Introduction
When acquainted with poems of past and present authors, it becomes evident that love is among the most widespread and valued topics. Poets have always been dedicating their literary works to their loved ones or the concept of love in general. It might be interesting to review a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, known to follow the Italian form, and a sonnet by William Shakespeare, who challenged Petrarch’s ideas in his writings. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 14, the poets use somewhat different poetic conventions to express the same argument about love: one does not need to be unbelievably beautiful or bright to deserve to be loved.
The Attitude About Lasting Love
Both authors express a view that is not common for the Petrarchan tradition. According to Zulfiqarkhani, in Petrarch’s poems, the beloved woman was idolized and idealized using the best and most sophisticated comparisons (138). However, Barrett Browning and Shakespeare leave such attitudes and clichés behind and state that real love is beyond physical and stereotypical concepts and exists for no particular reason.
It is essential to provide and analyze quotes from both sonnets to prove this statement. Thus, Shakespeare dedicates twelve out of fourteen lines to state that his loved one does not match the basic beauty standards. Thus, her eyes, lips, breasts, and breath cannot be compared with the sun, roses, snow, and perfume (Shakespeare, lines 1-8). The following lines are exciting: “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound” (lines 9-10). Even though the music sounds much better, the author still enjoys his beloved mistress’s voice, which defines love.
Further, the same perception is implied in Barrett Browning’s sonnet. Unlike Shakespeare, she does not express her love but asks her partner to love her in a specific way. Thus, for Barrett Browning, one’s smile, look, voice, manner of speaking, and other physical characteristics are irrelevant when talking about genuine and eternal love. Instead, the author seeks the following: “But love me for love’s sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity” (lines 13-14).
All the characteristics often highlighted by Petrarch are meaningless for Barrett Browning and Shakespeare. The former states that one’s physical beauty can disappear, and the love based on it also fades (lines 7-9). For Shakespeare, it is possible to truly love a person whose appearance is opposed to the beauty standards, but these feelings are never weaker (lines 13-14).
Poetic Conventions
As mentioned earlier, the sonnets follow different forms and schemes. Thus, Barrett Browning structures her poem in two stanzas, with the first having eight lines and following the ABBAABBA rhyming and the latter consisting of six lines with the CDCDCD scheme. This system allows the author to introduce her idea in the first stanza and then repeat and strengthen it in the second.
As for Shakespeare, his sonnet consists of three parts, and the last is only a couplet. The following scheme describes the sonnet’s rhyming: ABAB for the first part, CDCDEFEF for the second, and GG for the last two lines. Such a system allows the poet to change the tempo of his comparisons from faster to slower. For instance, four characteristics are mentioned in the first four lines, and the other four in the following eight lines. Therefore, unlike in Barrett Browning’s sonnet, the primary message of Shakespeare is revealed only in the last couplet.
Conclusion
To conclude, the same idea about love is seen in both sonnets. Using the Italian form, Barrett Browning, in her verse, asks the partner to love her merely for the sake of this feeling because all other physical characteristics fade. On the contrary, Shakespeare uses a different sonnet form, dividing it into three parts. For the poet, one can deeply love a person with an appearance that contradicts everyone’s ideas about beauty.
Works Cited
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth. “If Thou Must Love Me.” Sonnets from the Portuguese, edited by Andre Maurois, Brentano, 1944, p. 69.
Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 130.” The Harbrace Anthology of Poetry, edited by Jon C. Stott and Raymond E. Jones, Nelson, 2012, p. 38.
Zulfiqarkhani, Moslem. “A Comparative Study of Persian Vasookht Ghazal and English Anti-Petrarchan Sonnet and Their Social, Cultural, and Historical Backgrounds: A Case-Study of Vahshi Bafghi and William Shakespeare.” Journal of Comparative Literature, vol. 12, no. 22, 2020, pp. 119-148.