In today's class, please answer again the poetry question from your mid-year exam. Please spend only this class period writing a full essay. You may use your exam essay itself and the comments you received on it. It is suggested that you use the period transcribing the essay as you wrote it in the exam and then make some small modifications to it.
Although your exam is over and you have already written this essay, please take today's work seriously. It will serve you well when revising for your IGCSE English Lit exam next year.
Below are the question and the poems.
Discuss how each of two poems, Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay address the subject of love using the sonnet form.
Sonnet 43
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 29
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Pity me not because the light of day
At close of day no longer walks the sky;
Pity me not for beauties passed away
From field to thicket as the year goes by;
Pity me not the waning of the moon,
Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea.
Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon.
And you no longer look with love on me.
This have I known always: Love is no more
Than the wide blossom which the wind assails.
Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore.
Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:
Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
When the swift mind beholds at every turn.
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Sonnet 43 is written by Elizabeth Barret Browning and Sonnet 29 is written by Edna St Vincent Millay both have to do with love. In both of these poems there are; 14 lines, each line 10 syllables and rhyme scheme ABABCDCD and both are about LOVE <3
ReplyDeleteIn both poems the writers are in love with a man. Sonnet 43 is about Elizabeth Barret Browning expressing her love towards a man, and in Sonnet 29 it’s about Edna St Vincent Millay who is expressing her love towards a man who doesn’t love her.
Sonnet 43 starts off with “How do I love thee?” Let me count the ways which straight away tells us that the poem is about love. Sonnet 29 starts with “Pity me not because the light of day” which doesn’t tell us that the poem is about love but it tells us that this is trying to tell someone that he/she shouldn’t pity him/her. In Sonnet 43 it then goes on about how she loves him so much and that she loves him even when her soul is out of sight, or even though she had a bad childhood. In sonnet 29 it also becomes a bit sad because she goes on about how she knows he doesn’t love her but still she wants him to know that he shouldn’t feel sorry for her.
Sonnet 43 is ‘happy’ love because Elizabeth Barret Browning love is loved back and in the last line she says “I shall but love thee better after death ‘which implies that her love in e3ternal and will last forever. In the last line of Sonnet 29 though she says that eventually her love for him will end “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn. What the swift mind beholds at every turn”
Basically both are about love but Sonnet 29 is about the hardships of love and Sonnet 43 the greatness of it.
Sonnet 43 and 29
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 expresses love by saying 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.' She is telling him that there are many ways that shelves him so she needs to count them. When she says 'I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight' she is telling us that she loves him to all the edges of her should, which means she loves him a lot. In the 5th line, when she says 'I love thee to the level of everyday's' she means that she loves him all day long and at a high level. In line 7 she describes how she loves him freely the same way that men thrive for right. In line 9 she describes how she loves him with a passion that she puts to use. In line 12 ad 13 she describes that she loves him with the emotions of all her life. In line 13 and 14, she says she loves him so much that if God would let her, she would love him better after death.
For Sonnet 29, the author expresses her love by telling the man she loves not to pity her, and in the last two lines, she tells him to actually pity her. In the first part she says don’t pity me because the day ends and the night comes. In the second part she says don’t pity me for the beauties passed away from field to thicket, and she means from good to bad because a field is a nice open space whereas a thicket is a wild area that is not welcoming for humans or animals. Then she says don’t pity me for the moon getting smaller, for the tide going out to sea, not that a man’s desire is hushed so soon. And these are all natural forces that make things worse. Then she says how the man she loves no longer looks with love on her. Then, she describes how love is no more than a destructive force of nature. In the last 2 lines she says that the man she loves should pity her for heart being slow to learn what the swift mind beholds at every turn. All those descriptions are ways of expressing love to the man they love.
There are many different ways of how both of these Authors address love.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Edna St. Vincent Millay from Sonnet 29 addresses love; by mentioning so many different things and comparing it to her own life. As in, she compares the Mother Nature to the Beauty of Love, and then as soon as times get rough, Edna St. Vincent Millay compares it something so much more dramatic, as for example – “Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea.” Each one of her lines that she has in her sonnet represent a story of her life most probably, each of her lines in this Sonnet, do sound a little bit over reactive, however, this must also be the true feeling she had inside her when experiencing her man falling out of love with her. Also maybe, her not understanding why men fall out of love so easily and quickly, she mentioned a lot of ways in which this sentence proofs it.
In Sonnet 43, which is by Elizabeth Barrett Browning love is adressed by, many differnet ways of loving the person, and mentions this in crazy details like Edna St. Vincent Millay from Sonnet 29 - she also compares it to something of her own, like explaining in detail about how much she loves him. As well as, mentioning she will love this person for a long time, in my opinion this is the way love should be indentified, when a person is deeply in love with somebody else.
