might be sleeping in the garage. In the end, however, this speaker sees beyond the physical. He expresses a love that is authentic, and he does so in a poem that is also authentic, not exaggerated and flowery like so many love poems.
Yes Professor Conway, I seriously loved like the “unmasking” of how he is feeling and referring to her but at the end he says, that he knows that he knows the love he has for her is beyond that. The speaker does a complete switch from when he spoke about everything nasty about her, he still knows that the love they had was still rare. And, I think this was really pretty to look back at since we live with such different mindsets and standards on these kind of things.
Out of all the sonnets that I have read , my favorite poem is ” My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare, also called Sonnet #130. I enjoyed reading this poem because it was written in a very unique way compared to the other poems. The author was describing his wife in a very unusual way that a husband would. He critiqued things about his mistress like the way her eyes, mouth, skin, and hair look compared to other women. He also spoke about her voice, smell , and the way that she moves around. In the poem it states” Than in the breath that my mistress reeks.” William is implying that his mistress has a bad scent of breath. The reason why I enjoyed this story is because this is the definition of true love. Even though William can critique his mistresses physicals traits he still says that he is in love with her. His love for his mistress lies in a rare place that is not affected by her physicals flaws. The reason why this is true love is because his love for her is a personality trait and not because he is attracted by her physicals body.
I totally agree with you Alexsander! Despite of how his mistress appeared physically or whatever was physically wrong with her he was still in love with her which goes to say that he was in love with her personality or the person she was on the inside and to me that is what true love looks like, the way a person looks on the outside has nothing to do with how they really are because someone may be the most beautiful person alive but that doesn’t always mean they are also the same way on the inside and although Shakespeare only described his mistress negatively he still expressed his love for her at the end which is why I think this poem was so unique.
Hi Alexsander, I agree with your statement in that it seems as if the author is indeed in love with his mistress considering the impression we received in the first half of the poem. Although he doesn’t love her physical characteristics the end of the poem showed he loves her personality. As far as this poem being the definition of true love i would have to disagree with you on that one. I don’t think ‘true love’ is hating your partner’s physical features but loving her personality.
Nefertaria, I share your feelings a bit here, as noted in my recent comment to Altynai. I certainly wouldn’t want to be described in the manner the subject of Sonnet 130 is—even if the poet went on to say that I was a great person!
My favorite sonnet was sonnet 130 “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” I first clicked on this specific sonnet because even the title sounds contradicting with having to express that it is your mistress’s eyes that make you “happy” from reading the title. While, reading the sonnet I started realizing that the “contradicting” that I had noticed in the title is just Shakespeares use of verbal irony. Such as when he says “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;”. This is an exact example of verbal irony because when I searched up the meaning of dun, it means brown or gray. Rereading the poem I can hear a sense of betrayal within the words he uses, especially at the end. While, the title sounds flattering, reading it made me see that in fact this was a whip lash because his mistress wasn’t who he thought she was.I find this sonnet my favorite because it’s interesting that even the title of a poem can have you a completely different direction than what it actually is.
Hey Kiara! I totally agree with you when you say that just reading the title you already know the sonnet will be contradicting. Yes verbal irony is what was going throughout the whole poem. Reading it and then actually understanding it gives you a whole different perspective of it.
Nicole, please be sure your comments to others meet the length requirements. Thanks!
Kiara, yes, everything about this poem is unexpected. We might expect the poet to write that his mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun—maybe they are more like the moon. We certainly don’t expect this menu of horrible traits. But this unexpectedness is part of what is so enjoyable about the poem. It is as if the poet is playing with us.
Hey Kiara! I like how you have analyzed the Shakespeare’s use of verbal irony. I agree with you that the topic first makes the reader assume that he might have praised or complemented his mistress’s beauty. But as you read, it becomes opposite of what you have predicted. By this, I feel like we can say that Shakespeare’s main motive behind this poem was to trick the audience and turn the table on purpose.
My favorite sonnet was Sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. I really liked this one over the rest because it was funny. The language and the way the words are phrased is what makes it unique. For example it states, “And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”. In this exact quote Shakespeare is vividly comparing the mistress breath to a perfume, saying that perfume smells better. The theme of the sonnet is pointing out the unpleasant things of the mistress but at the end stating that the author still loves his mistress despite all that was mentioned. The other quote that struck me was, “ And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare”. This was such a powerful ending because it emphasized that love is strong and that looks don’t matter at all.
