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Comparing Love In Sonnet And Harryette Mullen's Dim Lady

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Throughout the ages, sonnets represent thematic messages of love and immortality while also following a strict, rigid structure of fourteen lines with a varying rhyme scheme depending on the type of sonnet. One of these sonnets, Shakespearean, was created by none other than William Shakespeare. For example, his sonnet “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” focuses heavily on loving a woman despite her ugly features; however, many modern poets break this strict structure, such as Harryette Mullen’s take on Shakespeare’s sonnet where she places a modern twist on the speaker’s view of a woman. Although both sonnets focus on the traditional theme of love, Mullen’s “Dim Lady” breaks away from the typical conventions and structure of a sonnet …show more content…

Her sonnet may have fourteen lines, but it does not follow a rhyme scheme or iambic pentameter (Mullen Lines 1-14). By breaking away from the standard conventions and structure of a sonnet, she creates a creative and sarcastic method of criticizing Shakespeare’s typical male speaker. Criticizing this classic speaker plays into Mullen’s criticism of sonnets that focus on love as a whole. Her sarcastic and comedic word choice directly contrasts Shakespeare’s, which permits her criticism. Shakespeare’s speaker focuses on the woman’s ugly features in order to bring out her personality (Lines 1-14). By disregarding the woman’s looks, the male speaker obsesses over loving her for her personality, and by changing the words within this sonnet, Mullen denounces this archetype within sonnets. Sonnets that focus on romance typically use this male character that admires and adores a woman, but the speaker usually ignores one aspect of who the woman is, which is why Mullen completely breaks away from the sonnet structure. Mullen breaks down the classic male speaker by making her sonnet comedic, which allows the audience to understand love should not be based on one aspect. One should love the whole, not just a

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The “gleams” on her face entice him still, but the “blazing” fire of desire in her eyes terrifies him to the point of solitude - she is no longer safe to be around. This illustration of Gascoigne’s conflicting feelings is furthered by the fact that this poem is a Shakespearean sonnet. Shakespearean sonnets tend to be tragedies or romances that describe love, and this poem comments on the torment induced by love. The author’s choice for the form of the poem reinforces the meaning as a whole, that love itself is a

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892 Words | 4 Pages

It has been said that “beauty is pain” and in the case of this poem, it is quite literal. “For That He Looked Not Upon Her” written by George Gascoigne, a sixteenth century poet, is a poem in which the speaker cannot look upon the one he loves so that he will not be trapped by her enhanced beauty and looks. In the form of an English sonnet, the speaker uses miserable diction and visual imagery to tell the readers and his love why he cannot look upon her face. Containing three quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end, this poem displays a perfect English sonnet using iambic pentameter to make it sound serious and conversational. This is significant because most sonnets are about love and each quatrain, in English sonnets, further the speaker’s

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568 Words | 3 Pages

Several metaphors are employed in this sonnet, one extended metaphor in particular compares her to roses. By using a metaphor for such a length period of time, roughly four lines, we are able to paint a more accurate picture of this woman. The purpose of these metaphors is to clearly define how the speaker feels about his love and also how he views her. At first glance, it is easy to miss the irony in “My Mistress’ Eyes” but Shakespeare compares this woman to several beautiful things only to say she is not like them. This makes her appear human and goes against the grain of sonnets that primarily focus on the beauty and grace of their

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605 Words | 3 Pages

Structurally “Dim Lady” has little to do with the firm guidelines of true sonnets, however this choice gives Mullens a greater degree of creative liberty when it comes to the rescripted Sonnet 130. The more contemporary style of free verse rather than structurally rigid helps to create the more modern feeling of the overall work and in turn allows Mullens to shape Shakespeare's work in a new

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470 Words | 2 Pages

This Elizabethan sonnet by George Gascoigne is a tortured self-confession of one “He” who “looked not upon her.” Gascoigne effectively illustrates the speaker’s paradoxical feelings for a woman through a series of literary devices such as extended metaphors, imagery, and alliteration, developing an easily identifiable conflict between the speaker’s desire for his lover and fear of being hurt again. The first stanza introduces us to the central paradox of the poem: why does the speaker “take no delight” in ranging his eyes “about the gleams” on his lover’s beautiful face? To answer this question, the speaker employs two extended metaphors that vividly illustrate this conundrum.

