Renaissance Case

Renaissance Love Poetry

With eloquently written lines, William Shakespeare was and still is a driving force in the entertainment and literary realms. Mostly known for his playwrights, Shakespeare also wrote over 154 sonnets as well. Sonnets 18, 29, and 116 explore the theme of love to reveal the speaker's feelings toward his beloved.

In Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, it explores the theme of love to reveal the speaker's feelings toward his beloved. The opening line of this sonnet poses a simple question, which the next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison "to a summer's day." Shakespeare compares his beloved to a summer's day and finds him to be "more lovely and more temperate." Spoiled by the occasional winds and ever constant changing of the seasons, summer cannot compare "nor lose possession of that fail though ow'st" to the permanent beauty of Shakespeare's lover. As the beautiful days of summer come to a close, Shakespeare's eternal love for the person never changes.

In Sonnet 29 by Shakespeare, it explores the theme of love to reveal the speaker's feelings toward his beloved. The poet explores the concept that love can cure all troubles and make us feel good about ourselves just like The Beatles famous song All You Need Is Love. The sonnet reveals the strong feelings that love can arouse in us, both the bad and good. When the poet is in despair to the point where God will not even answer his prayers, he feels hopeless. He envies "this man's art and that man's scope." As the despair boils inside of him he then "haply I think on thee, and then my state, like to the lark at break of day arising." When his love enters his thoughts his whole demeanor changes "for thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings that I scorn to change my state with kings." So in the end all you truly need is love.

In Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare, it explores the theme of love to reveal the speaker's feelings toward his beloved. Shakespeare describes love in the most beautiful and ideal state, which is best described as the love that Noah has for Allie in The Notebook. The final couplet of the poem says the poet truly believes that this is an undying love but "if this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved." The poet says that the love is not real if it is altered when circumstances change or if one has to be elsewhere. No matter what is going on love is constant or at least it should be. Even if lovers face difficult times "that looks on tempests and is never shaken." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 perfectly describes this sonnet as it gives an in depth description of true love. For example, love is patient, kind, and does not envy.

Passionate and each beautifully written, Shakespeare had an amazing gift he was able to share