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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 be sure to include your section number at the end of your response.
79 thoughts on “Week 10 Discussion”
My favorite sonnet in this week’s reading was “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The first thing I noticed when reading the poem was the language, namely the accessibility of it. Although some phrases and words seem outdated, such as “lads,” the overall word use feels immediate and easy to understand, as if she is speaking directly to the reader. This style of delivery brings more potency to the message of the poem, which centers around a sleepless night spent remembering lost loves. This is a truly universal theme, and most everyone can relate to the feeling of contemplating past romances long after they’ve ended. The last stanza, in which she compares her feelings to that of a tree in winter, struck me as especially beautiful. My favorite lines are the last two, “I only know that summer sang in me/A little while, that in me sings no more.” These perfectly end the poem on a melancholy note that is also beautiful and elegant in its delivery.
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Hello, Justine
I agree that the sonnet “What lips have kissed, and where, and why” has more accessibility and is easier to understand for many readers and is also very meaningful. It is also relatable in many ways such as the theme of romance and when it has ended and how emotions drastically change throughout this experience. Also. it talks about the author’s previous lovers and lovers that she has forgotten and moved on from which presents the theme of change.
Justine, I also love the Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet. It’s such a poignant reflection on aging and loss. I also appreciate your comment about the elegance that shines through the melancholy. You definitely “get” this poem. I’m guessing you are quite young, so your response shows a lot of empathy.
Hey Justine, the sonnet you chose was actually my second favorite one. It’s one of those pieces that are almost universally relatable. I can’t speak for everybody but I do catch myself dwelling on past relationships and friendships. Reading this sonnet was nostalgic for me. A lot of forgotten memories resurfaced and I found myself lost in a sea of thoughts. I often try to place myself in the writer’s shoes to try to understand what drove them to write the piece. I can almost feel the writer’s energy and loneliness. I can feel how much regret she has over how life turned out. She is unsatisfied with herself. Also, I agree with the last two lines being the most powerful. They invoke that feeling of emptiness. After reading this piece one message spoke very loud to me which is: Don’t burn bridges. This basically means you should cherish every connection/relationship you make/have, regardless of whether you deem it significant or not.
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Syed, I hope that you and Justine and others who are touched by “What My Lips Have Kissed” are sensitive to the seasonal imagery and how it serves as metaphor for the seasons of life. The speaker in this poem is an older woman, looking back on the summertime of her life. Notice the metaphor of the winter tree from which the birds have fled. It is not necessarily about someone who has regrets but about someone feeling loss for what can never return.
The sonnets read this week each had meaningful ideas and thoughts. However, the poem I liked the best out of all was the Italian sonnet “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett. This poem stood out to me the most because it is similar to a love poem and the wording that the author uses in this poem describes her love for her husband in different ways. In lines two, three, and four it explains that her love is being surrounded and could be negatively affected or passing certain limits and being a graceful person such as God could end, but her love for her husband will remain for an eternity. A specific phrasing that struck me was “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose ,I shall but love thee better after death.” This phrasing explains that even in the afterlife, she will continue to love her husband no matter the circumstances she faces, her love for him will never vanish.
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Hi Gagandeep,
I also thought that was a very beautiful poem, and it was my second choice after the one by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I agree that there is something quite beautiful about the poet expressing the way in which she will love her husband even after death, it’s dramatic but very romantic. I believe that I have heard lines quoted from that poem, but I have never previously read the poem in its entirety. It is perhaps one of the ultimate love poems of all time. Good choice!
Gagandeep, your comments are very well expressed. When referring to lines from a poem though, please quote the lines. No one will understand what you’re referring to if you just say “in line 6” or whatever. Thanks!
Gagandeep I had a different view of the poem I though that even though the poem was intended for her husband it can be related to everyday life and that the part of the poem where she says that “I shall but love thee better after death.” could be used in relation to people who have lost a loved one because even after they have passed they are still loved and remembered everyday after their death.
The sonnet that was my favorite was “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by William Shakespeare. His choice of writing style, blank verse always stood out to me from his other pieces which are one of the reasons for selection. The language in this poem is hard to understand from the first read as his choice of words, ways to describe emotions, and delivery could have most readers puzzled on what it means. It compares a young man’s life to the aspects of summer and states how a man is better than the notable parts of summer’s day. “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:” and “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed:” show how Shakespeare connects back to the young man’s features being greater than nature itself. I found this poem very touching as it gives off a message as greatness is in all of us no matter what perspective we look on life.