– Nicole Contreras ENG 201 1209
Nicole, yes, Sonnet 130 is very funny. I like the poem for this reason too. We simply don’t expect what is coming. It took me a few lines the first time I read it to realize that the entire poem is a spoof on poetry!
Treshel Arokium ENG 201-1209
It’s hard to pick between “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare and “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning as they are both beautiful poems but the sonnet that stood out the most was the one written by Shakespeare, simply because of the complexing way he described his mistress and viewed her only to confess at the end that he loves her despite it all. He negatively compared her physical features by saying things such as, ” Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; if snow be white why then her breasts are dun;…and in some perfumes is there more delight than in the breath that my mistress reeks.” to make the reader think that he probably does not have any feelings for the person however in the end we can see that he stills regards the woman he loves as beautiful and special. I love the fact that this poem is not focused on the beauty of the woman because despite what is seen on the surface it may be entirely different when you actually get to know someone. Regardless of whether someone is attractive or not their character, values and the way they treat others is what truly makes them beautiful.
English 201 – 0534
Hello Payshanti, I completely agree that William Shakspeare’s sonnet stood out the most out of all the ones we read, it wasn’t a love sonnet like we’re normally used to reading, Shakespeare compares his mistress to all things that she will never be, he makes her look ugly to us and makes us wonder why would he write such things about someone he supposedly loves. Shakespeare probably described his mistress with such ugly qualities to show the reader his love for her is beyond any beauty and there is more to love then just someone’s looks which most focus so much on.
If I have to choose which of the four poems was my favorite I would say the one called, “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The reason why I choose this poem is because its easy to understand, the poet likes or loves this person infinitely, there isn’t much to it other than that. On the hand, compared to the other three, its sometimes hard to know what they are talking about or what is the sense of those story, if adding to its complexity the use of old fashion words that many don’t know the meaning of them anymore. From the story “How Do I Love Thee” it only needs you to understand two thing, is love to a person and is mentioning how far they love them as the own tittle suggest. One line that struck me would be, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” more specifically the word “thee” I knew the meaning of it because I remember that my English teacher told me that in High School, which, in some way triggered a old memory of the past. Now I have mention that the others stories are complicated to understand, of course many will disagree with me, but me, personally get confused with them, poetry is not my stronger front for some reason, and I tried to understand them, that’s why I search on the web the meaning behind those pieces of poetry because I, on my own don’t understand them very well. In the use of internet is my way to know what its been mention.
Jon, it’s interesting what you write here because as an English professor I have always found that students find poetry harder to understand than stories. It’s nice that reading the Barret Browning sonnet brought back some memory from high school. I suspect that the poem strikes you slightly differently now that you are a little older. Great literature grows on us and with us, I think.
Hey Jon, I love that you are unpretentious in why you chose this as your favorite sonnet, and I agree because I also had to look up all of these poems just to get a full understanding of what each poet was trying to convey. I love the line you chose because when I read this poem, it also brought up a faint memory for me of jumping off a cliff into a deep, dark pool of water; and for some reason, that’s how that line makes me feel. I love your honesty overall about this week’s assignment and keep up the good work.
My favorite poem in this week’s reading is ‘My MIstress eyes are nothing like the Sun’ by William Shakespere. This poem stuck with me because I found the way he spoke about his mistress very interesting and almost relatable. I don’t relate to this in any way but i can think of a few people who will read this and relate to every word. People today find themselves in situations like that today. Throughout the poem the author compares his mistress to multiple inanimate objects but he is saying that they are far better and brighter than her. For example “And in some perfumes there is more delight, than the breath that from my mistress reek” In the poem the author is clearly not entirely interested in his mistress he doesn’t even like the way she smells also claiming that the sun shines brighter than her. Now referring back to your typical love story an man that loves a woman will say the complete opposite.
Nefertaria, I responded to one of your earlier comments, and I will reiterate what I said here. I think you make a great point here about the totality of the speaker’s love. Isn’t it true that when you love someone, that person looks beautiful to you? You love their hair and skin and the way they smell as part of the whole package. It’s hard to imagine Elizabeth Barrett Browning not loving the physicality of her husband when you read “How Do I Love Thee?” even though she does not mention physical details.