By Christina Lomakina
Love Sonnets
ReplyDelete“Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barret Browning was written for Elisabeth’s love for Robert Browning. At the time Barret wrote sonnets because she felt inspired from Robert Brownings work and when Robert read some of her work they fell in love. Although it was a difficult time, Barret wrote “Sonnet 43” for Robert. In “Sonnet 43” she repeats the term “I Love Thee” quite a few times and this shows that her love knows no limits and she could continue on, she also uses a list to describe how she loves him; “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;” “I love thee with a passion put to use” Elizabeth also uses a bit of Religion to address her love as at that time her mother and brother had died. “With my lost saints, --- I Love thee with the breath,” and then she says, when she dies her love will become even stronger than when she was alive.
“Sonnet 29” by Edna St. Vincent Millay was written for love, but the other way round in which a man does not lobe her the same way as she wants him too. Millay uses the term “Pity me not” quite a few times in her poem, like how Elizabeth used “I Love Thee” and this tells us that Millay does not want to be pitied on for something where as near the end she changes and finally says what you should Pity her for. “Pity me not the waning of the moon” is an example of “Pity Me Not” along with “Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,” now for this one she is saying that you should not pity her because a man’s desire is going away slowly and after this line is said, she describes how a man’s love can cause so much destruction. “Than the wide blossoms in which the wind assails” this shows the destruction of a man’s love. As I said at the start of this paragraph she wants you to not pity her for certain things but near the end she finally says this “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn” now she is saying that you should pity her because her heart did not want to believe that love could cause so much destruction and it cannot see this were as the mind can see everything that is happening, her heart also does not want to let go of this love for this other man in “Sonnet 29” and just like “Sonnet 43” this one uses a list to describe the things not to pity her for.
Both poems address love in a different way, “Sonnet 43” is saying how love can be in many ways, whereas “sonnet 29” says how a Man’s love can be a force of destruction and that only the mind can see what is happening but the heart does not want to believe such ‘Garbage.’ Both poems use a list to describe their love, “Sonnet 43” being the complete opposite of “Sonnet 29.” “Sonnet 43” talks about how love has no limits but “Sonnet 29” shows that love does have a limit and that is usually begins with a man’s desire that is slowly fading out of existence. “Sonnet 43” links love with Religion as Barret’s family was Religious at the time, and in “Sonnet 29” Love is linked to Natural Occurrences and Natural Disasters and both these lists make the poem stronger as they were probably close or even bang on to the writers thoughts/feelings.
Nathan Back.
ReplyDeleteDiscuss how the poems address the subject of love using the sonnet form?
Sonnets “29” by Edna St Vincent Millay, and Sonnet “43” by Elisabeth Barret Browning are themed on love but they address this in different ways.
“Sonnet 29” addresses the theme of love by using the Shakespearian form this follows the rhyme scheme of ab ab cd cd ef ef gg. The poem starts with the line “Pity me not because the light of day” This is an interesting start to the poem as it starts from the writers point of view or a character created by the writer. Do not feel sorry for me because of the great things of nature coming to an end but feel sorry for me that the heart is slow to learn. This gives the idea that the poem is about a woman who has lost a love or her partner has fallen out of love and she is unable to get over the loss of her love. Edna St Vincent Millay has used love as something that is dear and when gone it breaks your heart.
“Sonnet 43” is wrote in the Petrarchan form, it addresses love in a different manner as that of “Sonnet 29” The poem is about a woman expressing how much she loves a man and that it means everything to her the poem starts. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This is similar to “Sonnet 29” In the way that the poem is written in first person from the writer’s point of view. The poem is structured like a list of reasons and ways she loves him that almost sounds like a vow of her love.
Both poems address love in different ways because “Sonnet 43” is wrote from a person who is falling in love and “Sonnet 29” is about someone who has lost her love so “Sonnet 29” is much darker and almost depressing compared to the light mood of the other sonnet.
Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 43 were too very different poems written about love. Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browing who lived in an olden English home. Her family was very rich and so her father was quite stern. Edna St Vincent Millay was an american poet who was known for her countless love affairs, or heart breaks. These two women will have had different points of view on love.
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 is the more negative poem. It tells of all these natural forces that she (the poet) can't control, such as men's desires. Millay describes a bad break up that maybe she experienced or someone close to her experienced. It tells of things such as the setting sun, an at the end it says that she should be pitied because of her hopeful heart that hopes that every guy will be different despite her mind telling her differently, " Pity me that the heart is slow to learn, while the swift mind beholds at everyturn. " Throughout the poem however she continually tells who ever the poet is addressing, they should not pity her for things she can't control. "Pity me not because the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky."
