Persistence of Memory essays

Persistence of Memory essays William Shakespeare: A Comparison of Works Among the many early modern poets, William Shakespeare stands as one of the most highly celebrated and world-renowned poets during his time. The impact of his poetry has extended across many nationalities and ethnicities influencing many of todays most brilliant writers. The main reason for Shakespeares huge success is his boundless wit with the use of description that allows him to present traditional ideas in fresh new fashions. I plan to compare and contrast Shakespeares Sonnet 18 with Sonnet 130 focusing on his use of nature imagery and word choice to convey his idea of beauty to the minds of the reader using two opposing approaches. In sonnet 18, Shakespeare describes the beauty of a woman very close to him. He does this mainly by the use of nature imagery. Throughout the poem we see Shakespeare use certain elements of nature to compare with his lover. The idea he presents is that no part of nature can do justice to the beauty of her. The elements he uses are ones that the majority of people consider to be very pleasing or enjoyable. Some of these are summers day, darling buds of May, and eternal summer.(***) Other nature elements used such as Rough winds, and death, (****) are elements that have dark or negative connotations. These conflicting images are intertwined together so that they work together to paint an extremely colorful picture in the mind of the reader. He then uses the method of understatement to say that these elements are no comparisons to his lovers beauty. On the other hand, Shakespeare uses a completely different method in the presentation of Sonnet 130. In this sonnet he also uses images of nature to paint pictures in the mind of the reader. However, in this sonnet he portrays these images, and goes o ...