The Renaissance - - Sonnets
Shakespeare’s poem makes you notice that he only rhymes twice. In other words the word at the end of his sentence is only used two times to make to lines while the word still rhymes. Whereas Spencer’s poem prefers to use rhyme A twice B and C four times, line D twice and rhyme E twice. I prefer Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme you don’t have to come up with a couple of lines that rhyme you just have to come up with two.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet
The first section is asking if he can compare her to a summer’s day. So before the person gives a response he compares her anyway. So basically what I’m saying is in the first paragraph he is comparing a summer’s day to a person. In the second section he is actually explaining what a hot summer’s day is like. Section three he sort of puts section one and two together and flips the meaning. He goes on to explain how his beautiful summer will not change and wither away. In section four he sums it up by basically saying that as long as men can breathe or eyes can see life will always come back to his summer, that’s what I think he is saying.
Edmund Spencer’s Sonnet
The first section of this poem is asking why the women he is talking to (or trying to talk to) is so cold, he is comparing himself to fire and her to ice. In section two of the poem he is saying how he knows he has great exceeding heat but not enough heat to melt her frozen heart. Section three is the turn, in this section he is talking about how fire should melt everything and how ice harden everything, but also how ice should kindle fire in the end. In section four he sums up by saying that love is so gentle that he can alter all courses of kind. So I guess he is saying that if he shows her enough kindness love will melt her icy heart.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 23
"As an unperfect actor on stage"
As an unperfect actor on the stage (A)
Who with his fear is put besides his part, (B)
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, (A)
Whose strength’s abundance weakens his own heart. (B)
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So I, for fear of trust, forget to say (C)
The perfect ceremony of love’s rite, (D)
And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay, (C)
O’ercharged with burden of mine own love’s might. (D)
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O, let my books be then the eloquence (E)
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast, (F)
Who plead for love and look for recompense (E)
More than that tongue that more hath more express’d. (F)
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O, learn to read what silent love hath writ: (G)
To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit. (G)
Section 1- is telling how a actor can be very good at his job but when it comes to standing in front of huge crowds the actor becomes a coward. Even though the actor may be playing a very brave person in the play this person is put aside and his real character comes through. Section 2- in this section he saying that even though he knows his lines he forgets to go by them. Instead his strength starts to decay from the entire burden put on his part in the play. Section 3- I guess here he’s praying that his strength doesn’t leave him, he’s preying that his book sense helps him through.
Spencer’s Sonnet 75
"One day I wrote her name upon a strand"
One day I wrote her name upon the strand, (A)
But came the waves and washed it away: (B)
Again I wrote it with a second hand, (A)
But came the tide, and made pains his prey. (B)
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Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay (B)
A mortal thing so to immortalize! (C)
For I myself shall like to this decay, (B)
And eek my name be wiped out likewise. (C)
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Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise (C)
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: (D)
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize, (C)
And in the heavens write your glorious name; (D)
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Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue, (E)
Our love shall live, and later life renew. (E)
Section 1- basically he writes her name in the sand the waves washed it away but that didn’t stop him. He still wrote her name over but the tide came again. Section 2- to me she’s saying that he worships her like a god when she is not. She probably feels that he should just wipe her name from that title. Section 3- To me he’s telling her that he doesn’t care about how she feels. He is still going to treat her the same way even after he is long gone, because he says. "And in the heavens write your glorious name."
