Idea of Love in Shakespeare's Sonnets and John Done's Songs and Sonnets Term Paper

Shakespeare's sonnets and John Done's songs & sonnets

William Shakespeare was one of the world's most renowned playwrights the Renaissance period provided to the cultural life. John Donne was as well an important writer of the 17th century that addressed issues such as love, death, duty, in his work through different perspectives.

Taking into account a common theme such as love can do a comparison of the two poets Shakespeare and Donne can be done. This subject was a recurring theme for the period and there have been many perspectives on the matter.

An important source of analysis for the way in which Shakespeare dealt with love and his views on it are the sonnets the poem wrote especially during the period of the beginning of the 17th century. There have been different stages of creation that provide different themes. However, one of the most important "characters" of Shakespeare's sonnets is the Dark Lady that has often been associated with the recurring theme of love in his sonnets.

The Dark Lady of the sonnets can be considered as having been the muse in Shakespeare's love sonnets. Although she is not present in name in any of the sonnets, her appearance is obvious and is associated with love. This may be considered a recurrent aspect in Shakespeare's work, because, in most of his writings, love is seen as a mysterious and in the end unattainable state of mind. Love in William Shakespeare is not a feeling that can be enjoyed by anybody, as it has to be won and afterwards kept in secrecy. Most of the times, love implies the ultimate sacrifice as it has been seen in most of Shakespeare's plays in which characters that have attained the posture of lovers have often been put to pay the ultimate price. From this point-of-view, the Dark Lady of the sonnets is only imagined and never identified.By comparison, John Donne's writings on love do not have a clear character as central for the sonnets, but rather love in Donne's approach is more visible and approachable.

In order to have a better consideration for the way in which the two writers approached love, it is important to view two sonnets. Therefore, Shakespeare's sonnet number 127 and Donne's sonnet "The Flea" both take into account the issue of love from different perspectives.

Shakespeare's sonnets are not given titles but rather numbers. This is to point out that often there are more subjects than just one being approached by a sonnet. In Sonnet 127, Shakespeare's presents fully the image of the Dark Lady. More precisely, the issue of love is conveyed through the image the writer creates of the Dark Lady. In this sense, "Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black / Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem." The author presents this image as being the ultimate indication of beauty although in the past, such beauty was not often associated with love, but rather with a shameful face. However, such beauty was now the essence of love. It is rather difficult to ascertain whether this love was physical in nature or of more substantive kind. Even so, the sonnets portray a great tension and at the same time a statement concerning the physical aspect of a woman.

Shakespeare also points out another recurring theme that was widely dealt with in perhaps his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet. The theme of the name is a crucial one in his writings. Therefore in the sonnet, he note that "in the old age black was not counted fair / And if it were, it bore not beauty's name." The writer addresses the issue of name….....