LitAide

The sonnet is one of the 108 sonnets and 11 songs published in the sonnet sequence of "Astrophel and Stella" by Philip Sidney. It is a love poem depicting the narrator's unfulfilled love and his issue of writer's block i.e he is not able to produce new work. Rhyme scheme: Petrarchan (abbaabba cdecde) Astrophel wants to show his true love for Stella in his verse. His love might give pleasure to Stella as women love to torment their lovers. When Stella gets pleasure in Astrophel's love, she might also come to understand his love for her. He believes that this knowledge might evoke pity in her heart for him and she might recognize and reciprocate him with love too. Astrophel is in search of the right words to describe his innermost sad emotions. Moreover, he reads the works of literary masters to get inspiration, so that he can entertain his beloved with his verse (poetry). But all his toil generates no ideas in his mind. He feels helpless due to his inability to ...

The sonnet is penned by Philip Sidney in his sonnet sequence " Astrophel and Stella ". The poem presents the tussle between Astrophel's reasoning and emotion (passion). His heart (emotional side) wants to resign before the ruthless and "vain love". He requests his virtue to take rest and leave him at love's mercy and oppression. He urges virtue to use its sceptre (a royal stick) i.e. correction measure in schools or churches which is well suited for its purpose. Astrophel confesses that he has done a wrong by falling in love with Stella. His couldn't deny its charges because he can't stand against virtue's power. He can convince virtue with the little "reason that is left" in him about his feelings. He believes he can show "true a deity" which resides in his heart and even virtue would also fall in love with Stella. This love sonnet shows the contention of the narrator against love. It's an internal fight inside his mind. ...

The poem "To his Mistress going to bed" written by a noted metaphysical poet, John Donne. It deals with the poet and his mistress's sensuous act in their bedroom. The poem is a love poem in which the poet cherish the features of the female body. He urges his beloved to shed all her clothes which conceal her exquisite naked figure. He considers all these clothing as an obstacle which prevents him from reaching his beloved. Throughout the poem, he attributes the lady as a tressure. Explanation The poet asks his beloved to come as it's bedtime for her. His manly strength is eroded by excessive rest and he intends to "labour" i.e to test his strength otherwise it will be a waste. When an enemy faces his opponent on a battlefield, it's difficult for them to just stand and watch their enemy without a fight. He requests her to remove her girdle (a women garment). He employs a simile by comparing the girdle with the "glistering" heaven zone but the...

The poem "The Good Morrow" written by John Donne is a love poem and features the strong love between Donne and his beloved. In Donne's view, all other pleasures are nothing in comparison to love and being in love is the ultimate awakening. He takes pride in finding his beloved who is no less than the whole world. He finds other enterprises in this world futile. Donne employs the rhyme scheme of ababccc recurring in each stanza. The phrase "were we not weaned" is a metaphor for an infant who had not left the practice of sucking of mother's milk. "Seven Sleepers’ den" is an allusion referring to seven men who hide in a cave for three hundred years. "two better hemispheres" is a metaphor pointing to Donne and his beloved. Explanation Stanza 1 Donne wonders what he and his beloved have been doing all those years before falling in love. He speculates that they were satisfied with little pleasures of life like an infant preoccupied with...

The poem "Death Be Not Proud" is written by John Donne, a noted metaphysical poet. It is a sonnet, a fourteen-line poem. In the poem, Donne challenges death to restrain from boasting of its might against mankind. He refuses to bow before the might of death and emphasizes the death's usage of dirty tricks to kill people. He gives reasons to prove his points and conclude that death, in the end, will die. The poem employs the literary devices of conceit. Death is personified. Donne uses metaphor to compare dying with "short sleep". The rhyme scheme of the poem is: abba abba cddcae. Explanation Donne reprehends death for his pride of being mighty and creating fearfulness among people. The death might think that it can bring down anyone it claims. He ridicules Death by saying that it can't neither eliminate them nor him. Death is helpless. "Rest and sleep" symbolise the picture of the death. They are the desirable activities for men so death is not drea...

The poem "The Canonization" written by John Donne, the leading metaphysical poet of the Elizabethan age. The poem reflects the poet's defence of his love against all sorts of bad happenings in the world. The title refers to the Christian religious act of admitting a dead person into the line of saints. But the subject matter doesn't reflect the religious pursuit of the narrator instead it discusses the power and piousness of romantic love of the narrator and his beloved. The poem depicts the highness of love over other things, Donne believes that his love can achieve the blessings of God and attain canonization and legacy. Donne uses his signature styled literary device of conceit to show how lofty and tall his love is. He employs the recurring rhyme scheme of abbacccaa. Explanation Stanza 1 The narrator scolds his companion, perhaps his friend for interrupting him in between his love-making. Instead of it, he can mock his physical disabilities and shortcoming...

Cordelia - A true daughter of her father who unconditionally loved him with no hidden greed to his share of the kingdom. She is plain and simplistic and doesn't want to show off the love towards her father she has in her heart. This is her only flaw, she is too honest to be misunderstood. This brings her from being an apple of her father's eyes to one whose father banish her with hatred. But she remains faithful to his father till the end despite earlier his rude conduct. Goneril and Regan - Both of these elder daughters of King Lear share a common character of conditional love for their father. They pretend to show love to their father just to get a bigger share of the kingdom after his retirement. Their love was fake. Both of them remain greedy first for the larger share, then for Edmund. Both of them admit that they could face defeat at the hands of French but could not see Edmund with the other. Their intention was to marry Edmund and in this race, both lost their live...

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies depicts the fall of powerful people from great heights to their total destruction not only in terms of their reputation but their life also. King Lear too faced such prospects of having ruled England undisputably with no one to question him. His hyper-assertive and naive character prohibit him to see the world reasonably, he couldn't see the true faces of his daughters who showed him the life of misery. Her daughter's flattery hides their true character. Their insidious behaviour deceives Lear into rewarding them the shares of his kingdom. His tragic flaw depicts his poor judgement of true characters of people. He misunderstood Kent and Cordelia's plainness and honesty as their apathy towards him. The impression of their unappealing conduct changed the course of his own life. Even after retirement, he intended to live like a king which created conflicts with his daughters. His daughters didn't like his kingship, they didn't wa...