Renaissance Figurative Language Essay

The Renaissance, a rebirth of classical learning in Europe that prompted a plethora of unprecedented cultural, artistic, and scientific advances, transformed the lives of most Europeans. In fact, the spread of Renaissance to the island of Great Britain, which most historians associate with Henry Tudor’s victory in 1485 over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field because it marked the rise of the pivotal Tudor family to the English throne, revolutionized British society. Along with other cultural developments during the English derivate of the Renaissance, literary expression flourished and literacy rates surged. The emergence of two new literary forms, the English sonnet and the essay, reflected the increased emphasis on literature during

In the sonnet, Astrophel, the speaker, personifies the Moon as a lovelorn individual of an undisclosed gender. He interprets the Moon as silently ascending the skies “With how sad steps… and with how wan a face!” (1) and proceeds to tell the Moon that his / her appearance and “languished grace” (7) reveal his / her lovesickness. Since Astrophel “feel[s] the like” (8) because his lover, Stella, has presumably refused to reciprocate his affection, he manages to perceive the Moon as exhibiting symptoms of lovesickness that mirror his own mental and physical states. In addition, Astrophel’s series of rhetorical questions for the personified Moon in sonnet 31 reflects his disappointment regarding Stella’s rejection of him. For instance, Astrophel asks the Moon whether people in the sky and the heavens “call… ungratefulness” a virtue (14), which suggests that he cannot comprehend why Stella does not appreciate his love. Therefore, because Astrophel treats the Moon, an inanimate object, like a human being when he asks him / her a series of rhetorical questions, which most people only do when they are upset or agitated about something, Stella’s failure to return Astrophel’s love clearly distresses and disappoints him. Just as Astrophel, the sonnet’s speaker, feels anguished on account of Stella’s

Just as Wyatt likens his affection for Anne Boleyn in “Whoso List to Hunt” to a hunter’s unsuccessful pursuit of an elusive doe with the aid of an extended metaphor, Astrophel, the lovelorn speaker of sonnet 31 from Astrophel and Stella, personifies the Moon as a lovesick individual in order to associate the Moon’s perceived appearance and symptoms with his own. Similarly to how the sonnet “Whoso List to Hunt” conveys both Wyatt’s disappointment about Anne Boleyn’s failure to reciprocate his love and a hunter’s sorrow regarding his incapacity to capture an evasive deer, Astrophel’s sadness regarding Stella’s rejection of him in sonnet 31 mirrors Sidney’s own disappointment. By directly comparing their disappointment to phenomena in nature and by personifying inanimate objects in “Whoso List to Hunt” and sonnet 31 from Astrophel and Stella, respectively, both poets could make sense of their emotional agony after their love interests neglected to return their feelings. Much like Wyatt and Sidney, who lived during the English Renaissance, modern-day poets, such as songwriters, continue to employ extended metaphors and personification in their works because such literary devices allow them to not only comprehend their complex emotions, such as