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Hi Brandon, I actually have something to add; a footnote of sorts.
I found out that the poem was written to spite the lover poetry during his time, and if we keep this in mind, we can see that Shakespeare is making fun of how normal love poetry would go, with descriptions of “My lover’s breath” smelling worse than “Perfume” which is commonplace during his era.
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My favorite sonnet from this week’s reading was “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poem captured my attention because it is very relatable even though the poem is intended for her husband readers can apply it to their love of anyone in their life that thought really struck me after reading the line “I shall but love thee better after death” I know the author was referring to herself still loving her husband after her death but readers can apply this to themselves if they have ever lost someone in life no matter who it is your love for them is so pure and so strong that you don’t go a day without thinking of them and it’s hard to see everything they have missed or are going to miss but they will forever be alive even after their death because your love for them won’t allow them to be forgotten. That’s why the theme of love and faith in the pome is so important because both of them can surpass anything even death if need be. 0503
Hi Ariadna, when you spoke about your interpretation of “How Do I Love Thee”,
I was reminded of my family members. Death is very real to us, and what you said about loving family after death is reminiscent of certain cultural values that everyone has, like Dia de la Muerte for Hispanics on remembering their deceased loved ones.
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kenix exactly no matter what your culture is whether r you practice Dia de la Muerte or shraddha ceremony or both maybe even lighting a candle or even going to church no matter what you practice or what your religion is everyone has either one or multiple ways to remember their deceased loved ones and that is the most important thing is that they are being remembered not how you do it even if its just sitting around and talking about them.
Hi Ariadna,
At first I really didn’t understand the sonnet ” How Do I Love Thee” until i read it twice and read your interpretation of it and now i understand it better. It explains how a woman loved her husband so deeply until he unfortunately met his death unexpected.But she still loves him because the love she felt for him was so pure and consuming, her husband had a impact of love and kindness of her. As humans, we all experience that type of love with relationship with family and significant others and friendship.
Lizajela, thanks for the comments. The beloved in the poem has not died suddenly, but the speaker is measuring her love in all the ways she can think of—height, depth, distance, through darkness, through light. The ultimate measure she invokes is eternal. She will continue to love him even after he has died.
Ariadna, what you write is true. Love persists beyond death. And maybe we do love even better after the person is gone, distilling the bad memories from the good, as human beings tend to do.
As many people had written, the poem, “What my lips have kissed, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, is the favorite poem that I had the pleasure to read. In comparison to the sonnets I read before by Shakespeare, it was much simpler in its meanings, and yet it had a more profound depth than at first glance. To be fair, Shakespeare’s poetry, or rather the topics covered within is less relatable than the poetry by Millay. That is both caused by what language is used, as well as their tones. Shakespeare jokes about the cliche love poetries of his era through “My mistress’s eyes” yet in the modern era, it is less understandable to us, though it isn’t entirely his fault. His intended audience was of many decades ago, and Millay is more contemporary than him. Millay’s themes are of lovers passed and gone, though I cannot tell beneath her descriptions of loneliness and current solitude on how she got into that situation in the end. The imagery used related well with her thoughts, with “winter” and “lonely tree” fitting well, as we see a leafless willow, though she never expressly stated it be so. Perhaps poems of a more depressive tone are more easily empathized than particularly jokesome poems of that nature.
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Kexin, I hope you noticed the meaning of the imagery. The speaker invokes the seasons of nature to suggest the seasons of a life. Clearly, this woman is older now and the “summertime” of her life has passed.
Hi Kexin,
I really liked this poem too. It was between this one and Sonnet 18 for me because they both talk about beauty and the passing of time and eternal love. I think that the speaker talks about the seasons of the year, like many poets do to reflect the seasons of like because in the early days of life it is spring and summer while the twilight and end of life is the fall and winter. It reminds me of the Robert Frost poem that is recited by the protagonist Ponyboy in the novel the Outsiders. Nothing gold can stay…
Guilia, what you write about the imagery of seasons is true. The speaker in this poem, however, is also praising poetry itself, which keeps the lover alive long after he or she has left the earth. It’s true, isn’t it? We are reading about this beloved one 500 years after the writing of the poem.
