Compare the way the poets write about love Essay

A sonnet is traditionally a hunch forward poem, with 14 lines and generally ending with a couplet. The two sonnets I am comparing treat the nature of love, but portray two completely different human relationships between lovers. While browns poem is an ode to a pure, simple and almost childlike love, Shakespeares is a critique of his relationship, in which both sides play a game of double-bluff. This poem mocks the idea of true love. We sense simply from the titles that, while Brownings Sonnet is an expression of heartfelt emotions, Shakespeares Sonnet 138 is just another meaningless work out of many, perhaps like his mistresses.Brownings work is extremely feminine and is almost certainly about her husband, as she was married, as opposed to the masculine view of women in Shakespeares era that mistresses were disposable. I believe that Shakespeare has written this sonnet about a mistress rather than his wife, Anne Hathaway, because the untruthfulness in the relationship shows a lack of commitment between the two lovers. In these poems, the attitudes of the poets to their relationships and partners are extremely different.When Browning says, I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can r for each one, she implies that she cannot live without her lover, so of course this is wherefore she stays with him. However, in Shakespeares case, he stays with his mistress because he knows he is past his prime and no longer a handsome, young stiff man. Her lies of being faithful and her reassuring him that he is young in her mind flatter his ego, despite his knowledge of her untruthfulness.Perhaps by saying thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, he is trying to confound himself believe this, because he says, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue, so he actually prize her for considering his feelings. He cannot be angry with her for lying to him because he reciprocates in the matter. He is happy in the situation, and believes that his lover thinks he is nai ve and unlearned in the worlds false subtleties. He seems to fear being alone and not being able to obtain another mistress.This is in sharp contrast to Brownings sense of security with her lover, and feeling of openness and honesty. There is a quality of immortality to her love that is suggested in the phrase, I shall but love thee better after end. The nature of the two relationships differ a great deal we sense that , while Browning conveys a love that is very spiritual and uncomplicated, Shakespeares relationship is more sexual without much actual love.Religious words and imagery, such as Grace, Praise, Faith, Candlelight and God are utilize to reinforce the feeling of purity in Sonnet. Meanwhile, in Sonnet 138, Shakespeare says, Therefore I lie with her, and her with me, using the double entendre of sex as thoroughly as untruthfulness and suggests that he has purely sexual motives for being in the relationship. He poses the idea that they are kept together by the fact that they lie to each other, because he creates the situation of them in bed together as they have not broken up as a result of being truthful.The style used in both poems gives more reinforcement the conflict between the two sonnets. In Sonnet, many of the lines begin simply with the words, I love thee. This simplistic, repetitive style gives Brownings piece a childlike quality and supports the message of innocence that is interweaved into the poem. She says she loves him with her childhoods Faith, showing that she loves him wholeheartedly and has no doubts, like a child loves its parent because they know no better.She could therefore see her husband as a father encrypt as he protects her and gives her stability. On the other hand, language is used to the opposite effect in Shakespeares Sonnet 138. The childhood aspect of this poem is associate to gullibility. He makes use of negative words such as lies, unjust, untutord and false to show that he does not believe in love. victimisation these words in rhyming couplets lies and subtleties even more pronounces the negative imagery.The sonnet out of the two that I prefer is Sonnet 138 by Shakespeare. This is because he has make a break from the traditional style of sonnets, which usually exhault the ideal of love and describe it in all its beauty. He takes the idea of love and almost mocks it, satirising the orthodox style of other sonnets. More complex language is used within the sonnet, unlike Brownings simple prose. The impact of both of the poems is that they make us think about love in very different ways.