ENG 201 [0527] The Poem that I really liked was “How do I love thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning because of the way she was trying to describe how she feels about her love. Reading the poem makes me sense what the person is thinking and is trying to express inside them. The other thing that made it interesting was when the author is saying that love has no limits and that we think that we will lose love and never get it back. This quote “I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right.” (Barrett, line 5 -7). This quote has a deep meaning to it, and it’s when she loves this person all day night, and without being forced to love that person. The author here doesn’t see any problems with her age, and how it could impact her feeling of love throughout her life.
My favorite sonnet that I read this week was “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare firstly this sonnet stood out to me because personally the summer is my favorite time of the year. But more specifically this poem is describing my favorites part of the summer by describing how special someone is by comparing them to the summer and all its beauty. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” In this line you can see that he is comparing whoever he is talking about to the many beauties that come from a summers day.
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
I really liked these two lines because after describing how beautiful a summers day is he concludes the sonnet by saying how wonderful the person is and that unlike a summers day which fades away into the night or even when the season is over they will continue to have all these beautiful qualities for as long as they live.
Hi Neil, I totally agree with your statement that this poem explains how beautiful he is by comparing that summer day with all its beauty. I thought the person he was talking to was a beautiful young man, but explained that the young man is more beautiful than summer beauty. He states that even if the beauty of summer disappears, his beauty will not disappear. I thought that the whole of this poem of fourteen lines expresses beautiful young man beauty.
I think that all these sonnets are interesting. However, to be honest I had a hard time trying to understand the sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, probably because of the numerous metaphors inside the poem. I am not sure if I have a favorite one, but I found very intriguing the Italian sonnet, “What My Lips Have Kissed and Why and When” by Edna Saint Vincent Millay. Just the title makes the readers stop for a couple of seconds and think about their own past experiences. This poem is about a woman that embraces her sexuality to the point of admitting that she had many lovers in her younger life and already forgot who they were. The lines “And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain for unremembered lads that not again will turn to me at midnight with a cry”. I sense that she regrets not having those types of experiences in her life anymore.
Kenia, I love “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” contains an important seasonal metaphor, and I think it’s important to consider these metaphors in any interpretation of the poem. The lonely tree in the winter refers to the winter of the woman’s life. When she writes that summer sings in her no more, she means that her youth is over and with that loss of youth is the loss the “lads” she has kissed. She was not necessarily promiscuous in her youth. She is awake on a rainy night feeling a deep nostalgia for her lost youth and loves.
Kenia
I loved that you mentioned the part of making readers reflecting on their own lives. It brought me validation because I too reflected on my life when choosing a poem. This poem was going to be my second choice. It made me think about how I wanted to look back on my life when I am 50. Knowing how I am, I still think I will be upbeat by then but wanting to make sure that I don’t have any regrets and don’t look back at that time as a period where I could have done it all but instead, as a beginning if that makes sense.
From the sonnets we read this week, my favorite was Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This sonnet is my favorite of all of them because as we were reading it I could imagine myself saying it to my future children or someone that I truly love. The sonnet expresses how her love it limitless, pure, there’s no measurement to how far her love can go and how her love is true. The phrases that struck me are:
“I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death”
It is evident there that she is expressing how much she loves whom ever the sonnet was written for. When she says she loves them freely, she’s saying her love has no limits, no stops, no ends. She loves them so passionately that she compares it to when you’re grieving and a childhoods faith. For me, I compared this line to a grief so heavy like losing someone you really cared for and when you see children, they are joyful, don’t have a care for the world and they have so many dreams for their future. Lastly, she expresses her love is endless by the last line about how if god chooses to take her, she will love them even better after death.
Emmalee i love your reasoning of why you loved the Poem Sonnet 43 . i can also definitely see myself telling that to my kids too. the quote that you put definitely describes and is talking about someone they care about. the way you express the meaning of love or the feeling is also something that i really liked that you did. “Not having a care in the world” as you put it is definitely a good way of putting it.