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My favorite sonnet in this week reading was “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” because throughout the poem Shakespeare mentions all the flaws his mistress has but in the end he realizes he loves her despite all the “flaws” she has. In my opinion, the poem is describing what society excepts woman to look like and if she doesn’t fit that image, people will look at her like she isn’t beautiful and treat her differently. The man in the poem loves her despite what society thinks of her. He realizes that loving a person isn’t based on her looks or what hair color, skin color, and lip color are. Loving a person is bigger than that, it’s about how that person makes you feel, how well you two get along with each other and how that person is completing your soul not the image society wants for a couple to be. The poem goes deep than a man criticizing her mistress, the realization of actual beauty, and love vs. love bonded by society norms and dictatorship.
Lizanjela, yes, Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare is quite remarkable. In addition to commenting on love that goes beyond the superficial, the speaker is also making some mockery of overly flowery poetry, especially the sonnets of the Italian poet Petrach.
Hi Lizanjela, First I would like to mention your response is absolutely beautiful the way you depict the love that comes from the poem was exactly the way I was thinking. However, to go more in depth I do see the writer pointing out his love’s flaws but not to exactly criticizing her in my opinion I see it as something that defines her, make her different from any woman in society, this is why he loved her. Furthermore, when talking about beauty in society I see it as very difficult because many people always creates a certain criteria or preference that stops people from going pass someones looks.
The hopeless romantic that I am, I was a fan of most of these sonnets. The one that stands out to me the most is Sonnet 130- “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” The reason I like this poem is because of its irony. It does not sound like he likes this woman very much. Her cheeks are not rosy, her lips are not red, her breath smells, her hair is like wire, and she does not have a pleasant voice. Yet, after spending most of the sonnet creating an image of a dislikeable woman, the author goes on to say ” And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.”
This gives a unique message that is not found often, even in modern art. The author believes this woman to be special and rare and seems to desire her regardless.
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Hi Sima,
I like this poem too. And I agree with your idea which is “It does not sound like he likes this woman very much”. When I reading this poem, I have the same thoughts as you. The comparison the poet use creates an image of the woman and makes me feel the poet complaining about his lover. And it makes me curious about this poet and has a question for this poet why he compares his lover negatively.
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Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare was my favorite sonnet from this week. The poem is about a man’s love and admiration for the woman that he cares deeply for. The theme of the poem is eternal love and time. Time is something that cannot be stopped. The beauty of the girl is compared to the beauty and warmth of summertime. In fact she is more beautiful than a summers day. But summertime goes too quickly and like all things must end. There is a tragic tone to the sonnet because it speaks about youth and beauty and summertime which must all eventually give way to the fall and winter which can be compared to the end of something beautiful and death. The line “thy eternal summer shall not fade” means the beauty of the girl can never die in the eyes of the man. And even after the man is dead, her beauty will still have existed and that can never be taken away from the world, even though everyone must die and all things must come to an end.
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Hi Giulia!
I really like your interpretation of sonnet 18 because it is very different from the takeaways I had. At first I did not think of the sonnet to have a tragic tone at all because I thought overall it was so warm, light and fuzzy that whoever he was writing it about must have been praised and loved by him or the person he could have been creatively writing as (like a fictional character). Yet your explanation of his writing does propose a new notion that maybe it is a bit sad or tragic because it touches a theme of death and as you explained “all things must come to an end.” Which is pretty tragic in a way. Therefore I appreciate your response and your interpretation.
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My favorite sonnet that I read this weak was Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. I loved this poem because it felt very detached from the idea of what the average sonnet was about. The video on Italian and Elizabethan sonnets explained that many sonnets were based around the theme of love. We see that in Shakespeare’s sonnet however he also deviates from the path by describing his love as deeper than physical beauty and that is what made this sonnet so appealing to me. Aside from that, his use of imagery in every line was amazing. Shakespeare describes his love through all the senses, even smell, which added to my understanding of the piece. In the last line Shakespeare also claims that his love is more special because it is a real love unlike the love for women solely for beauty, which speaks to love today as well since not much has changed. Beauty is often something people search for first but people often find their way around physical beauty and love people for who they are even today in comparison to Shakespeare’s era.
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The sonnet that was my favorite is “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare. This poem mostly draws my attention because of the poet’s description of his lover. From the poem, the poet states “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,… But no such roses see I in her cheeks”(lines 2-6). These lines give an image of the poet’s lover. When I reading these lines, I feel like he is complaining about his lover. And make me have is he really loves his lover. Also, I was curious about if a person loves a person and can compare their lover negatively? I like this poem because it makes me think and make me have a question for this poem and the poet.