Sonnet 43 is the more positive poem of the two. Barrett Browning describes her undieing love for the person whom she addresses in the poem. Whether the love is returned however is not mentioned.The she gives seems immeasurablek, "to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach" and very powerful. Barrett Browing describes this love that is free and pure and passionite. "I love thee freely as men strive for right, I love the purely as they turn from praise, I love thee with a passion pu tto use." At the end of the poem she claims her love will be there til the day she dies, " I shall but love thee better after death".
ReplyDeleteThese two poems are both very powerful about their views on love, but one is praising love while the other calls it painful and pityful. Sonnet 43 is written in Iambic Pentameter where as Sonnet 29 is written in Shakespearean style. The style in which the poems are written , in my opinion helps the poet ,particularly Millay, back up her argument. Both poems are addressing the same subject, yet they have very different views
"Sonnet 43" by Elizabetha Barrett Browning is about the poet describing her love towards a certain someone, this we think was written for her husband Robert Browning because she cannot express how much in love she is. In this poem she is counting the number of ways in which she loves him, in total we count 7 ways in which she loves him, in total we count 7 ways but all of those ways summed up means she will love him always and forever no matter what. The second line in the sonnet says " I love thee to the depth and breadth and height" which basically means she loves him in everway possible then in the third line it says "when feeling out of sight" meaning she will love him even if she isnt around. Reading through the stanza she is basically saying she loves him each and everyday no matter how she is feeling and that she will love him all of her life and even more after she dies. As you read through the sonnet youre idea of who the sonnet is addresed towards changes because lines 13 and 14 "With my lost saints - i love the with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! - and if god choose" this could be implyuing that her love is for god but in all Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses how much in love she is. I think she wrote this towards her husband because of the love she expresses, it seems to be expressed towards a very special someone rather then God. On the other hand Edna St.Vincent Millay's Sonnet 29 is about a break-up and how she doesnt want that person to pity hre because she expected it. Edna St.Vincent Millay had many love affairs meaning she was used to love and its disasters. Lines 1 to 4 are saying dont pity her because the sun goes down or that crops die meaning do not pity her because love goes away or dies out as it is a natural thing and will eventually happen. Lines 5-7 are saying dont pity her because the moon gets smaller and that the tide goes out and don’t pity her because a mans love is easily changed. This basically means don’t pity her because things change and once again love goes away. Lines 8-9 are showing us that there isnt love anymore and she expected this to happen. Lines 10-12 become a little more destructive but this is because she is expressing her anger maybe because she knew this break up was going to happen. She says things like “great tide” and “strewing fresh wreckage” which give us destructive images, but they happen naturally. This deffenatly links to a break up as they happen naturally and can be quite destructive in a way. The last 2 lines “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn, when the swift mind beholds at every turn” are her saying that her mind knew this was going to happen but her heart told her it wouldn’t and she followed and trusted her heart which led her into heart-break. I think the poem is deffenatly about a break up because of how she pities herself, then gets angry and then pities herself again. This is a natural thing and I think this is why she has linked it to nature because it is out of youre control. I think both poets gave out their message quite well and the readers understood what they were trying to send across.
ReplyDeleteBoth the poems signify love, or are at least about love. In sonnet 29, Edna St Vincent Millay is explaining to us, a breakup she had. She is writing the poem to her lover telling him, not to pity her because the sun goes down or that the moon comes up or that the tide goes out, but to pity her heart because he broke it. At the beginning of the poem she is calm with her words and images, but as she gets closer to what he should pity her for, she becomes more aggressive and the words she uses create bad images, but she is trying to show him what he has done with her heart, and how she has broken and hurt it. So her poem is all about love, her heart and depression unlike Sonnet 43 by Elisabeth Barret Browning.
ReplyDeleteIn Sonnet 43 she is writing a poem to her lover and also to the people, describing how she loves him. She is happy about it and is counting the ways she loves him and also the reasons. She also compares her love for him with everyday issues and subjects, for example she says 'I love thee as men strive for rights'. In this poem she explains and shows her love to be a happy thing, Unlike in Sonnet 29 where Edna St Vincent is telling us about her breakup and how bad love actually is. Also in Sonnet 43 Elisabeth Barrett Browning uses strong deep and meaningful words to describe her affection for him. She also shows that she loves him as much as she possible could, and that that she could only love him more than that after death. In line 10 she also shows us that from her childhood up until she is old she has and will love him. In both poems there is love. But it is presented happily and also unhappily. It shows us that love can change depending on the person.
But both poems are written perfectly to be in sonnet form.
In Sonnet 43, by Elisabeth Barret Browning the sonnet is about love and Elisabeth's emotions to Robert Browning possible God and her Childhood.