ENG 201 Sec. 0527
I particularly enjoyed “Sonnet 43”, by Elizabeth Warren. Typical to Petrarchan sonnets there are two distinguishing aspects discussed within the topic of her eternal love. In the octave Warren provides vivid imagery to the reader to convey the magnitude of her passions with metaphorical correlations to something physically tangible. One such example would be, “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight”, the author uses mathematical volume to express her love if it were an object. She then further emphasizes by using the senses, the extent of her love by stating that the “volume” is so vast it cannot be seen by the eyes. The reader arrives at the solution in the sestet, understanding that she wishes to feel this love for an eternity, “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death”. The sonnet is truly a beautiful, and incredibly romantic presentation, if I was ever to experience such a display of romance even in all my stoicism, would find it incredibly difficult to deny any sentiment. One final thought was that for a moment the first line had a striking similarity to Shakespeare’s, “Sonnet 18”. In reading the first line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, it is noted the rhythmic pauses are very consistent to Warren’s line, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”. Although coincidental it is interesting to note such similarities between the Italian and Elizabethan sonnets.
Among the sonnets I read this week, my favorite is Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day.” I have heard Sonnet 18 because this poem is famous, but I have never read it before, so I chose it. After reading this poem, I thought that this poem was full of beautiful words, and maybe even more beautiful words of love than a play. However, I thought sonnet 18 was singing about young people, not women. This poem talks about hot love, so I thought I was singing for women, but I thought it was for a beautiful young man.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
In this part, he compares the summer day with the youth and sings that the young man is superior in youth and beauty. Summer is the most life-threatening and youthful season in England.
“And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st”
In this part, I think he explains that the beauty of the youth is expressed in the poem, and as long as the poem lives in the hearts of the people, the beauty of the youth will not perish.
Beauty is not immortal. Even beautiful girls and young boys will decline. However, I thought that by describing it in words, it changed into an immortal one. And I think that beauty is redefined by our interpretation and imagination.
Section (1209)
The Italian Sonnet 43, “How do I love Thee” by Elizabeth Barett Browning was a really deep, interesting, and beautiful poem. Each line has an intense meaning to it. Among all of these beautiful lines, my favourite line and my interpretation to the line, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.” is that the author loves her husband dearly, freely, and proudly. The line also resembles her personal strive and need for her husband’s presence as men strive for their right. Her love is as pure and she is proud of that as how the men would feel after they get praised. Another beautiful stanza from the poem that struck me are the lines, “I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” These lines reveal the author’s passion towards her marriage. She is as passionate as she becomes when comforting herself in melancholy and with the same trust since her childhood. The author is genuinely in love with her husband because she is being patient for another life and even after he is gone, her love for him will remain immortal as the last line says, “and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” With this line I believe that the author is hopeful to love her husband better in another life if not this one. This made me wonder that, Was she also guilty for not being as expressive about her feelings to seek another chance? However, after reading this poem, I am aware that love certainly has different forms of expression. By this I mean, love is not only bound to the core of romance but it also is the need and longing of something you profoundly desire. Yes, it can be a longing of your soulmate just like the author in this poem, but it can also be your lost brother, mother, anyone and anything yet something you love but cannot have. What you can have is merely a souvenir of them.
“How do I love thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the poems that stood out to me the most. The theme of the poem is the love for her husband being timeless and everlasting. I understand the poem’s meaning was to show the immense love for her husband, but as I read it, I asked myself the following, “is it worth it.” I have never been in a relationship before, so I do not know what loves feels like in that manner. I always question myself if falling in love is worth it primarily based on the heartbreak and sacrifices one must endure.
“Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
Browning explains how she would hope the love she has goes beyond death.
“My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight, For the ends of being and ideal grace.”
She explains that the love for her husband goes so far that it is unseeable. It gave me perspective on the feeling and idea of being in love. Throughout the poem, she gives an example in which she compares that love only to emphasize her point. As I am analyzing it, I acknowledge that the imagery she conveys can be absorbed but never fully understand by someone like me. I always knew that you have to experience love to see its value, but it was not until reading this poem where I realized that I could not judge this if I have not been in it before for issues about this manner.
he sonnet that was my favorite was sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning. She’s explains how much she loves him and in the poem it’s evident in how much she loves him. Her love is pure and loyal. She sees no flaw in her loved one and if she does if doesn’t matter to her. I think the tone of the poem is love, a pure love. In the line, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right” she is saying that she loves him, without expecting anything back and that she’d to fight for him. Another line that struck me was “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!”. She can’t survive without his love.
Khadijah, these comments are welcome, but please make sure your posts meet the length requirement.