Jiaxian, those are wonderful things to get from reading a poem—the impulse to think more deeply and the wish to ask the poet a question!
Out of all the sonnets my favorite one had to be What lips my lips have kissed, and where and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The reason why this particular sonnet caught my attention was the fact that the author uses a melancholic tone, where she almost express how she misses or longs to feel close to a person in a physical and emotional way since they have “come and go”; she also mentions that she feels she has grown too old, maybe to express she can no longer experience love or that the love she had was young and can never return. This poem also uses live and happiness as a way to let the readers empathize with emotions that disappear through time “in my heart there stirs a quiet pain for unremembered lads.”
It also uses multiple literary devices such as personifications and imagery that helps the reader understand the vulnerability the author wants to transmit. “there stirs a quiet pain,” is full of ghosts tonight.”
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My favorite sonnet in this week’s reading would have to be “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St . Vincent Millay. What really caught me while reading this poem was how that it was a short romance poem however it was very different so the author wanted you to think and imagine what they meant while reading It in a way . And how the poems wording was slightly old school you can say such as “Thus” and “Lain”, people today don’t really speak like that . But What I favorited from the author was how she described her feels with objects for instance according to the poem she said “Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree , Not knows what birds have vanished one by one “ , what I’m guessing is she is describing how she is feeling wise . My favorite line from the poem is “I cannot say what loves have come and gone , I only know that summer sang in me ; A little while , that in me sings no more “ . I honestly can relate to what she said in a way and it was a great ending for the poem because it matches with the title and what it is basically about
Zhanasia Young
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Hi Zhanasia,
I liked the sonnet “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why”. There was a feeling of darkness in her writing. The theme was about love, more specifically, love lost. Many men have fallen in love with the narrator and she feels a pain, not for any man, but for the “unremembered lads” collectively. I think the narrator is comparing herself to the lonely tree and the birds are all the men that have come and gone. The darkness or pain is expressed in, “I only know that summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings no more.” The narrator felt a passionate love at one point but that passion has passed and dimmed.
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Kenny and Zhanasia, consider the seasonal imagery here in relation to the seasons of a human life. I think this may shed new light on your reading of “What My Lips Have Kissed.”
Zhanasia, do you glean from the seasonal imagery in “What My Lips Have Kissed . . .” an analogy to old age? The speaker wakes on a rainy night, remembering her youth and the boys she once kissed. The seasons in the poem suggest the seasons of a human life.
“How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett was my favorite sonnet. I liked the powerful theme of love. Love is expressed in a way that seems to go beyond the words. Elizabeth Barrett writes, “I love thee to the depth, and breadth and height my soul can reach”, expresses a love that is intangible and unbound. I like Barrett attempts to explain this passionate love on scales large and small, the soul being large and small conveyed by, “I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need.” Even during mundane moments in life, this love exists with the same passion and intensity. “I shall but love thee better after death”, shows how this love is greater than life itself and it will carry on, even past physical life. I liked this sonnet because it made me feel the powerful feeling of love that Barrett is writing about in her sonnet.
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Hi Kenny,
It’s interesting to see that the piece you picked is the opposite of what I picked. Barrett took the more traditional approach to writing this sonnet compared to Sonnet 130 that Shakespeare wrote. In this piece, the writer was more direct in her approach to describing her love. You addressed that throughout your comment, but even more so when you sais “Love is expressed in a way that seems to go beyond the words.” It was also in good taste that you mentioned how powerful the theme of love is in this sonnet, and I definitely agree. I also thought that you did a good job in explaining the lines as well as showing the specific lines you are addressing.
Hi Kenny,
I think you did a great job of capturing the message the poet wished to convey. I think the great part about this poem, is the spirituality it is infused with. The author is comparing love with other things that are intangible and unmeasurable, or things that are known to all of us, but not spoken of, as you mention “I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need.”
From all the sonnets we’ve read this week, I liked Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” best. At first, I was a bit puzzled as to how he kept using metaphors for negative comparisons. He describes: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; the coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” He is already pointing out his lover’s flaws in this first quatrain. He kind of described his lover’s eyes not being as lively or such as the sun, her lips not being as red as a coral’s red, and he also compared her hair to black wires; all of his comments were not what people would usually use to describe their lovers. He proceeds in doing so in the second and third quatrains as well. However, in his couplet, he reveals why he mentioned his lover’s flaws: it’s to emphasize that he acknowledges that she is flawed, but he loves her anyway. In his couplet, he states “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare.” He loves her just the way she is.