ReplyDeleteIn sonnet 29 by Edna st Vincent Millay the sonnet is about the love of her past lovers who broke up with her. She talks about the memory of the time when she was dumped. In sonnet 29, Edna st Vincent Millay talks about the love of the men who used to love her, broke up with her then as soon as they left they were back again.
This shows that they couldn’t live without her but made a big mistake leaving her. She talks about how they broke her heart when they left her. She talks about how man's love can change quickly. In the sonnet St. Vincent Millay uses a Shakespearean sonnet, ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
In a Shakespearean sonnet the writer expresses the love in stanzas. In the first stanza, and also the second she talks about love and why she must not be pitied. This, the line by line sequence give the reader another thought, it makes the reader look at the rhyme scheme of the poem. The rhythm of the poem gives a more sorrowful effect. In the sonnet there is a Volta. This give the poem it’s "Pity me not" a break. From there on it is a list. In the first 8 lines it was always pity me not put them in the 9th line onwards she describes in more detail and adds on to the poem. The Volta is in between the 8th line and the 9th line.
She is showing what love is by using violent natural causes. In sonnet 43 though the writer is showing all her love in all the lines. In the first 2 she is saying that she has to count the ways in which she love him and also can count it by the size.
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ReplyDeleteIn Both, Sonnet 29 – Wirtten by Ednaa St. Vincent Millay and Sonnet 43 – Written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, are both about love to a man and this is expressed in many ways. In Sonnet 29 the man dosent love Ednaa St. Vincent Millay back. The rhyming scheme of the two poems are 10 sylabols per line and 14 lines long ( A sonnet).
ReplyDeleteIn Sonnet 29 love is expressed mainly as a natural thing and how it happends even though she, and others cant controll it. Through out the peom she is talking about what you shouldn’t pitty her for and comparing them to natural things that cant be prevented. Then in the last 2 lines she turns it around and says that you should pity her for the way men fall in, and out of love so easily and how he brain knows that it wont last forever and he will leave her but her heart still falls in love with this man and then he breaks her heart. It’s a sad poem as she repeats the way about him not loving her and hes practially broke her heart.
In Sonnet 43 It starts with “how do I love thee,” this shows that it’s a poem about love and how she loves sombody, also that its written like a question to her self, and awnserd in list form. She says how she loves this man and how many different ways there are. The benefit of this authour is the man she is writing it to actually loved her back. This made the Love theme more of a “happy love” compared to sonnet 29 where it was more of a “sad love.” She loves this man a lot with practially everything she can do and even things that are ‘out of reach’. Refering to line 13 in the poem “And, If God Choose” meaning, like sonnet 29, love is out of controll and she realies on something (God) to controll her love for her.
In lines 3-6 she is showing that she wants a n ormal love with nothing fancy just a normal love nothing special just normal. She talks about love and her emotions really pationatly. Also she talks about the love and the death of the love. She also mentions the saints in her poem which gives it a religious point of view. Also the structure give s the sonnet an amazing emphasis to the love. The rhymin g of the pem makes it more romantic and worth listening to. It also gives it emphasis.
ReplyDeleteIn both Sonnets, love is a main theme. However, in both sonnets, the love is different and the way the sonnets are used differs.
ReplyDeleteIn sonnet 43, the sonnet seems to be used to concentrate all that Elizabeth Barrett Browning has to say into 14 lines. This then gives us clear images for her passion to Robert Browning.
In Sonnet 29, a reason for choosing a sonnet to express Edna’s feelings because she can use an iambic pentameter. This gives the poem a strong rhythm.
Sonnet 43 is a Petrachan sonnet; it therefore doesn’t follow the rules of a Shakespearean sonnet. The poem seems to be very free-flowing, this point is emphasised in the 7th line when she says ‘I love thee freely’
In Sonnet 29 Edna tries to organise her sonnet by putting a Volta (turn) in the 8th line. After telling this person why she shouldn’t feel sorry for her; she then tells the person what she has been through. At the end of Sonnet 29, Edna tells this man that he shouldn’t feel sorry for her because her brain may have known that this person didn’t love her. But her heart was too reluctant to initially accept it.
Throughout Sonnet 43, Elizabeth talks about her passion for Robert. She constantly mentions religion and her past. At the end, we get the impression that she believes in life after death. This is because she says ‘I shall love thee better after my death’
Both Sonnets discuss love, but whilst Sonnet 43 is a very positive sonnet. Sonnet 29 on the other hand is definitely not. We can conclude by saying that the sonnets can be used to describe love in many different ways.
“Sonnet 43” is an ‘Italian’ sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This sonnet shows that it is an Italian (also called Petrarchan) sonnet because its rhyme scheme is abbaabba and that it divides into two parts; octave (first 8 lines) and sestet (last 6 lines). Its key themes are love and relationships.
