Please discuss the theme of love in one poem by William Shakespeare OR in one po
ID: 3501142 • Letter: P
Question
Please discuss the theme of love in one poem by William Shakespeare OR in one poem by Edgar Allan Poe OR in one poem by E. B. Browning!!!!!!!!!!
William Shakespeare is one of the greatest poets and dramatists in the history of world literature. Shakespeare was born in Stratford, England on April 23, 1564. Some of his most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet (1595), The Taming of the Shrew (1594), Love's Labor's Lost (1598), Henry V (1599), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1600), The Merchant of Venice (1600), Hamlet (1602), Othello (1603), Macbeth (1605), and King Lear (1605). Shakespeare died in 1616.
With the publication of the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1623 (published after his death) Ben Jonson wrote of his friend and fellow dramatist:
"I confesse thy writings to be such,
As neither man, nor Muse, can praise too much....
He was not of an age, but for all time."
Shakespeare's poems (especially his sonnets) are also very famous. In his sonnet 19, "Devouring Time," Shakespeare asserts the eternity of his poetry and the eternity of his love or lover (who will live forever in his poetry). Other sonnets about the destructiveness of time and mortality and the capacity of the poet to challenge or vanquish mortality and death are: sonnets 55, 64, and 65.
Love is an important and vital theme in Shakespeare's poetry. Sonnet 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," is one of Shakespeare's most famous poems. In this sonnet Shakespeare stresses the importance of true love--he says that in true love the lover does not try to change the beloved but accepts him/her as he/she is. True love for Shakespeare is characterized not only by devotion and commitment but also by eternal vitality. A love that is true will last forever. Some of Shakespeare's other sonnets which focus on the theme of love are sonnets 18, 29, 31, 55, 56, 102, and 104.
In "Shall I compare Thee" Shakespeare asserts that his love (or lover) is more beautiful than the lovely summer day. He also proclaims that his love (or lover) will live forever in this poem and that his poem will perpetually rejuvenate the spirit of his love.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was a great poet and writer of short stories and essays. However, he had a very troubled and problematic personal life, made all the more difficult by his struggles with alcoholism. Some of his most famous poems are "Annabel Lee," "To Helen," "The Raven," "To ---. Ulalume: A Ballad," "Sonnet--To Science," and "The Bells." Some of Poe's most important themes as a poet are love, beauty, death, and the inevitability of mortality.
In "Annabel Lee" the persona, the "I" of the poem, talks about a profound love in his life. He says that because the love which he shared with Annabel Lee was so beautiful and vital, the "seraphs of heaven" became jealous and killed Annabel Lee. Even though Annabel Lee is physically dead, the persona asserts that his soul and the soul of Annabel Lee are united forever. They are eternally one and noone can separate them. The final stanza of the poem shows how close the persona feels to Annabel Lee (and how devoted he is to Annabel Lee). For he lies down by her tomb by the sea. In "To Helen" the persona praises a woman for her extraordinary and classical beauty.
In "A Dream Within a Dream" Poe suggests that life is but a dream. Poe is especially concerned in this work about the inevitable passage of time and about the everpresence of mortality. In the second stanza when the poet writes that he cannot save even one of the grains of golden sand from the "pitiless wave" he expresses a concern about the mercilessness of mortality. The question which Poe raises in the last two lines of the poem: "Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?" applies not only to this poem but also to other of his poetic works as well. For one of Poe's central concerns is the interrelation of dream and reality. Poe also wonders here about the nature of perception: is what we see in the world around us truly "real" or is it just a figment of our imagination?
In his essay "The Poetic Principle," Poe wrote that a long poem does not exist. He also asserts: "I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in ratio of this elevating excitement."
Edgar Allan Poe is also well-known as a writer of stories and tales. Some of his most famous stories are "Ligeia," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Purloined Letter," and "The Cask of Amontillado."
Explanation / Answer
130th sonnet of William Shakespeare is one of the classic sonnets that goes against the traditional poetry that describes one's lover above all the beautiful things on earth. Shakespeare says that his lover is not comparable with the beautiful things in nature but yet his love is far true and high compared to the false comparisons one would make about one's lover. Thus he brings out the truth that it's not physical characteristics that makes one fall in love but it's something beyond the physical attraction that keeps one in love. He reiterates that although his lover is not beautiful, he is still in love. Reality is greater than the imagined comparisons.