The poems are all engaging and captivating, especially “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” by Shakespeare because it’s different from what is to be expected in a short poem. The poems are usually romantic and full of vivid emotion. This poem brings a comic approach to the traditional romantic short poem that expands on love and beauty and the idea totally works because it engages the reader in finding the reasons for the negative expressions towards the person he chose to write about. Another poem that I felt was really captivating was “How do I love thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning the poem analysis the profound love that a wife feels for her husband. This poem was very powerful showing the love for someone in detail that convinced me that the love she feels is true. “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.” The depiction of her love is portrayed as powerful and inseparable making the reader feel connected yet sad at the end because this poem causes fear of detachment between the poem and the reader.
Hi Junior, I agree about “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun”. I think you perfectly explained why it works so well. I was very surprised because most of the Shakespeare I’ve had to read before has been very hard to understand, but this poem ended up being funny. It’s really interesting to me though that despite the fact it’s a comedic poem, it has actual substance.
My favorite poem of the list we read was, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Of all the poems that we read this one is the saddest. It speaks to the universal fear of growing old without ever finding a long term partner. The speaker reminisces on her old partners, some of whom she’s forgotten the names of, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten”. She isn’t longing for anyone in particular, she can’t even remember some of the people she’s been with, she just misses companionship. She imagines the rain hitting the glass as the ghosts of her ex-lovers tapping on her window and waiting for a reply. The poem ends with the image of a tree in winter as a metaphor for the speaker, “I only know that summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings no more.” The metaphor of summer leaving the tree represents the speakers youth. While she once had the attention of many boys, old age had set in and they’d all left.
ENG 201 – 1209
Josh I liked that you also picked the poem “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why”. We both have the same views on the poem that it is one of the saddest we have read so far. Reading this poem brings you great sadness and also makes you feel alone but in the end I couldn’t stop reading. I also like who you were able to catch on to the metaphor at the end of the poem where she speaks on how she once had all the attention of boys but when she got old they all left and compares herself to a tree in winter because a tree looses all its leaves in the winter the same way she lost all of attention of men when she grew old.
The Poem Sonnet 18 “Shall I Compare thee to the summers day” was the poem that I liked the most. This poem was speaking about a man and how he sees this man. I had to re read this poem many times and I found out in the end. “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”. The reason why I love this poem because the way summer is being compared to this man that he has feelings for. Falling for someone in the summer sounds something that just goes good together. I believe another reason why I like this story is because I had something related to this with a female and it was in the summer. The ending of the poem kind of summarizes his theme of the story which is love or has to do with that.
Hey Mark, wow, I honestly didn’t expect someone to pick that one. Not that I didn’t like it but more so because I thought others would gravitate to 130 I guess. The way summer was being compared to man was quite interesting in my opinion and your quote sums it up quite nice. The comparison on how this individual feels about summer, and its warmth, as well as the man they’re speaking about makes the sonnet feel vibrant and as they would say warm.
Mark I really like how you were able to figure out the true meaning of the poem and I also had to read the poem multiple times before I was able to truly understood what the poet was trying to tell us. I also liked this poem because of how the author chose to compare summer with the person that he has feelings for.Falling for someone in the summer is such a normal thing I think almost everyone can relate to having a summer romance or fling at least once.
If I am being completely honest out of all sonnets we were assigned to take a look at, Sonnet 130 definitely has to be my favorite and for some reason I feel like a lot of people are going to resonate with that statement. I have no idea why but I think it has to do with the fact it isnt all lovey dovey and worshipping the person being spoken about. It just has such a down to earth sort of vibe with it. Usually sonnets involving a lover tend to glorify them and place them on a pedestal but this isn’t the case with Sonnet 130 and that is what makes it unique and appealing. It was also very easy to understand and straight to the point, of course you had to think a bit to get to the underlying intentions but nevertheless it was still a good sonnet. For example in lines 7 and 8 the sonnet reads “And in some perfumes is there more delight…Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” Shakespeare is honest and direct, his mistress’ breath doesn’t smell like roses or whatever other poets would say. But he isnt just direspecting her throughout the sonnet, he admits to his feelings while saying “I love to hear her speak”(line 9). Thats the beauty of it, sonnet 130 is down to earth but honest with feelings.
The sonnet read that was my favorite this week would have to be “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The reason I like this poem the best is because it is so relatable, even though it is such a sad poem I enjoyed it, the poem makes you feel like you are experiencing it yourself. The theme of this poem is sadness and the phrasing the author uses makes the reader feel lonely while reading. One quote from the poem that spoke to me the most would be when the author wrote “for unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry”. To me I feel like this line means that the thoughts that we block out during the day will creep up on us during the night and will bring us sadness.