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Hello Gwneyth
“My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun” was one of my 4th favorite sonnets i like the comparsing about the negative comparsions it actually keep us wonder even more about each comparsions. It actually gives you an overall understandng about the poem and i am glad you pointed each metaphors that you mention. The metaphors actually gives a clear undertanding and makes me visulize each of the comparsions that you mention in this poem. As you mention, my favorite line from this poem would be ” 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”. overall, it’s sweet and thoughtful how no matter what he loves just on how she is, as he should be without any judgement as the line being mentioned and loves her with the imperfections and how she this special woman and this gem woman she is. At the end, it states And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.”
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Hello Gwyneth, I found your response very interesting since your one of the very few who chose this sonnet, I agree with you at first I Was a little skeptic about it but as I read it more times I realized that Shakespeare wants to communicate in this poem that everyone has flaws, in order to really describe his love for a person he wants the reader to accept them for who they are and accept their “unperfect nature”. He wants the audience to perceive that love also has ita flaws but what matters is that we accept them and embrace them.
After reading the sonnets this week in my opinion i actually had two favorite sonnets for this week “ Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, and my second favorite sonnet is “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St, Vincent Millay. However, in the sonnet “shall i compare thee to a summer day” the phrases that actually stood out to me was Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines” and also And often is his gold complexion3 dimmed. “ However, after re-reading the What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St, Vincent Millay this would consider as my one of my favorite sonnets. In the Sonnets, the line that stood to me the most was the first line,” What lips my lips have kissed, and where, the speaker is showing the parts that been lost on “What” been kissed, the “Why” they kissed and also “Where” they kissed. It made question anyone, if they ever felt like this through their previous relationship’s that cannot remember their lovers of their past? This line, made me rethink a little more about my own previous relationship’s but “what”, “why” and “where.” In the sonnet, the other line that stood out to me was .. “what arms had lain under my head till morning” this is showing how the romantic past is gone, it’s like her mind did not retain them. also the other line that stood out to me was “and in my heart there stirs a quiet plan”, this whole being “quiet” it’s quite interesting. In the sonnets, the other line that stood to me as well was “turn to me at midnight with a cry. “ this is implying as she is this tree that’s being left alone without any of the companionship, i feel we can related and having all these emotions as it’s being described in the sonnet. In the next line, that also comes with the previous line how “Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,” how the branches are more silent then they was before which is showing the speaker that she is more alone that she has been in the past there’s more lonely than she cannot remember when she actually had a companionship. also, lastly the last section of the poem “summer sang in me a little while, that inmate sings no more.” is showing her as that emotional side that the speaker continues on comparing herself to the tree. The summer as the feelings of happiness and a partner on the side as well, the ending is quite sad as it’s mention “ A little while, that in me sings no more.” Overall, i enjoyed both of the sonnets and i would most likely recommend anyone to these poems.
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I liked sonnet 18 the most because I’ve read and listened to it before, but never really took the time to understand it. I searched who the sonnets were intended for at the time they were written and I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of Shakespeare’s work addressed males, and not only women. According to what I researched, it can be debated whether Shakespeare wrote as himself or through a made up character. But regardless, I liked the poem because the comparison to nature creates this visual in my head of someone who could be that calming, and exciting all at once. I understand that he compares the person’s physical beauty to summer, but I image an internal beauty being compared as well because the entire feel of the poem is warm and peaceful like many days can be during the summer. Provides a sense of calm that other seasons may not provide as well as summer can. However summer is also exciting because it’s the time people can explore and enjoy themselves. And it seems the person Shakespeare was writing about at the time made him think or feel in those ways. Now I don’t know what summer was like at the time Shakespeare wrote sonnet 18, but from what he describes it seems like overall whoever he was writing about was beautiful and significant enough to be written about. Whether it was a real person or not.
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Samantha, also consider the last lines of the poem and what they suggest about the power of poetry to keep a subject alive. We know about this beautiful man or woman being described only because Shakespeare wrote this sonnet. The poet is praising his craft a bit here too.