ReplyDelete“Sonnet 43” expresses the subject of love in a very positive way, describing the many ways to love a person. Throughout the whole sonnet, Barrett Browning addresses love. There are eight of them in this sonnet. The first one is ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height.’ Here she discusses love in a representation of measurements. She tells the reader how love can go far in many different ways forming like a cube with an atmosphere inside. The 2nd way is ‘I love thee to the level of everyday’s.’ Here she describes that even though she has said love is very special and unique in its ways, It can also be as simple as an everyday routine. The 3rd way addressing love is ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for right’. This one addresses love like it can be expressed unlimitedly, never-ending in a way. It gives the example of it being just like men/people fighting for their rightness of themselves. The 4th way is ‘I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.’ This shows love in a way of it being innocent and pure just like people praying to god, in a way. There are four other lines expressing love. These are mainly about loving a person with great passion and eagerness and how she would love someone so much she would love him for her life and all the way until, even after her coming death.
“Sonnet 29” is a proper ‘Shakespearian’ sonnet written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The sonnet shows that it is a ‘Shakespearian’ sonnet because it has a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. Its key themes are, just like sonnet 43, love and relationships, but also a little about nature, time and the moon.
“Sonnet 29”, compared to Sonnet 43, tells the reader the negative parts of love and how it is useless, not worth it and will always disappoint you. There are not as many representatives of the word ‘love’ in this sonnet than in “Sonnet 43” and when she brings it up she only tells the reader love is nothing compared to what people say how it is and that love will always fade away, some time or another. Throughout the sonnet, St. Vincent Millay puts down many examples of nature and the moon and how it all, actually represents love and the horrors of it. Examples of these are in the first 2 lines of the poem; ‘Pity me not because the light of day, at close of day no longer walks the sky.’ Another example is around the middle of the poem giving the subject of the moon; ‘Pity me not the waning of the moon, nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea.’ Here she puts the moon a representation of love giving an image how the tide goes out to the large sea and going in and out, repeating itself every day. This is showing how the in’s and out’s of love are just like the tides the moon controls.
This whole sonnet shows how love is very pitiful in its ways, but that the people shouldn’t pity the person of the closing of love, but why it ended. In the second-to-last line – ‘Pity me not that heart is slow to learn’ – tells the reader that it should pity her for her not knowing that the love was going to end and that her heart should of known the break-up was going to show up.
Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1850. Sonnet have 3 parts. First part giving us a logical question “ How do I love thee?” and then telling us measurements of it “depth and breadth and height” Second section telling us more about love “I love thee freely, as men strive for right”. In third section she is telling that her love is so big that she will love him even after the death ‘I shall but love thee after my death”. We can say that this sonnet is to men she love. However if we think more deeply we can say that this sonnet is to God. She used many religious words like “Saints” and “Ideal Grace”
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 was written by Edna st. Vincent Millay. She wrote about love too. She seems to be not very happy because she is using negative tone “waning of the moon”. Edna st. Vincent Millay wrote this sonnet in interesting way. She put first 6 lines in one sentence. In it she asking the men not to pity her for things that she cant control. In the next section she is telling that she knew that this relation ship will finish. “Nor that the men’s desire is hushed so soon” it shows that it isn’t her first relation ship with men. At last she is telling for what we need to pity her “ Pity me that the heart is slow to learn”
These two sonnets about love. Both written by women. However sonnet 43 telling us about Elizabeth Barrett Browning love while sonnet 29 telling someone love to the author. They both telling us a bit about the history of the writers. Both authors wrote sonnets while they were in love. Structures of sonnets are different Sonnet 43 has ABBACDDCEFEFEF Sonnet 29 has Shakespearian structure ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Sonnet 43 has calm, romantic atmosphere. They both have sentences which are giving examples of love which very good because you can understand more clearly what author was trying to say. “I love thee freely, as men strive for right” (sonnet43) “Nor that the men’s desire is hushed so soon” (Sonnet 29) They both have good rhyme.
Polina
Caroline Schiller
ReplyDeletePart 1
In “Sonnet 29”, Edna St. Vincent Millay writes about love, especially about man’s love. She describes love as something that is ‘hushed so soon’, something that just goes away. After she has listed all the natural phenomena, she says ‘Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon’ it seems as if this was a so a natural phenomena, something we cannot stop. Therefore she says this statement: We cannot do anything about the ‘fact’ that men stop loving.
She says it in general” all men stop loving. This could be a prejudice or she says it because she already had a lot of experience. Then, all the natural phenomena come and go again or have some kind of seasonal meaning. The sun goes down, but it will come up again. The moon wanes, the tide goes out… This could mean that she thinks, love comes and goes and she knows it and it’s something really natural and very obvious.