Hi Chayadevi, I also choose the Italian sonnet “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I agree with you that it is a sad poem and that the readers can relate to this woman’s feelings. I was raised by one of my grandmothers and until I was an adult, I understood that when she tried to advise me about my love life, was because of some experiences that she remembers having in her past.
My favorite poem is “The mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare.Because the poem satirizes some popular empty and grandiose metaphors, although it negates the possible empty metaphors in the general sense, but it actually praises a living, ordinary, real woman. In this poem, Shakespeare negates the adjectives used by other poets to describe women from the very first line. He thought that his mistress’s eyes were not the sun’s rays, her lips were not coral, her breasts were not white as snow, her cheeks were not red as roses, her breath was not perfumes, her words were not music. However, this kind of apparent negation has the actual praise in it. Shakespeare here is celebrating the true beauty of the mistress, rather than the “goddess” created by other poets. This kind of praise, also strongly expressed the idea of humanism. In particular, the line “My mistress when she walks treads on the ground” shows his sincere pride and admiration.
Hongbin, I strongly agree with you where you said “Shakespeare here is celebrating the true beauty of the mistress, rather than the “goddess” created by other poets.” Like I said in my original response, when you think of Shakespearean poetry you think of these grand, meticulously crafted love poems. This poem however feels more realistic as not every woman has rosy red cheeks or perfect locks of hair but that doesn’t make her unworthy of being celebrated. If anything I feel that the real meaning of this poem is that Shakespeare is appreciating the woman for what she really is, even if she’s not considered perfect, she’s perfect for him.
From this week I liked all the sonnets but the one I like the most is “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Because when I was reading this pome in the class I found it was very easy to understood the meaning of it. The poet describes his love as a necessity, something that he can’t live with out. He compares his love to things that we need for our daily life. In the pome it says “ I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quit need, by sun and candle-light.” He used the metaphor, without the sun we would not have light during the day and without candlelight we would not have light during the night. By using this comparison, the poet describes how his love gives him the power to live.
Out of the 4 sonnets we were assigned to read my favorite had to be sonnet 130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare. This sonnet grabbed my attention from the start because it wasn’t like a normal love sonnet we’re used to reading, Shakespeare writes about all things that his mistress isn’t and will never be, so we’re left thinking how could someone write such terrible qualities about a person they claim to love. I believe he writes this way about his mistress to show even with these terrible qualities she was still special to him in her own way, she was a rare and special person in his life. He wants to emphasize his love for her is beyond her looks, he loves he for the person she is on the inside.
The standout poem for me was “How do I love thee”, mainly in the way that it was expressed. The story seemed to be centered around unconditional love so extreme that it knows no bounds, and can’t be measured in any way. The theme was nothing out of the ordinary, talking about immeasurable love. however, the story stood out to me in its phrasing from a “breadth and height” of the narrator’s love that could not be reached, all the way to the interesting phrase used “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints” as it connects to me in a way. Like the narrator is alluded to have been religious, I also held massive respect for saint figures in the church, so even if I haven’t experienced what the narrator has, it gives me insight on how she feels more than others.
The Sonnet that captivated my attention the most was, “How do I love Thee” by Elizabeth Barret Browning. Her sonnet was not only heart warming but wholesome. Through her Sonnet she was able express the amount of ways she measures her love for others. Some in which include throughout the day and night, and while she’s at her best and worst. She also states, “My soul can reach , when feeling out of sight…” This was something that also captivated my mind for it demonstrated how far she was willing to reach to show her love for others. Towards the end of the Sonnet, the author discloses that her love even reaches her loved ones even after the death of her. This made me believe that she wants her love not to be taken for granted but remembered by others. She wants her love to impact the lives of others heavily that even after her death, they’ll still remember her presence.
