Homework Help: English: Literary Terms: Song vs Sonnet

Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 and John Donne's "Song" are both poems that have to do with the relationship between a man and a woman. In Sonnet 138, Shakespeare openly talks about the nature of his relationship with his lover and his insecurities about growing older. When he says "O, love's best habit is in seeming trust" what he means is that love's best disguise is the pretense of truth, and then he continues that "..age in love loves not to have years told," he is saying that older lovers do not like to have their age pointed out. The poet's affair with his mistress is uncomplicated and practical; it fills his most basic needs of both sexual pleasure and the continual reassurance that he is still worthy of love in spite of his age. In this Sonnet, time was Shakespeare's great enemy and the dominant theme in Sonnet 138 is the comfort that lies bring to an insecure mind.

Shakespeare has a somewhat sarcastic view of being lied to by his lover and it is fairly obvious that this love will not necessarily last. In contrast, in "Song" John Donne says that love will last forever regardless of what happens to the people involved. He says that "Destiny may take thy part...but.. they who one another keep alive, are ne'er parted be." Even though destiny keeps two lovers apart, if they truly love each other they can never be parted.

Both Donne and Shakespeare use lies between the lovers as a part of their relationships. Donne tells his love that he's not leaving her because he is tired of her or because he thinks he may find something better, he's leaving because he has a duty to perform but if she thinks he may be killed it's better for her if he pretends that he's dead. "But since that I Must die at last, ‘tis best, To use myself in jest Thus by feigned deaths to die." His lie is to pretend that he's going to die.

Shakespeare says that he knows his lover has been lying to him when she acts as if he's still young and also that she's two timing him. "I do believe her though I know she lies,.. But wherefore says she not she is unjust?" But why doesn't she tell me that she is unfaithful? The use of the word "lie" is a pun. It could mean that they lie to one another. She lies to him and tells him that he's still young enough to satisfy her and he lies to himself believing that he's still young. Or it could mean that they lie with each other as in having sex. He "lies with her, and she with him, and in our faults by lies we flattered be." By having sex with her he can believe that he's still young and macho and as long as she keeps sleeping with him and making him believe that he's still young she can keep cheating on him.

Donne's relationship with his love is much more mature than is Shakespeare's. Donne isn't concerned with vanity or with sex, he's concerned with reassuring his love and showing her that he loves her even though he has to leave her. He wants her to know that he has every intention of returning to her. When he says "Then fear not me, But believe that I shall make speedier journeys, Since I take More wings and spurs than he," he is saying that he will be faster in coming home than the sun who returns every day.

Homework Help: English: Literary Terms

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