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Example research essay topic: Norton Anthology Of English Literature Loss Of Innocence - 2,021 words

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Compare and Contrast Love. Two great and very famous authors, Shakespeare and Donne, lived in the same century (end of 16 th century), so they are the product of the same generation. They both were in love with women, dedicated their creative work to them and love in general. But look, how differ they envisage the same subject love to a woman.

Good example of this difference are sonnet # 130 My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun and The Flea. Lets have a look more closer at these two sonnets. When we compare the sonnets of these two great authors, we see that their style of writhing is different. I mean that Shakespeare, for instance, insulting his mistress, comparing her with beautiful things. Donne - vices versa, he exalts the woman he loves. My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun is a poem written by William Shakespeare about the love towards an imperfect woman.

He explains that although his mistress is imperfect, he finds his love special and rare. If the modern day reader is not careful, he / she might be quick to assume the role of the woman that Shakespeare writes about. Although the word mistress now refers to a sweetheart or a woman who lives with a man without being married to him, in Shakespeare's time, it meant a woman who rules others or has control. With that understood, the reader can focus on some important conventions of this poem- theme, tone, and form- to better understand and appreciate the piece. The theme of this poem is to reflect and understand true love; true love loves one another's imperfections. This poem explains the imperfections and even flaws of the writers love.

He speaks of her eyes being nothing like the sun, her lips not as red as coral, her breasts an off-white color, her cheeks less red than roses, and her voice not as pleasant as music. He even becomes a bit insulting when he points out that her hairs are like black wires, her breath reeks, and that she treads on the ground when she walks. But despite all these things, he still loves to hear her speak and finds his love rare, recognizable by heaven. The Shakespeare's reference to hair as wires confuses modern readers because we assume it to mean our current definition of wire a thread of metal which is hardly a fitting word in the context of the poem.

However, to a Renaissance reader, wire would refer to the finely spun gold threads woven into fancy hairnets. Many poets of the time used this term as a benchmark of beauty. There is no use of grandiose metaphor or allusion he does not compare his love to Venus; there is no evocation to Morphs, etc. The ordinary beauty and humanity of his lover are what is important to Shakespeare in this sonnet, and he deliberately uses typical love poetry metaphors against themselves. In this sonnet, the references to such objects of perfection are indeed present, but they are there to illustrate that his lover is not as beautiful. Shakespeare utilizes a new structure, through which the straightforward theme of his lovers simplicity can be developed in the three quatrains and neatly concluded in the final couplet.

The tone of this poem is one of realism and contentment. Shakespeare realizes that love is full of imperfections, yet that only makes love stronger. This is a realistic look at his mistress, not a usual love-stuck reflection in a poem of ones love. He has come to realize that she is far from perfect, yet that does not take away from his love for her. It seems as though he is having an epiphany about the truth of love. Maybe he is a young lover, who is coming to terms with the facts and reflecting in a realistic manner.

Although he speaks of all of her shortcomings, he sounds satisfied with his love. This poem has a realistic look at the love of the writer. Shakespeare uses his mistress to explain true love and its imperfections. He uses tone to set a content and realistic mood. Through his form, he creates an easy, flowing, and enjoyable read, displaying his superiority in the art of poetry. Shakespeare ends the sonnet by proclaiming his love for his mistress despite her lack of adornment, so he embraces the theme of total and consuming love.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature defines the conceits of poetics as metaphors that are intricately woven into the verse, often used to express satire, puns, or deeper meanings within the poem, and to display the poets own cunning with words. The conceits of John Donne are said to leap continually in a restless orbit from the personal to the cosmic and back again. The outward nature of Donne's poem The Flea appears to be a love poem; dedication from a male suitor to his lady of honor, who refuses to yield to his lustful desires. A closer look at the poem reveals that this suitor is actually arguing a point to his lady: that the loss of innocence does not constitute a loss of honor. The poet begins his argument by condemning the act of intercourse as a shameful sin. He also belittles it, claiming that if the same effects can be realized within the body of a tiny flea, then the act itself cannot hold tremendous importance.

In any case, the act is out of the question in the realm of reality, since the two people in the poem do not appear to be married, so sexual union can only be committed symbolically. The argument then shifts to a different position, where the flea suddenly becomes the entire world of the lovers; the symbolic becomes reality. The act of intercourse loses its importance as the subject in question, and now the loss of all innocence is addressed. There is obviously some action taken by the poet's mistress between the second and third stanzas, as the next segment seems to be a judgment on those actions. The woman has killed the mysterious flea, casting away her innocence and proving his argument for passion through the use of her own words. The poet asks his mistress to notice only this flea, to forget everything else as he delivers his argument.

