'Sonnet' by Christina Rossetti and 'Sonnet 18' by William Shakespeare

''Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonneter. Devise, wit, write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.''

William Shakespeare-'Love Labour's Lost'

The English Sonnet is poem form consisting of 14 lines, each with 10 stressed and unstressed syllables known as iambic pentameter, with set rhyme of: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. 'Sonnet 18' by Shakespeare conforms to this structure entirely without fault, whereas 'Sonnet' by Rossetti dose not. Instead it has an unusual pattern of a b b a a b b a c d d c c d. although both poems do contain 14 lines. Many sonnets are intensely personal divulging carnal interests and indulgences that suggest that they may not have been intended for public consumption. Others are deeply emotional, disclosing the author's most private feelings and emotions that, again, may have been intended as private exercises.

The imagery in 'sonnet 18' becomes more extravagant as the sonnet progresses. Shakespeare begins the sonnet with a rhetorical question

'Thou art more lovely and more temperate'

Regretably Rossetti realises that she had been in love and despondently ventures to recall the moment of their first meeting in the hope of savouring the pathos.

Save of the bridegroom Death''

ly the most prominent and eminently loved of all 154 poems written by Shakespeare. It is also somewhat the most sincere and forthright in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalise the poetry and the subject of that poetry is the theme. The theme of 'Sonnet' is also as lucid to deter; it is that the poet wishes to

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2045
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)