A Form of Love
The sonnet is a type of poetry that has been used for many years. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Shakespeare both use the sonnet to express their ideas of love. Browning’s sonnet “How Do I Love Thee?” and Shakespeare’s sonnet “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” look at the love and lover as each poet takes a different path when describing them. Shakespeare challenges the traditional sonnet as he attempts to mock the form and content of the sonnet through his description of his mistress.
Shakespeare and Browning both work to portray a love that is never ending and true. Each poet takes a different approach. The mistress that Shakespeare talks about is explained in a very simple light. While he insults her to no end, by pointing out that she is not the most desirable and beautiful woman, he is showing that he loves her willingly. Shakespeare mentions his mistress’ voice and claims, “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/That music hath a far more pleasing sound;” (Shakespeare 9-10). He does not claim that her voice is comparable to music but rather that he enjoys her voice even though he knows the pleasing sound that music offers. Shakespeare is making a point saying that he loves his mistress for who she is and not who he can make her out to be in his mind. He is also saying that despite there being more desirable women he has chosen to be with his mistress. The love for the woman may also be seen as sexual as she is referred to as his mistress. Implying that this is an intimate relationship of sorts allows this love to be seen as attainable. Sandra Bermann suggests “the frank sexuality almost always left obscure in the Petrarchan tradition as unattainable, if not immoral, possibly, here receives explicit treatment” (Bermann 85). The treatment that Bermann talks about is possibly the act of mentioning the sexuality in the relationship. While he does not state that there is a sexual component to the relationship, he not afraid to very plainly talk about her and their relationship. Shakespeare does not ignore the sexuality of the relationship like most poets do when they write the sonnet. Browning’s sonnet is closer to the Petrarchan sonnet as it pertains to the perception of romance. The sonnet starts out with her attempting to count and measure the love she has for her lover. The love in this sonnet is stated as all encompassing; “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach” (Browning 2-3). This all-encompassing love can also be seen as without limits and unending. In those lines, the endless love can refer to space as it is stated in the sonnet. This love can also be seen as without limits in regards to time. The choice of the word soul alludes to this time aspect of an all-encompassing love. It is commonly believed that the soul never dies. Even after death the soul is believed to be still alive therefore it lives forever showing that the love is unending and limitless. Browning’s sonnet continues to follow the Petrarchan format in the perception of romance as it creates an unattainable quality in the relationship. She claims to love her lover “with the passion”, “purely”, and “freely” but the love is spoken with few personal statements. Although the sonnet is written in first person, each statement makes a general claim to the activities of those around the speaker. The lack of personal statements possibly shows that this love is unattainable. When something is unattainable, it is impossible to make personal statements about it because there is no personal perception. This idea of the love being unattainable can also suggest that there is no sexual aspect to the relationship. The innocence of this relationship is mentioned when the speaker’s love is compared to her “childhood faith” which is completely innocent. The romance in this sonnet, like many others, is idealized. The lover and the love are described with a spiritual tone making both unattainable. The perfection of the lover causes this ideal love not to be possible when considering the fact that no one is perfect. The concept of perfection also suggests the idea that this love is possibly false, as if someone is creating a person in their mind in order to love them. Bermann helps simplify this idea: “Early plays…found [Shakespeare] mocking the by then aged Petrarchan sonnet vogue with its themes of a languishing lover and inaccessible mistress” (Bermann86). Shakespeare focuses on the attainable, realistic mistress while Browning focuses on the idealized love for a lover whether attainable or not.
Shakespeare and Browning take different approaches to the sonnet with the form they choose to use. The traditional sonnet is known as the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. Shakespeare creates a different form for his sonnets resulting in different influences and meanings. Both sonnets consist of fourteen lines, a turn, and the topic of love. That is where the sonnets stop being similar. While Browning and Shakespeare both present a sonnet that appears to use an iambic pentameter, Browning is the one who stays true to the meter. In line twelve of Shakespeare’s sonnet, he places a trochee on “treads on”. This difference in the meter is meant to apply emphasis on the line. This emphasis is placed this line to enforce the idea that his mistress is human, and he says, “I grant I never saw a goddess go” (Shakespeare 11). By stating that he has never seen a goddess he acknowledges that he does not know how they walk, but he knows that his mistress walks on the ground. Not only is he saying that she walks on the ground, but he is also saying that she walks heavily as there is a heavy emphasis placed on the words describing how she walks. Another way that Shakespeare changes the form to his advantage is that he moves the turn. As mentioned previously, the turn or volta, is usually placed after the eighth line. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the octet contains the problem and after the turn the sestet that contains the resolution is brought to light. Shakespeare’s sonnet is different as it is composed of three quatrains followed by a couplet after the turn. In this particular sonnet, each new quatrain provides no new revelation; he continues to explain that his mistress is nothing like the women who are typically described in the traditional sonnet. By the end of the sonnet, it is possible that Shakespeare is also attempting to remove his mistress from the social expectations of beauty. The couplet adds to the final comparison, which makes his mistress equal to all the other women who have been previously portrayed through “false compare”. Shakespeare continues to separate his mistress from the rest of the women as he refers to her as “my love” in the last lines of the sonnet. By having the couplet in the end, Shakespeare creates for himself a platform in which he is able to make his closing statement. Throughout the whole sonnet, Shakespeare manipulates the traditional sonnet form in order to describe his mistress and love in realistic and human ways. Browning restrains from manipulating the form and keeps her love within the confines of the traditional sonnet form.
Each sonnet uses a very different tone in order to get the most out of the form the poet chose to use. Browning uses the traditional spiritual tone. She continues to paint a very ideal, blissful love. Shakespeare attempts to play with a serious tone to match that of the traditional sonnet. He uses his seriousness to allow his mistress to be described with all sincerity despite the harsh descriptions. While Browning stays faithful to the traditional sonnet, Shakespeare changes the sonnet into something that he can play with in order to challenge not only the sonnet form, but also challenge the people who read his sonnet. His challenge to the form of the sonnet was to explore ideas not involving the idealized lover. By presenting the realistic woman, Shakespeare is reminding people that the idealized love mentioned in most of the sonnets is unattainable and unrealistic. He is also attempting to challenge people to not build up love in their minds. Shakespeare’s clear mockery of the sonnet by Bartholomew Griffin “My lady’s hair is threads of beaten gold”, shows that he is trying to change the way that this woman is being looked at. Unlike other sonnets where the ideal lover is praised and glorified, Shakespeare fights to praise his earthly mistress despite the dehumanizing shadow of ideals in other sonnets.
Within these two sonnets, the idea of love is explained very differently. There is more to Shakespeare’s sonnet as he is not only writing the sonnet, but he is also trying to make people see his ideas about the sonnet and possibly his ideas about love. The sonnet continues to be a popular form of poetry and Shakespeare has made his mark on the form as his sonnets are still being studied. While he has not completely re-written the rules for a sonnet, he has influenced works by others.
Works Cited
Bermann, Sandra. "Dramatic Metaphor: The Shakespearean Sonnet." The Sonnet over Time: A Study in the Sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 1988. Print.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnet 43
Fertile, Candice, Kirszner, Laurie G., and Mandell, Stephen R. "Understanding Poetry." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Toronto: Nelson, 2007. 580-581. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 130.
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