‘And you no longer look with love on me’ is now not general anymore. She talks to one man, who didn’t love her anymore. Then she more describes love in general. She compares love to a lot of natural things. She says it is no more than ‘the wide blossom which the wind assails’. Probably she wants to say that love will be blown away after time, just like a blossom. Then she writes ‘than the great tide that treads the shifting shore’, saying that like the tide, love comes and leaves. The next line seems to me that love in her eyes is something wild and chaotic, and that it destroys a lot or gets destroyed easily (‘wreckage’).
In the last sentence, she tells us that her heart couldn’t stop loving him, though she already knew he would stop loving her because it seemed obvious to her (her ‘mind’ was prepared but her heart wasn’t). The heart couldn’t ‘learn’ it and so, it got hurt (probably referring to the wreckage, as her heart being destroyed.) All in all, she says love is something we cannot stop to happen, and that it never lasts forever. She probably wants to say that love is something bad because you get hurt.
In “Sonnet 43”, Elizabeth Barret Browning tells us a completely different view of love. She lists up all the ways she love ‘thee’ (she is most likely talking about Robert Browning). She says that love is huge in all dimensions, and with the phrase ‘For the ends of Being…’ she also could be saying that love is the meaning of life.
Love in her eyes is something you need every day, at night (‘candlelight’) and at day (‘sunlight’).
....
Part 2
ReplyDeleteShe says her love is freeky, purely and full of passion. She writes 'I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!-' This could be picked up as love being everything in her life, as said before: the meaning of her life. She says it's all the good things ('smiles') and all the bad things ('tears') and it's als osomething you need, you can not live without it ('breath'). So you have to go through it.
With the last lines, she also talks about 'after my death'. She thinks that after her death, love will still remain, of God chooses (probably meaning 'allows'). She thinks about love as something that could last forever.
SO all in all, her view of love is that it is something special, permanant, very deep and also very long. Love in her eyes will be able to get through all the bad things without getting destroyed.
That's the complete opposite of what Edna St Vincent writes. She thinks that love can be a something destroyed, a wreckage, or something that destroys ('gales').
That complete different view of love could be because they had different experiences. Edna St Vincent probably wants to say or warn you that love is something bad but it happens over and over again. It can destroy you and your will isn't strong enough o teach your heart what will happen, even if you know it. She also says that all the men are the same. and love is always the same,too. Elizabeth Barret Browing says that love is something special, unique, so in her eyes it isn't 'all the same'.
So all in all, I can say that the authors of the poems have the completely opposite view of love.
In Sonnet 29, everything is nly about 'his' love, or his 'not-love'. Only in the last lines the author mentions her love (... the heart is slow to learn, meaning she still loves him.)
In SOnnet 43, the author talks only about her love. She doesn't even mention if he loves her, but we can tell that such a deep love can only happen when it comes from both sides (though we can not be sure.)
THE END
(i know it's really long! ;)
In the sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay the main theme of both poems is love but the way love is expressed in the two is very different from each other...
ReplyDeleteIn Sonnet 43 love is addressed as an everyday need ‘love thee to the level of everyday’s most quiet need,’ so she loves the person so much that he is part of her everyday life. The poet makes it seem as if it is a liquid of somesort that can be measured ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height’ the image of this is as though there is a pool of love. It is also a pleasant thing because she seems quite cheerful about expressing her love ‘I love thee with the breath , smiles, tears , of all my life! --- and , if God choose, I shall but love thee after death’ the poet is happy about love and addresses love as a positive emotion. She writes love as if it is a list so she is listing the way the love the person.
However in sonnet 29 love is addressed in a negative but natural way. The poet makes love seem like a natural event that happens, for example she writes ‘ pitty me not the wanning of the moon , Nor that the biding tied goes out to sea, Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,’ eventhough the moon wans it will wax, even though the tide goes out to sea it will come back in and even though a man falls out off love he will fall into love again ‘and you no longer look with love on me’ the poet says the man is not to blame love is a “natural cycle”.
The poet also addresses love as a natural disaster ‘Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore, strewing fresh wreckage. . . ‘It is a storm that brings back hurtful memories. ‘Than the wide blossom which the wind assails’ she makes love look as though it is the destroyed remainder from a strong storm.
It is very interesting how in both poems the main theme is love but love is addressed oppositely in the two. In sonnet 49 love is addressed positively whilst in sonnet 29 loves is expressed as a natural storm/disaster.
By Evita
Even thought Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 43 both talk about love and are both sonnets, they manage to do this in two completely different ways, even talking about different types of love.
ReplyDeleteSonnet 29 talks about how men’s love disappears very quickly. It also compares it to different aspects of nature, the waning of the moon and the sun going down. She uses this to show how a man’s love disappears so quickly. But all of these things come back, the moon waxes again and the sun comes back up. So she is showing not only does a man’s love disappear quickly, but it will always come back.