Section 0503: Hello Samantha, after reviewing what you have said about sonnet 18 I do have to agree that I enjoy as well the way William Shakespeare compares nature to the person. It is interesting that you talk about how you think he’s talking about the person’s internal beauty as well and I agree because to me she is speaking about how great the person is as a whole not just physically and he is expressing the immense love he has for this person.He goes on about how the person makes him feel alive, or as you mentioned excited like summer makes people.
My favorite sonnet from this week’s reading was “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poem caught my eyes because it is so relatable indeed though the poem is dedicated for her companion readers can utilize it to their feeling of anyone in their lifetime that idea connected to me after examining the words “I shall but love thee better after death” I understand the writer was suggesting to herself still loving her companion following her passing but, anyone can apply that to themselves if people have ever lost someone in their life no matter who it was your love for them is genuine and powerful that you don’t go without thinking of them all the time and it’s difficult to understand everything they will not experience but, they will eternally be alive in you even after their passing because your passion for them won’t allow them to be forgotten. That’s why the theme of passion and belief in the pome is so powerful because both of them can transcend even death if this is the case.
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Out of all the sonnets we have read today, my favorite one definitely has to be “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare. I quite enjoyed this sonnet, mainly because I am more familiar with Shakespeare’s plays and it was nice to read one of his other pieces of work. The fact that it was an unconventional poem about someone’s lover made it more interesting to read. The love conveyed by the poem was more indirect because Shakespeare spoke of his mistress’s less appealing characteristics. It was still a poem of love however, because in the end, Shakespeare goes on to say “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare” (13-14). Despite all the unpleasant traits that his mistress possesses, Shakespeare still thinks she is one in a million. I think Shakespeare is trying to convey a deeper message about true love. True love lies beyond external appearances. To love someone means that you have become fond of their uniqueness, whether pleasant or not, and have come to love them for who they are on the inside. While reading this sonnet I visualized it being told from the perspective of an older man who had been with his mistress for quite some time. The man had grown accustomed to his mistress and was now seeing only her flaws. However, his love for her was still there. It was a more realistic take on love which is why this sonnet is my favorite.
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Section 0503: In my opinion the poem Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare was the best or in other words was my favorite. It was my favorite because I’ve always liked Shakespeare’s work and I always loved a good love poem or story. The way Shakespeare compares ,from what I interpret, his love To the season of Summer is quite lovely. Through this you show his appreciation of this person’s beauty. I’m through the word choice he shows the love he has for this person. By starting off by speaking of the bad things of summer like how its beauty eventually fades or goes away, he then speaks of how the one he’s writing ofs beauty will never fade, how everyone will know of their beauty even after death because his words that he writes. He expresses that their beauty will live on forever or as long as people continue to read this poem. I think it is beautiful to have such a love and express it in this way to let free this deep emotion and let the person know.
Alexis, I am glad you mention the tribute to poetry itself that is offered in Sonnet 18.
My favorite sonnet that I read this week was “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. First of all, I really enjoyed the solemn tone that was presented throughout the sonnet up until the end where it seems as if the poet came to a sense of acceptance of her situation, but a sad tone is still surrounding this acceptance. When the poet said “And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain,” I feel as if it allowed me, as a reader, to relate to the feeling of heartbreak that I have endured due to my own complicated relationships. I feel as if this poem could be interpreted in a way that says the poet has clearly had a colorful past of relationships and love, but maybe she is someone that struggles with allowing someone to show her the love she is longing for. It is as if she is mourning over lost love that she prevented herself from fully experiencing and wallowing in her misery is punishment for such. The poet describes her loneliness and solitude to be similar to a “lonely tree” standing in winter. It makes me feel as if these emotions she’s experiencing are fighting a form of discomfort and torture. At the end of the poem, she comes her acceptance of her situation by recognizing her previous experiences and realizing they were now in the past.
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Soraya, I think people feeling any kind of loss can relate to “What My Lips Gave Kissed,” but I think if you look closely at the seasonal imagery in this poem, you’ll see that the speaker is lamenting the intractable loss of youth and the love and pleasure that accompanies it.
Hi Soraya, this sonnet in particular was my second favorite after sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. In your response, I like how you address the tone of the author because this crucial to understanding the story. The author sounds very sad in the ending because she talks about the tree standing on it own in the winter. We all know that winter has cold months and like you said the author could be experiencing some type of pain. Also, in this sonnet, when the author spoke about the birds leaving one by one I knew that a sense of loneliness could be detected.
