Poetry analysis on “How Do I Love Thee” and “Sonnet XVIII” Essay

Both, Elizabeth Barrett Brownings How Do I Love Thee and William Shakespeares Sonnet XVIII, explore the universal study of eternal, transcending love. Similarly, both sonnets are confessions of love towards a male subject. Brownings is a passionate love one that the Greeks referred to as eros. Eros is Love, who overpowers the mind, and tames the olfaction in the breasts of both gods and men . Shakespeares, however, is the love of agape. It is the love one feels for his family, and friends . In dealing with the theme of love, both poems reference the beauty of their emotions, and the everlasting reputation of such beauty.Barretts How Do I Love Thee follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, and is therefore written in iambic pentameter. It consists of 14 lines, and is divided into an musical octave and a six-spot. The octave has a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA. It presents the primary trouble facing the writer, in this case organism the question of her declaration of love. The ses tet has a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD. It resolves the problem presented by clarifying the ship canal in which the author loves her good, and claiming that her love would be strengthened in the afterlife.Shakespeares Sonnet XVIII follows the structure of a classical Shakespearean sonnet, and as such, is written in iambic pentameter. It consists of 14 lines, divided into three quatrains and a rhyming duad. The rhyme scheme of the first quatrain is ABAB, and introduces the primary notion of the sonnet, it being the resemblance of the speakers love to a summertimes day. The second quatrain has a rhyme scheme of CDCD, and strengthens the comparison of the beloved to a summers day. The third quatrains rhyme scheme is EFEF, devious the focus from the temperate summer, to the virtually everlasting nature of the memory of the beloved. The couplet has a rhyme scheme of GG, and concludes the sonnet by tying unitedly the themes of love and poetry.Barretts sonnet is imbedded with beautifull y incorporated literary devices. She begins with the rhetorical question, How do I love thee? She then proceeds to answer this questions by saying, Let me cipher the ways. This can be interpreted as an patent hyperbole, as her feelings are so pure that she could never truly count the number of ways in which she loves this man. Barrett uses figurative language in saying, I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach. This places a picture of infinite space, or in this case infinite love, in the readers mind. She excessively makes use of analogy by means of the lines, I love thee set-apartly, as men strive for RightThis compares the passion and love she is giving of her free pull up stakes, to the passion which men put forward when fighting for justice. This establishes not just that her love is not bound, but also that it is strong, and honest. An analogy can also be seen in the following line, as she states, I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise, in sisting her love is as modest and pure as the hearts of those men who are striving for justice. The last line of the sonnet states, I shall but love thee better after death. Death is roughly ironic in this context, since it is both what ends the poem, and what ends life.Shakespeares introduces his sonnet with the line Shall I compare thee to a summer day? In a sense, this foreshadows that the beloved will, in fact, be compared to a summers day. Perhaps, even more than that, it foreshadows the use of metaphors throughout sonnet, as the comparison will be made. Shakespeare begins the comparison by drawing parallels between his beloved and the summers day, through the line Thou art more lovely and more temperate. He carefully chooses his adjectives so that they may apply to both summer, and his beloved. He continues by stating that rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.In this, he is victimization rough winds as a symbol of erratic chance and change, and implying that his belo ved is superior because he does not suffer from these winds. The author personifies the sky, or heaven, by using the metaphor of an eye in place of the sun. He gain ground personifies the season by mentioning that the summers gold complexion is much dimmed, which compares yet another human attribute of his beloved, with a trait of summer. The author then assures his beloved that his eternal summer shall not fade. Through this, he uses summer as a metaphor for beauty. The speaker brags that his beloved will never suffer the same fate as a summers day, because he has dedicated him to eternal lines. This adds the theme of poetry to a sonnet that had, until now, been about love.