Premium Essay

Compare 'Love That Doth Reign and Live Within My Though' by Henry Howard to 'Y Love Is Like to Ice' by Edmund Spenser

In: English and Literature

Submitted By kirayw
Words 364
Pages 2
Compare ‘Love that doth reign and live within my thought’ to ‘My Love is like to ice’ in terms of form, structure and language

Both writers use the sonnet form to explore the feeling of unrequited love. They both use powerful imagery in order to express the complexity of love and other complex emotions. They both reach similar conclusions in regards to realising that their love isn’t returned by the object of their affection. However, Spenser seems to be more assured and accepting of this fact because he ends his sonnet with a perfect rhyme. On the contrary, Howard ends his poem with an incomplete rhyme, suggesting that he is less assured and that love is not perfect and harmonious.
Both Howard in his poem “Love that doth reign and live within my thought”, and Spenser in “My love is like to ice” use the sonnet form in order to express their feelings of unrequited love and love as being powerful. This poetic form allows both poets to emphasise change in emotion throughout the poem and end with a concluding couplet, to present the poets views on unrequited love. Spencer emphasises the power of love straight from the outset in the title “Love that doth reign and live within my thought”. In addition, in “Love is like is presents a negative perception of love and suggests that love is an overpowering force that has the capability of taking over the speakers thoughts. by presenting a straight from the outset title “live within my thought” Both poets begin their sonnet by personifying love and presenting it as a powerful force. Howard portrays love as “building his seat”, emphasising that he is completely besieged by love and personifying love as being royalty, observing from his thrown. This suggests that the speaker of “Love that doth reign and live within my thought” believes that love has superiority over him, acting as a ruler and taking charge. Similarly, in “My

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Harold Bloom

...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...

Words: 239932 - Pages: 960