English Literature

Poetry is probably the most used and loved form of literature. Compared to short stories or even novels, poems touch all the senses of a person most especially with the senses of sight and sound, even if this happens in the hypothetical sense. After all, for poetry to be understood and most especially to be appreciated, it has to be sights and sounds. The sights would naturally pertain to the images and pictures evoked in the minds eyes while the sounds would be reflected in the rhymes and rhythm of a poem.

With poetry having been written as early as William Shakespeares time until today, and with modern times supposedly more technologically-focused environment, it is no doubt that it is well loved, well-received, and well-appreciatedShakespeares sonnets and the Hallmark cards can attest to that. However, even if poetry is liked well enough, it does not mean that everyone can understand them, for unlike a short story or a novel, a poem has to be brief enough to convey a meaning or a story while evoking emotions within a person in a certain depth. Thus, a poem explication or interpretation would be very challenging as a critic would find different meanings from a poem compared to another critic interpreting the same poem. Nevertheless, there would be certain clues which a critic and a reader can use to fully grasp the meaning of the poem, usually achieved through a careful analysis of metaphorical, figurative, and literary use of words and sometimes, even words that are not written or appearing in the poem. In this case, an explication would be written regarding one of the sonnets of the great playwright, William Shakespeare, as well as one of the poems of another great literary figure in the person of Andrew Marvell. Shakespeare has written many plays and sonnets and among them is Sonnet 130 which cleverly uses a distinct style that renders the emotions behind the poem its due impact. On the other hand, Marvells To His Coy Mistress, is a playful poem that could have angered a modern female but which depicts devoted emotions of the persona towards the addressee.

As with all sonnets, Sonnet 130 is a fourteen-line poem that tells about the feelings and most especially, the perception of the person towards the addressee or she. The entire poem describes the addressee and because of the lines, readers and critics would be able to fully understand what her characteristics are and what role does she play in the personas life.

My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun (Shakespeare, 2009, line 1). The lady in the poem is revered by the persona and she is the personas mistress. Throughout the poem, she is described and more and more taken into great heights of flattery ...her lips red  I love to hear her speak  I grant I never saw a goddess go (Shakespeare, 2009, lines 2, 9, 11). By the time the poem ends, it is understood that the mistress is the personas great love as what the lines, And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare  As any she belied with false compare (Shakespeare, 2009, lines 13-14) would show. Because of this, the poems theme is quite obviousloveand yet, this love, as with any love that a person experiences, is complicated. This complication transpires because the persona does not flatter the mistress in the common way of affection but instead slightly points out her flaws but not to the point of insult Shakespeare clearly intends the couplet to undo the potential damage done to his readers faith that he indeed loves his dusky mistress by the ostensibly denigrating remarks in the... lines (Steele, 2004, 133). In Shakespeares depiction of the theme of love, he uses an unusual style in its portrayal and yet, it still comes out as the same feel-good emotion. In fact, Shakespeare can be even judged as being playful with the composition and structure of his poem, and the fact that he negates any flattering comment about the mistress while at the same time flattering her makes the theme surface more and makes the love that the persona has for the mistress all the more believable and compelling, making Shakespeare (and the persona) stand out as a creative, poetic talent.

In an analysis of the poem, Shakespeares sonnet seems to be an answer or reply to a previously written sonnet as the persona negates all the good and admirable attributes of the mistress. Throughout the poem, the persona keeps taking back positive comments that could have been given by another person towards his mistress. For example, the lines I have seen roses damaskd, red and white  But no such roses see I in her cheeks (Shakespeare, 2009, lines 5-6) could just mean that someone (a poet or another person) has referred to the mistress as having rose-colored cheeks. However, the persona (which is Shakespeare as well) does not approve of this comment and instead states that the mistress has no such roses...in her cheeks that could just mean that the mistress is wan and pale. Nevertheless, the conclusion that the poem is an answer to a previously written poem can be an over-reading or an over-analysis of the sonnet which can sometimes be a bad thing, since over-reading or over-analysis can also lead to wrong interpretation. In this case though, another critic supports this claim as what Steele (2004) states by writing, The peculiar use of she in the final couplet of Sonnet 130 might hint at a direct link between Shakespeares poem and that of another sonneteer (p. 133). Steele (2004) points out that Shakespeare may have composed Sonnet 130 as a reply to a previous poem, but although this premise may never be proven, it is undeniable that Shakespeare wrote the sonnet as a mockery or juxtaposition to the usual theme of the Petrarchan Sonnet