My favorite sonnet to read this week was “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)” because I found it Ironic. The sonnet was basically describing a mistress. Shakespear explained how she wasn’t pretty but she couldn’t be compared to anyone. In the past 3 generations or more women have been sexualized. For example, in most rappers’ songs, they talk about how short a girl’s skirt is or how thick she is. I could go on and on. You never hear people, especially a man, describe a woman being so basic. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;” (line 1-2) these lines are just a part of Shakespear’s description. In the end he ends with “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.” Being the poem’s theme is beauty, this poem is beautiful in my opinion. At the end of the day even though a woman is basic and simple no one can compare her.
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Hello Patricia, I love how you compared Shakespeare’s sonnet to today’s rapper’s lyrics, it is the ugly truth that everyone focuses on physical appearances even today. I love this sonnet as well, I thought it was very insulting to a female until I read the last line when the speaker expresses his love for the mistress. The mistress is not a goddess but she is uncomparable with her inner beauty. I agree this poem is beautiful, it teaches us to focus on inner beauty. The ugly metaphors make the sonnet very special, I feel that I’ve learned some new descriptive lines from it.
I really appreciate your post about how basic not being spoken about. You hit the nail on the head when you said that women are constantly sexualized. It was refreshing to read something about a mistress who was appreciated because she was normal looking.
@patie
Thajmire, it’s unclear whom you are addressing or what conversation we are following.
My favorite sonnets read this week was “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)” by William Shakespeare. I love how Shakespeare uses physical descriptions by using ugly metaphors, yet he is expressing his love for her imperfection. I also love how the speaker describes society’s interpretation of a female, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red.” A female at the time was expected to be beautiful and elegant with red lips and a rosy cheeks, “but no such roses see I in her cheeks; ” William Shakespeare shares his idea of love should be focused on the inner beauty than physical appearances. Loving someone by accepting their negative aspect is equally important. Although the sonnet was originally published in 1609, isn’t it what the society’s expectation of a female in 2020?
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Ellen, I have to agree that not very much has changed with respect to the importance society places on the physical beauty of women.
Hey Ellen, I totally agree with you. Women have always had high beauty standards to compare to. Shakespeares appreciation for this women’s simple looks proves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that to truly love you must love the person past their looks. A person’s flaws or shortcomings can be seen as equally attractive.
The sonnet I chose to be my favorite, was sonnet 130 “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun” by William Shakespeare because of how it made me smile. When reading this poem, I had known the theme of this would be love is rare. The first few lines of the poem suggest that these are the flaws of the woman he had loved, “If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head” or “in some perfumes I there more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” However, what I believe is that these are the flaws that everyone sees but not you, you only see the person you love as someone precious to you “and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare”. This had made me smile because in my experience, I see my girlfriend as the perfect person to me what other people see as flaws, I see it as something that makes her amazing. When talking about love, I like to use the analogy of a rose with thorns; with each thorn comes a flaw but if a person can go through these thorns, comes something indescribable which is essentially love. (ENG 201 0505) [11615]
My favorite sonnet assigned to us this week was “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Personally, I have a very difficult time understanding Shakespeare’s language; therefore, I am unable to relate to and understand the themes in most of his work. The language used by Edna St. Vincent Millay was very simple and more modern making it easier to understand. The theme of lost and forgotten lovers and her memories are very relatable to most of her readers. Edna St. Vincent Millay set a somber tone while she reflected back on her past lovers and why she made the decisions she made. The theme of the story not only was love but more about morning. A phrase that particularly stood out to me was “Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree”. The imagery Edna St. Vincent Millay used allowed the reader to truly understand her feelings. I believe she used “winter” to refer to a lonely, cold time. She was referring to herself as the “tree”. The “tree” being herself; isolated and alone in “winter”. I found “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” beautiful based on the language, imagery, and tone Edna St. Vincent Millay used as well as the theme she was conveying.
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Ava, your comments are good, but I hope you will revisit the poem with special attention to the seasonal imagery. In this poem, it is used to suggest the seasons of a human life. This speaker has not necessarily made poor decisions; she is feeling the loss of youth and the pleasures that come with it.
Out of the sonnets given this week, my favorite was How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This one is my favorite because it shows a strong unbreaking love from one person to another. She begins the sonnet with “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” then proceeding to list the multiple and passionate ways that she loves this person, it gives the sonnet a feeling of a lovestrucken woman who is so deeply in love with her counterpart she even goes to say “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death” Which shows not only the strength of her love but the passion and how much she really does love this person, as to love them even after she has passes away. Its an loving sonnet, that gives depth and meaning to every word said and gives so much meaning to the
word “love”.