In Sonnet 43 she is talking about how much she loves him, referred to as “you” in the poem or rather as “Thee”. We know this was a poem written to Robert Browning because her father does not want them to marry or be together.
Sonnet 29 is a Shakespearean sonnet. The way she talks and shows all her points is very good. She says not to pity her for something and then something about this thing making a comparison between love and these different things. She does this till around the Volta, where she talks about how the things previously mentions are destructive, also showing that love is destructive. She then says to pity her because she never learned, in the same way as she does in the beginning.
In Sonnet 43 she first says she loves him, and she says that she will count the ways she loves him. She uses half a line to say the way she loves him and then a comparison with something else.
They both use the sonnet form in very different and creative ways and talk about two different kinds of love. Sonnet 29 talks about someone else falling out of love while Sonnet 43 talks about how much she loves someone.
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ReplyDeleteThese two poems are about love in a different way.
ReplyDeleteThe poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning is about how does she love and she counts the ways how much she loves him. She is talking about how she loves her future husband, she compares her love. And she loves him so much also when he isn’t with her. ‘I love thee (thee= you) in the breadth, depth and height’. She is as you can see deeply in love with him. She gives examples how much she loves him.
About the poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay the poem is different. It is about normal things in nature what just happens every time. Later in the poem she shows that it is a sad poem because ‘Pity me not for the beauties passed away’. In line eight she is telling that her boyfriend doesn’t love her anymore he fell out of love so it is a bad break-up. She is telling in the poem that she knew this but ‘pity me that the heart is slow to learn’. That her heart doesn’t get while her brain knew it. She says a lot of pity me but here you see yes feel sorry for me that my heart is slow to learn. By the first seven lines it is pity me not for the normal natural things in this world and then it is yes pity me for…. So it is a really sad poem and really dramatic.
Both poems are describing love in a different way. Because sonnet 43 is a poem who fall in love and who loves her future husband so much and sonnet 29 is a much depressing sonnet about how he had fall out of love with her and compared to the other one is this a dark sonnet and sonnet 43 a light sonnet.
Anne-mieke.
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ReplyDeleteLove Sonnets
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43
Elizabeth Barret Browning addresses love in a way that she also uses her physical appearance to express it. The sonnet also suggests that she is expressing her love for her husband with things that occurred in the past (as she is mentioning things about her childhood and the smile and tears of all her life; i.e. The good times and the bad times she had while living her life). She also addresses her love in the first line, which means that she loves this man so much that she has many reasons to count for. She possibly loves him in every way. She also suggests that she loves him freely, purely, and with a passion like no other with no regrets for her love for him at all. When she is expressing her love, the rhyme scheme is very interesting of the way it is structured as A, B, B, C, D, E, E, F, G, H, G, I, J, I.
Sonnet 29
In Sonnet 29, Edna St. Vincent Millay addresses her love comparing it with the power of nature (in the first seven lines). She doesn’t really mention or suggests how much she loves him, or in what way. Instead, she is saying that he should not pity her for any of the things that she mentioned.
In the last 7 lines, it is suggesting that he must have left her as she is mentioning how he does not look with love on her anymore. She also mentions that love is just a feeling that doesn’t remain/last with the 2 people, as she is saying that love is no more than the wide blossom which the wind assails.
In this sonnet, love isn’t a joyful subject for a couple of reasons. One example can be that when she is saying ‘From field to thicket as the year goes by’. This links to something tragic, because I can imagine that it was a lovely field at first, with plates of flowers but then in one year, it turns into a thicket filled with thorns and brambles, which doesn’t really suggest of love and joy. This could link to the love they once had because there was probably something great at first between them as beautiful as a field, but over the year there was nothing left between them and went from love (the field) to an end of that relationship as a thicket.
The sonnet suggests she still loves him, because she is telling him not to pity her at all, but to live his life joyfully without any worries for her or what is happening to her. She shows her love for him since she wants him to be happy. She is basically ‘letting him go’.
Sonnet 43
ReplyDeleteSonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett browning is all about love and her explaining how she loves you.
“How do I love thee?”
She starts with a question to let you think. Then she mentions love as if counting them, which she states she is doing.
This poem was clearly written towards someone because there are very deep emotional words used.
It is as if she is listing she is listing love and presenting it to someone of nobility.
sonnet 29
Sonnet 29 by edna st. Vincent Millay who in this poem describes love in a depressing way, as if she is love.
Where she puts ‘pity me not’ as if it meaned alott to her and is now gone, but even though she describes love in a depressing way, it still sounds beautiful because of the way she puts it.
Sonnet 43 and 29 are both on the subject of love but are so very different.