Traditional readings of Shakespeares Sonnet 130 argue that Shakespeare employs Petrarchan imagery while deliberately undermining it. In the fourteen lines of Sonnet 130, Shakespeare seems to undo, discount, or invalidate nearly every Petrarchan conceit about feminine beauty employed by his fellow English sonneteers. (Steele, 2004, pp. 132-133)

The premise is that Shakespeare (the pioneer of the only other form of sonnet known as the English or Shakespearean sonnet) wrote Sonnet 130 as a juxtaposition to a Petrarchan sonnet not because of the structural meter of the poem but because of the poems content. Petrarchan sonnets are known to have themes that are centered on love, most especially that of love that can never be reciprocated nor fulfilled by the other person (Scaglione, 1997). Petrarchan sonnets use much embellishment on the positive traits of the person addressed to the point of being too flowery, too affectionate, and too goodly. In fact, Petrarchan sonnets can be taken under the wings of courtly love as both concepts portray the same thingthe communication of love when the love is absolutely known to be non-reciprocated to the point that there is pleasure in the idea of a frustrated love as what Scaglione (1997) has been pointing out in his critical paper, Petrarchan Love and the Pleasures of Frustration. On the other hand, Shakespeare uses such cunning figurative and metaphorical words in trying to create the concept that a loved one need not be too beautiful to the point of being goddess-perfect, but she can be beautiful because the person is in love. In simple words, it is the love of the person which renders the addressee as goddess-perfect.

Andrew Marvells poem, To His Coy Mistress, has the same theme and same style as that of William Shakespeares Sonnet 130. Though To His Coy Mistress is in a different poetic form and uses more lewd words such as to adore each breast or long preservd virginity (Marvell, 1999, lines 15, 28), it can be discovered later on that each word that Marvell uses in the poem is actually essential to the overall theme of the poem, even if a readers innocence is sacrificed for it.

The poem by Marvell is playful in style and yet as creative and beautifully composed as that of Shakespeares Sonnet 130. Both poems regard the addressee as their mistress and yet, in Marvels case, the mistress is known to be coy or that of being hesitant. The whole poem zeroes in this hesitancy and Marvell (or the persona) explains in detail why the mistress should not hesitate anymore. Because of this, Marvel uses logic and rhetoric to prove that he is correct. As what Roll-Hansen and Sokol (1990) write in their critical paper To His Coy Mistress has long been recognized as fitting a logical pattern... its form helps reveal a very witty play of logic and illogic in the poem, an interplay which heightens feeling (p. 244). This logicalness and illogicalness can be explained by the notion that Marvel points out that this is the situation with something and this is the non-situation of that somethingwhich one would the mistress choose However, this notion can be regarded as absolutely absurd in logic and yet, as what Roll-Hansen and Sokol (1990) point out, Marvell is able to put possibility in the illogicalness of the situation. This illogicalness is delivered by Marvell in his appropriate and selective use of words. An example would be the lines that the persona uses to convince the mistress that if she does not make use of her beauty and virginity, then it would just crumble or be left for the worms to feast on.

Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song then worms shall try That long preservd virginity. (Marvell, 1999, lines 25-28)

What Marvell did is the same as what Shakespeare did in Sonnet 130negating comments while encouraging something. If Shakespeare professes his love by the mockery of the mistress plainness, then Marvell is trying to convince the mistress by his mockery of what would happen if she does not give in.

To conclude, both the poems of Shakespeare and Marvell are the same, but aside from the fact that both use a distinct style in the poem composition, what makes both poems similar is the fact that they center on one theme that seems almost universal to alllove and the idea that anyone would be capable of doing everything in the name of love, even to the point of composing poems.