Renaissance Sonnets

essay iconrose resting on paper beside a quillYou have explored several exemplary sonnets from the Renaissance period by the poets John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Edmund Spenser. Now it is your turn to read another sonnet from the same period and compose a brief analysis based on what you have learned about sonnets in this topic. You will choose one of the following two poems to analyze: "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare or "Sonnet 30" by Edmund Spenser. Both poems appear below.

 

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no! It is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be
     taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
     If this be error, and upon me proved,
     I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

— William Shakespeare

Sonnet 30

My love is like to ice, and I to fire;
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not delayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told
That fire, which all things melts, should harden
     ice,
And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.

— Edmund Spenser

In the written analysis of your chosen sonnet, be sure to paraphrase each line of the poem. In other words, do not simply summarize the sonnet but retell the whole poem in your own words. Then, make sure to identify the rhyme scheme and discuss the structure of the sonnet. Lastly, offer an analysis of the poem's meaning or overall message based on your interpretation of the sonnet. You may need to use resources outside of this course to complete this assignment. If so, please submit a Works Cited document. If you need assistance, visit the Developmental Module for information on citing resources. Before you begin, review the Sonnet Analysis Checklist to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit.

assignment icon
Once you have completed your sonnet analysis, please submit your work to the dropbox.