Because they describe love differently, sonnet 43 describes love like somthing you have to show and list but sonnet 29 shows love as a reason for pitty and depression, so they are two opposites, one says love is happy and beautiful and one says love is lose, but a beautiful lose.
bye mike =D
Love Sonnets
ReplyDeleteBoth of these sonnets discuss the topic of love, but they use it in different ways, and using different techniques and styles.
Sonnet 43 was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1850, and uses the sonnet layout, 14 lines, 10 syllables. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was in love with Robert Browning, another famous poet at the time, and they were far apart from eachother. She felt very strongly for him, and wrote a collection of love sonnets to him, one of which was sonnet 43. Throughought the sonnet, she compares her love for him, by usig the words “How do i love thee?”. At first, she compares her love to immense things/infinite things, such as the depth, breadth and height her soul can reach (feel for him), when they are apart. Then, she compares it to more everyday things, such as “I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” After this, she caompares it to the way that men strive for right, and how they ‘turn from praise’. This is unusual, especially coming from the period that it does, as at the time, it was women who were striving for rights, not men. The sonnet seems to have a religeous aspect to it, mentioning ‘Lost Saints’, and ‘old-griefs’. This is probably referring to her mother and brother who had passed away, and whom she missed dreadfully. She even mentions that if god would let her, she would love him even morea after death.
Sonnet 29, written by Edna St. Vincent Millay on the other hand, deals with love in a different way. The sonnet was written around the 1920s, and deals with the way that men’fall out of love’ with women, and how she had broken up with a loved one. The story uses the phrase ‘Pity me...’ at the beggining of most lines, like sonet 43 used ‘I love thee...’. she first compares why not to pity her to natural, unstopable occurances, such as the setting of the Sun (“Pity me not because the light of day At close of day no longer walks the sky; Pity me not for beauties passed away From field to thicket as the year goes by...”). she then compares it to the ‘waning’ of the Moon, and the ebbing tide going out to sea. She also compares it to a mans desire hushed so soon, meaning that what a man originally wanted badly eventually grows smaller. She then goes on to say that she has always known that he was going to break up with her, but her heart was slow to learn, and so she still feels pain, and that that is what she should be pities for.
Both of these poems address love, but usig opposite ends of the scale. On one end; about how Elizabeth Barrett Browning cannot ‘live’ without Robert Browning, and on the other end, how Edna St. Vincent Millay is sadened by the breaking up from her loved one.
Love Sonnets
ReplyDelete“Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning focuses solely on Elizabeth’s love for Robert Browning. The first seven lines are a list of how Elizabeth Barrett Browning loves Robert Browning. She appears to live him almost infinitely, but at the same time it is measurable and ordinary, despite its being extraordinary. But she does not vie the impression that her true love is unreachable, someone who she can’t have. The love she describes is reciprocated, unrestrained and pure.
So strong is her love that it is like the passion she put into grieving for her beloved brother whom she lost, and the conviction she put into her innocent childhood beliefs. As well as the faith and love she had for her “lost saints”, her old beliefs. Even after she would die, Barrett Browning says she would love Robert Browning.
Because of the Sonnet layout, and its Petrarchan structure of ABBACDDCEFEFEF, it appears as a list that builds up line by line, of how she loves him. By the final line she states that her love would be everlasting, even after death.
“Sonnet 29” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, is also a love sonnet that appears as a partial list, but this time of pity, or rather why it is given, and love. This sonnet talks not about the love of the reader, but rather the love of men as a whole and how it never seems to last (unlike in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s case. The first 8 lines (octet) list the ways in which the reader is not to pity her, because of naturally occurring events (ebbing and flowing tide, waxing and waning of the moon) nor to pity her because of something that isn’t natural, but is like what she listed before, the love of a man.
In “Sonnet 29, Edna St. Vincent Millay talks about men in general for the most part, and how almost all of them love her only temporarily like the way the tides on ebb temporarily. However, in line 8 she points out an individual, the reader. “And you no longer look with love upon me” accuses the reader of causing her pain and grief because he stopped loving her. Finally, in the last sentence she tells why we are to pity her, “Pity me that the heart is slow to learn, When the swift mind beholds at every turn”. What this means is that every time a man stops loving her, her heart Is hurt as is her mind, but her mind knows that falling in love again will just lead to more pain, but her heart doesn’t realize this. This is a valid reason for us to pity her, it makes the reader feel sorry for what she goes through each and every time she falls in love.
The two poems both present very different views of love, to Elizabeth Barrett Browning it is something she treasures deeply, whereas to Edna St. Vincent Millay, it is something that she wants but ends up being hurt by time and time again. Because of their experiences in life, the two authors have very different opinions and feelings with regards to love, however it plays a prominent part in their emotions and thoughts.