Idea of Love in Shakespeare\'s Sonnets and John Done\'s Songs and Sonnets

¶ … Shakespeare's sonnets and John Done's songs & sonnets

William Shakespeare was one of the world's most renowned playwrights the Renaissance period provided to the cultural life. John Donne was as well an important writer of the 17th century that addressed issues such as love, death, duty, in his work through different perspectives.

Taking into account a common theme such as love can do a comparison of the two poets Shakespeare and Donne can be done. This subject was a recurring theme for the period and there have been many perspectives on the matter.

An important source of analysis for the way in which Shakespeare dealt with love and his views on it are the sonnets the poem wrote especially during the period of the beginning of the 17th century. There have been different stages of creation that provide different themes. However, one of the most important "characters" of Shakespeare's sonnets is the Dark Lady that has often been associated with the recurring theme of love in his sonnets.

The Dark Lady of the sonnets can be considered as having been the muse in Shakespeare's love sonnets. Although she is not present in name in any of the sonnets, her appearance is obvious and is associated with love. This may be considered a recurrent aspect in Shakespeare's work, because, in most of his writings, love is seen as a mysterious and in the end unattainable state of mind. Love in William Shakespeare is not a feeling that can be enjoyed by anybody, as it has to be won and afterwards kept in secrecy. Most of the times, love implies the ultimate sacrifice as it has been seen in most of Shakespeare's plays in which characters that have attained the posture of lovers have often been put to pay the ultimate price. From this point-of-view, the Dark Lady of the sonnets is only imagined and never identified.

By comparison, John Donne's writings on love do not have a clear character as central for the sonnets, but rather love in Donne's approach is more visible and approachable.

In order to have a better consideration for the way in which the two writers approached love, it is important to view two sonnets. Therefore, Shakespeare's sonnet number 127 and Donne's sonnet "The Flea" both take into account the issue of love from different perspectives.

Shakespeare's sonnets are not given titles but rather numbers. This is to point out that often there are more subjects than just one being approached by a sonnet. In Sonnet 127, Shakespeare's presents fully the image of the Dark Lady. More precisely, the issue of love is conveyed through the image the writer creates of the Dark Lady. In this sense, "Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black / Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem." The author presents this image as being the ultimate indication of beauty although in the past, such beauty was not often associated with love, but rather with a shameful face. However, such beauty was now the essence of love. It is rather difficult to ascertain whether this love was physical in nature or of more substantive kind. Even so, the sonnets portray a great tension and at the same time a statement concerning the physical aspect of a woman.

Shakespeare also points out another recurring theme that was widely dealt with in perhaps his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet. The theme of the name is a crucial one in his writings. Therefore in the sonnet, he note that "in the old age black was not counted fair / And if it were, it bore not beauty's name." The writer addresses the issue of name to signalize a labeling that is often used to degrade rather than to show the actual quality of the bearer. As in Rome and Juliet when the monologue of Juliet points out to the name of the rose: "What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet." Similarly, Shakespeare views that although in the past a dark lady would not be associated with the name of beauty, it still represents beauty and therefore "Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower, / But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace."

By comparison, John Donne's sonnet "The Flea" takes a different perspective on love. Most importantly, while Shakespeare speaks of "his mistress," implying thus a secret arrangement, Donne speaks of marriage, and of a more open consideration of the relation between "the flea and I." The first aspect to note is the fact that as opposed to Shakespeare's approach which is from afar, Donne's perspective is from the inside, the writer provides an image of an intimate feeling but from the perspective of the individual that is part of that feeling. While Shakespeare is contemplative, Donne's perspective implies an active participation in the scene presented in the sonnet. Therefore, the two images are different in the sense that from Shakespeare's sonnet, love appears to be something mystical and out of reach, while from Donne's sonnet, the image is more personal but at the same time more identifiable. Better said,

"O stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is."

The power of the feelings described by Donne is stronger and more tangible. Moreover, they appear to be anchored in a physical pleasure that "It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, / And in this flea our two bloods mingled be." Therefore, by comparison, Shakespeare's love is idealistic, while Donne's perspective is tangible and opened. While Shakespeare speaks of mistress, Donne speaks of marriage that implies a social recognition of the feelings and at the same time of social acceptance of the relation built on these feelings.

The second part of Donne's sonnet however comes to deny the openness and acceptance of this love. Therefore, although it is open and accepted by the two lovers, it is not accepted by the outer world, identified in the sonnet by "parents grudge." Thus, when faced with the dismay of the society, the love between the two cannot resist as the female soon abandons the love and the struggle to keep it. As opposed to Shakespeare where most of the characters fight for their love, in Donne's sonnet it appears that the woman is weak and succumbs to the pressures of social acceptance and preconceptions.