Different Types of Love in Shakepeare’s Sonnets Essay Example

Love is the most complicated emotion a person can experience in their lifetime. You can love many people in different ways. In Shakespeare's Sonnets you can see through his poems many different types of love. The poem shows not only his love for nature and other people, but also his ideas on what love actually is and what it means to have it.  Love can be good and fill a person with happiness, however love can also be dark and dangerous.

In Shakespeare Sonnet 18, he is talking about the love and beauty that is in nature. He said “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.” In the first line he is saying a person can be compared to a sunny day because the weather and scenery in summer are beautiful. In my opinion, when he said that there are rough winds in May, he meant that you can love someone and find them beautiful if they have flaws.

Sonnet 55 is all about the idea that love lives forever. Shakespeare said “Not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme.” He is trying to make a statement by saying that time and people will go on but that nothing will outlive his love. His love is more powerful than materials and buildings that will eventually collapse. Humans don't realize that love is much more powerful than any object. Even when he himself is gone, the love he has for this person will live on until eternity.  

In Shakespeare Sonnet 116, he tries to explain what love is and isn't. According to the poem, it says “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Admit impediments ; love is not love’. The statement he's trying to make is that true love will never falter. If love is really true, then you won't waste your time with the person you're with. At the end of the poem it says “If this be an error and upon me proved, I never write, nor no man ever loved.” Shakespeare is trying to say that if what he is saying is wrong, then according to him, no man has ever truly been in love.

Sonnet 130 is all about the way you can love to hate someone. According to the poem, it said, “ My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; ”. This could be interrupted as his mistress' eyes aren't as beautiful as the sun. It could also mean that her eyes aren't as bright or orange as the sun. Even though he has feelings for her, it's clear that he loves to talk badly about her. He mocks her appearance when he compares her breast to white snow. That specific quote makes me think he only wants her for his pleasure and not for love.  When he compares her voice to music, he could be saying that, when she talks for a long time it annoys him. He could also mean that music was better than listening to her talk. This is another example of him wanting her just for pleasure. By her talking it would delay them being intimate with each other, which is why he doesn't like it when she talks. 

It is clear that love is a multi dimensional emotion. Shaprepero Sonnets showed different levels of love. The first love being the love for nature's beauty. It is the purest love in my opinion because the admiration of nature truly comes from within the person. In addition, the second type of love was all about the true meaning of love and how it lasts forever. In the third love it was Shakepere's own beliefs on love itself. The last type of love was the hate to love. This type of love can be very harmful to the person on the receiving end. Therefore everyone will experience love in their lifetimes but everyone's experience will always be different.