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Out of all the Italian sonnets, I really enjoyed “My Mistress Eyes are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare because his insulting words of his lady actually turns out to be someone that he admires. Throughout this short excerpt, he compares her to natural items that are typically beautiful, but he says that his mistress exemplifies the complete opposite. Simply by the title there is a strong sense of irony, “My Mistress Eyes are Nothing like the Sun”. When someone talks about their mistress, a person they love, they would speak highly of them and give them the glorification that they deserve. Then he continues to point out her flaws when he says, ” But no roses see I in her cheeks”. As a reader, I interpreted this as her cheeks do not have a natural blush to them and she can’t be seen as beautiful in his eyes. He uses multiple metaphors in this poem, but this one in particular her cheeks do not shine like roses. Also, he goes on to argue that her breath has an awful smell to it and he has smelled perfumes that have given him more delight. Finally, he proves that he admires her a lot when he says, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare. As any she belied with false compare”. The feelings that he has for her is something that he cannot find any where else but in her.
Hi Jaden!
I have to agree with your comment about how the insulting words are directed towards someone he admires. It reminds me about the stereotypical grade-school boy that picks on the girl he likes. I feel as if this sonnet reflects a bit of immaturity and pettiness presented by William Shakespeare, but with how compelling his testament is, it’s a bit difficult to detect such. I also feel as if this sonnet is a great example of a significantly outdated mindset. Given how pro-active women are in this current generation with fighting for equal acceptance, regardless of their attributes, this sort of literature could be taken out of context with how contradictory it is.
Jaden, please just be aware that Shakespeare’s sonnets are not Italian sonnets. Please review the short Youtube video on sonnets on the week 10 page.
My favorite sonnet from this week’s readings was Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare. His comparison of his friend’s beauty to a magnificent summer day is a timeless one. It is a classic love poem. In line 2 Shakespeare says “Thou art more lovely and more temperate,” which implies he feels like maybe an ideal summers day should compare itself to his friend. He continues to lists reasons why his friend is better than a summer’s days. Cliched metaphors could never express how beautiful this person is. Not only are they beautiful on the outside but they have an eternal youthfulness that can never be taken away even in death. He expresses this in lines 9-11 when he says, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’ st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’ st in his shade.” I really enjoyed his vow to preserve this person’s beauty in the sonnet, which can be seen as a brag when he says, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’ st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.” This person lives eternally through this sonnet as long as there is a reader.
Wow I have read these sonnets before in highschool, But my favorite sonnet in this weeks reading was “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The theme in this sonnet it Love and Loss. The speaker expresses her affection to whom ever she is speaking about which in this sonnet its “thee”, she is trying to list the different types of loves shes feeling. For example in lines 7-9 she say “i love thee” which is her way of listing the type of love she feels. In lines 10 I get a sense of her losing people as she mentions “in my old griefs” so she is probably talking about her past , and everyone she once used to love, And In line 11 was my favorite line because it made everything make sense! she said ” I love thee with a love I seemed to lose” which puts me under the impression that the love she feels for “thee” is a different type of love something that shes been missing out of and its a good feeling.
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My favorite sonnet is actually Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, which I had actually read back in high school. I took the course in Shakespeare in my senior year as I had always been interested in history. We read this in the beginning of the year and this was one of the sonnets I had chosen to analyze. It compares his lover to items others found beautiful, but admits that she is bland in comparison. I always found this surprising as you would expect someone to write lovely, romantic things about their lover, but Shakespeare thinks she even lacks comparison to goddesses who are elegant and otherworldly, saying, “I grant I never saw a goddess go; /My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.” When writing a love poem you want to make them feel like they are invincible, like no other, and above others. He does not admit that he is truly in love until the end, however, I think this is quite a sweet twist. He believes he doesn’t need to compare his lover to other pretty things as she is enough herself.
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My favorite of this week’s reads would have to be “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare. Although his mistress-piece was amusing, I was not as attracted to it as I was to the first piece did. We can all relate ourselves to a “love to a summer day’, for example ‘And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed’.
As we may have a small amount of time with one another we can see our partners or loved ones in the good and the bad. The last part of the sonnet ‘So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.’ By far the strongest part of this poem. My interpretation of those two sentences reminds of someone resigning their vows on there special day say “til’ death do us part.”
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