The sonnet that I read this week that was my favorite was “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna ST. Vincent Millay because I liked how the author described in details about the memories of her previous lovers in which she has forgotten in which caught my attention. The phrase that struck me was “the rain is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh upon the glass and listen for reply” the speaker hears ghosts in the rain outside of her window. This indicates that ghosts are being used as a symbol representing the memories of love and her past lovers. The theme I noticed in this sonnet was the loss of the speaker’s memories of love and regrets having loved at all. I noticed the tone of the poem going from a simple remembrance to something being similar to grief. The author used simile when comparing herself as a winter tree that knows its branches used to be louder, more alive but cannot recall the birds that used to live their in which vanished. The speaker realizes she has completely forgotten who made her happy. Another phrase that stood out to me was the last lines “I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more” because it showed me that the speaker’s circumstances hasn’t changed, and she was left with no hope that she will ever experience “summer” meaning she won’t be in love and feel the happiness she once felt before and has forgotten.
ENG 201- 0527
Hey Jasmin Lucero, that’s the same reason why I liked the poem it showed how she forgot how her past lovers. I also believe that she meant that once they were gone she didn’t care to remember them anymore, they were the past and that’s where they supposed to stay. I agreed with your comment and also about the symbols that this poem indicates, you can add that she takes no notice of them anymore. She remembers them but they don’t hold anything on her life.
I have two favorite poem from this week class. The first one is “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)”, the second one is “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” these two count my eyes since the title. In the “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” the first thing that came to my head when I read this title was, the audacity for this man to write about his mistress and imagined he has never written anything about his wife/partner. Reading the poem made me realize that the mistress might not be perfect but they have something unique that it catches his eyes, it might not be her outside beauty but how they connected. The sentence that caught my eye was “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare,” like I stated before her look might not be perfect but their love is unique.
ENG 201- 0527
My favorite sonnet that we read this week was “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” This sonnet was my personal favorite because when you think of Shakespearean poetry you often think of love poems that are heartfelt and romantic but this poem is nothing like that, to me it feels a bit like a parody. The sonnet magnifies his mistress’ ‘flaws’ and initially I was taken aback by the way he spoke about her. For example where he says “And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” As well as “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound” She is nothing like the women other poets write about who are extraordinarily beautiful, which in itself comes off as kind of rude however once you get to the closing couplet of the poem where it says “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.” You see that the poem takes a bit of a turnaround. He acknowledges that his mistress may not be picture perfect but she is special to him at least, regardless of her ‘flaws’.
Of all the sonnets I read, my favorite poem is “My mistress‘ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare. The characteristic of this poem is that Shakespeare described his mistress in a different way from traditional poems. In his poems, Shakespeare did not use some beautiful things to praise and beautify his mistress like traditional poems. On the contrary, he constantly belittled and implied that he was not as good as those beautiful things. such as, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun”. The common point of these poems is that he did not exaggerate the beauty of his mistress in the poem to express his love, but hinted and pointed out her shortcomings through constant depreciation, and let her know that she was not outstanding. Although these verses are very insulting, but at the end, Shakespeare said that “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare”. What this sentence wants to express is that although her mistress has many shortcomings, she is the one she wants to accept and love.
Of the sonnets I read this week, my favorite was “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun.”
I really enjoyed this one because of its comical approach to describing love. Admittedly, I didn’t understand why Shakespeare would write these things about a woman he supposedly loved, especially the line that says her breath stinks, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t see any woman being flattered by this. But, after reading about his reasoning behind this poem, I found it absolutely hilarious, and I loved that the theme of this sonnet was to poke fun at this specific genre of poems because I also find them to be a little trite sometimes. The phrasing that struck me was the line where he says, “I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.” I thought this line was too funny and it stuck out because it was just so honest. I also enjoyed the physical appearance of the poem because every other word rhymed and the fun image you get to make up of what this mistress might look like.
ENG 201
Of the poems assigned this week to read my favorite is the Italian Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barret Browning not only because in my opinion, it is my correct way of love which is “freedom” but also because of the way the author refers to his beloved and as this tells in a specific way the different ways in which he loves, this is an Italian sonnet which means for everyone that it speaks of love and it is true, it refers to love in every sense of the word. The poet speaks of her beloved as if it were her calm and her peace and more than anything else he puts it as her priority more than air and day to day. He sees her as a solution to everything that happens to him, she makes him see the positive part of the bad that can happen to him, but at the same time, I feel that he loves her and knows that although at some point in their life they are no longer together. He will continue to love her with the same intensity. Specifically when he says ¨I shall but love thee better after death¨ which makes me understand that the poet is a believer in what may exist after death and that if there is something beyond that he can continue to love his inspiration in this poem