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1493 Words | 6 Pages

It is argued that cultural changes (such as the gay pride and feminist movements) have a huge impact on how Shakespeare’s sonnets are understood. However, what must be acknowledged is that the speculation surrounding the sonnets that applies in the modern era, may not have been applicable in the period in which they were written as people did not define themselves by their sexuality for such a notion did not exist. Despite this the speculation arguably demonstrates that the narrative and plot, whether purposefully created by the poet or not, has kept the sonnets written multiple centuries ago still relevant and topical with

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609 Words | 3 Pages

In sonnet 29 The Man is one of the most depressing men ever, very envious and insecure his own skin. Often the question asked is "how do you love someone when you cant even love yourself" The man is constantly depressed but the question asked is completely discredited in this sonnet. This man may be one of the most depressing bokes ever, but when he sees his Jane Doe his everlasting despair disipates. He makes the statement " Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least;Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of dayarising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate.

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1515 Words | 7 Pages

The two poems I will be comparing and contrasting in this essay are two of William Shakespeare 's most popular sonnets. Sonnets in chapter 19, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? ', and in chapter 23, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds, ' of our Literature book. Both of these poems deal with the subject of love but each poem deals with its subject matter in a slightly different way. Each also has a different purpose and audience. In the case of 'Shall I compare thee ' the audience is meant to be the person Shakespeare is writing the sonnet about.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

A sonnet is a type of poetry divided into fourteen lines. The sonnet became widely popular during the Italian Renaissance. The original creator of the sonnet is unknown, but Francesco Petrarch is credited for the spread of the poem. The topics of most sonnets were initially idealized love and women’s beauty, however, certain authors, like William Shakespeare often had writing that was varied and unpredictable. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into an octave and a sestet, meaning a section of eight and a section of six lines.

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710 Words | 3 Pages

He employs several literary devices in this poem which include: simile, hyperbole, satire, imagery and metaphors to create a lasting mental image of his mistress for the readers. The language used in this sonnet is clever and outside of the norm and might require the reader to take a second look. The first 3 Stanzas are used to distinguish his beloved from all the

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1316 Words | 6 Pages

Edina St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Oh, Oh You Will Be Sorry for that Word” is a lyric poem in which a woman is arguing with a man that started when he said something derogatory about her reading such a large book when she is a delicate creature. The woman is obviously upset about the fact her supposed friend/lover/husband behaved badly towards her. It is a Shakespearian Sonnet because the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG with a meter that most likely resembles trochaic. The only line that does not fit into the meter is line three. The poem has Masculine Rhyme because the words that rhyme do so with the last syllable.

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1282 Words | 6 Pages

In these short poems, the authors utilize particular rhetorical techniques and methods to reflect the speakers’ personality and motivation. Therefore, presenting the speaker becomes the main focus of the authors. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” both poems reflect the speakers’ traits through monologue, figurative language, and symbolism. However, these two speakers’ personalities are different due to their attitude toward their beloved. The speaker in Sonnet 18 is gentle and delighted but frustrated because the ideal metaphor comparison of summer is not perfect for describing his beloved; the poem thus suggests that the way you love others reflects how you feel about yourself.

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1351 Words | 6 Pages

As a result, this theme further contributes to the theme of undying love and everlasting beauty. “Sonnet 71” possesses a tone of a morbid nature while “Sonnet 73” replays one which is more bittersweet. Indeed, the dissimilarity in tones between these two sonnets and their contribution to undying love and everlasting beauty is largely connected to Shakespeare’s diction, use of figurative language, and imagery. Firstly, word choice primarily distinguishes whether the sonnets will have a positive or negative tone. The

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848 Words | 4 Pages

Though both poems are exquisite expositions of love the question remains as to which one demonstrates the most superb love. Shakespeare 's “Sonnet 116” begins by depicting his version if the perfect love. According to Shakespeare, love must be a “marriage of two minds”. This ideology in itself exhibits a higher level love than common man could ever experience. For love to truly be Neoplatonic, it must merge every aspect of a relationship beyond the physical.

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862 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” the reader is constantly tricked into thinking he will compare his mistress to something beautiful and romantic, but instead the speaker lists beautiful things and declares that she is not like them. His language is unpredictable and humor is used for a majority of the poem. This captivating sonnet uses elements such as tone, parody, images, senses, form, and rhyme scheme to illustrate the contradicting comparisons of his mistress and the overarching theme of true love. Shakespeare uses parody language to mock the idea of a romantic poem by joking about romance, but ultimately writes a poem about it.

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