Shakespeare and Petrarch

Using imagery and simile, Shakespeare, Petrarch, and Billy Collins show the problematic journey each individual must endure in the complex ways of love, which pain and love coexist, through sonnets by the use of imagery, diction and alliteration.
Despite being labeled as a “romantic poet,” Shakespeare was a great satirist in his time, and was ironically found poking fun at the romanticists’ tradition of comparing one’s beloved to all things that are beautiful and divine. Despite this, his descriptions of one’s fair beloved are without peer, as he describes her beautiful tresses or a particular mannerism. In sonnet 130, Shakespeare wants to convey the image that even though his mistress is not as fair as one would hope for, they seem to share some affinity or bond that no other could share with him. Though the woman’s “hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” is certainly not soft, he is still truly captivated by her (line 4). It is often said that the praise ...