The flea has bitten them both, and their bloods mix within its body. The attention paid to the qualities of blood may be noted here and later in the poem (when the woman suddenly gains a stature of royalty [pulling her nail]). This mixing of bloods is somewhat of an insult to the lady, if she is of royal blood and he is not. The description of the swelling of the insect with one blood made of two is suggestive of surrogate pregnancy, a perversion of motherhood. Such an allusion is definitely not a pleasant nor natural one, and it would be natural for the lady to kill the flea out of disgust after hearing these lines. The word suck in this context would be equivalent to the experience of passion or lust, which leads to the loss of innocence.

The man admits that the flea sucked him first, so he has lost his innocence, but he still finds himself honorable, so here he bases his own point of view. The flea becomes ultimately a symbol of the world in which the lovers desires are realized, this our marriage bed and marriage temple is. Marriage and consummation is a past issue, since within the flea their blood is already mingled and the child of their union grows. The flea is now the realm of marriage, all-encompassing the lovers and excluding any parents or patriarchal sanction.

The walls of this realm are jet black, indicating that something sinister or evil is to occur here. This could be a reference to the illicit marriage, or the forbidden mixing of royal and common blood, or perhaps only the impiety of the poets comparison that loss of innocence should be so trivial as the life of a flea. The ladys significance is reduced to that of a black widow spider at this point, where the poet says she is apt to kill him after this consummation of a non-existent marriage. With this metaphor of the spider, who is also jet in color, the object of the mans love is reduced to the position of the flea.

If the flea is pregnant with their blood-child, then she (the lady) may as well be pregnant too. Now that this tie has been established between the blood of the woman and the flea, if the woman were to kill the flea, it would be a form of suicide. So to kill this flea, the woman would have to commit murder (of the symbolic marriage realm and the child within), suicide (killing of her own blood), and sacrilege (which suicide is). Apparently the woman kills the flea anyway, since the death of the flea and her own corruption is addressed next. By killing the flea whom the poet has given such strange attributes, the woman squashes the symbolic world the man has constructed and brought them both back to reality.

By murdering the innocent flea, the lady has purpled her nail, a color assigned to the clothing of royalty. She now becomes a monarch (a pun; she is an autonomous ruler and an insect, the butterfly), gaining her position through the death of the flea. She has committed the sins that destroy the union of their blood, so she triumphs. She says that neither of them are any worse for the loss of blood caused by the pest, which the poet confirms to be the truth. This comment suggests that the lady has just admitted her loss of innocence by implying that the flea really didn't do anything to deserve death. The poet finalizes his argument for his cause by granting that the death of the flea is really of no consequence, as are her fears for her honor.

Her honor will not waste when she gives in to him. The hopeful suitor that addresses his honorable lady in The Flea argues ingeniously throughout the verses, shifting the limits of a tiny insect to entire world encompassing the couple. He recognizes sexual relationships out of marriage as a sin, and as a shameful act even when legitimate. Thus the act could only be committed symbolically, within the body of a flea. If such a union of the suitor and his lady can be realized in the flea then let the flea become the entire world, so that their love can be a reality. As the poet relates his vision of their love in a clandestine world, the lady denies him by smashing the flea.

Her reasons may be that she is a noble and he is not, so the suggestion that they mix blood is highly insulting, or that the entire subject he is discussing is not modest enough for a maiden. Upon her smashing of his poetic world of marriage and love, the man assures her that what she has done is of no consequence. He compares her fear for her honor to the importance of the now dead flea, which is nothing. Donne turns up surprisingly frequently, although certainly not as often as Shakespeare, who is far more thoroughly embedded in subsequent literature as a data bank of allusions, as a set of texts to remake, which, of course, happens with every production on stage or film (and in other media, as well, in opera or musical, from Verdis Macbeth or Thomas Hamlet, to Kiss me Kate, or Play On, the recent jazz version of Twelfth Night) and, most important, as an inescapable cultural presence.

As a synecdoche for the literary imagination, for creativity itself, and as the source for iconic representations of the human condition, his figures at once mythical and recognizable, Shakespeare seems to demand response. Bibliography: William Shakespeare My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun. John Donne The Flea. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.


Free research essays on topics related to: william shakespeare, true love, norton anthology of english literature, loss of innocence, mistress eyes

Research essay sample on Norton Anthology Of English Literature Loss Of Innocence

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