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Travis-John Prol

Professor Patrick Kennedy

ENG 2403-08 – World Literature

27 October 2017

Sonnet 25 by William Shakespeare and Sonnet 19 by John Milton

Similarities:

 Both use iambic pentameter

 Length (14 lines)

 Both employ symbolism/metaphor to illustrate their plight to the reader

 Both start with a form of light in the first line

 Both speak about some type of loss

 Both find a certain amount of contentment at the end

Differences:

 Shakespeare uses the English Sonnet style while Milton uses Italian style

 Shakespeare uses the first 3 quatrains to detail the conflict, then the final couplet to reveal

the solution. In Milton’s, he uses the first two ABBA stanzas to depict the problem of self

while the final two CDE stanzas bring him to his conclusion.

 Milton is more focused on himself (his blindness) and how he copes with his disability

whereas Shakespeare is focused on his feelings for another person, the details of his

muse, and how these emotions bring him bliss.

 Milton discusses his pain and self-deprecation from his blindness, which is overcome by

the appearance of Patience personified, whereas Shakespeare denounces the materialistic

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love that is title and prize, explaining that true happiness can come only from mutual love

between two people.

 Milton uses a negative and resentful tone, whereas Shakespeare is, overall, uplifting and

generally whimsical

When comparing Shakespeare’s Sonnet 25 to Milton’s Sonnet 19, there are just as many

common points as there are contrasting points. Both poets use the same general concept for

their structural writing in that they are both sonnets, although Shakespeare uses an English

form while Milton uses an Italian form. Both pieces have their own benefits and drawbacks,

but it seems quite apparent which is the better piece of writing.

Shakespeare’s 25th Sonnet traverses the subject of happiness as he evaluates the long-

lasting effect of titles and prizes emblazoned on the higher class. To him, these

accomplishments are shallow and short lived, only blooming so long as the sun (in the case

of this poem, a “great prince”) shines on their leaves giving them the value they crave; an

assessment that can be crushed with the simplest disparagement from the great prince. With

this in mind, Shakespeare creates a mortality versus immortality theme, contrasting himself

with those “who are in favor with their stars,” by implying that while their fame and fortune

will not last, his love will, making him the wisest and happiest of all.

In comparison, Milton’s 19th Sonnet is autobiographical, navigating his coping with early

blindness. Milton believes his greatest and most profound talent is writing, and spends the

first two stanzas of this sonnet distressed at the prospect of no longer being able to fulfill this

talent; that God himself will be displeased with him for not using it. In the final two stanzas,

however, Patience enters personified to remind the poet Milton that God does not have to
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depend on the work or gifts of humans and that those who “bear his mild yoke” serve him

best; that those who “only stand and wait” can, in their own way, serve God in a way that is

worthy.

Ultimately, Shakespeare, literary genius and poetic prowess that he is, falls epically short

to Milton’s 19th Sonnet. While both poems are lovely, containing many similarities in their

structure, Shakespeare’s poem appears far more base and shallow than his successor.

Fourteen lines about love conquering all are, frankly, boring and banal in comparison to the

plight of a man deprived of his sight trying to understand how he can continue to use his

talents to the fullest extent.