Special K

V-Day Special

When I first saw the assignment and noticed all the love sonnets I thought, "Thanks Dr. Jerz, rub it in". Yet then I read the not-so-lovey poems and breathed a sigh of relief. Not everyone is Valentine's Day crazy.

The first poem, "The Raven" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge definitly doesn't fit in with the sonnets. First thing I noticed was the rhyming. I dislike rhyming poems. They are too sing-songy and the story is often something childish and innocent. The rhyming fools the reader though. I expected a nice light poem about this cute little raven and got a poem about a cute little raven and his dead family. The surprise factor alone made "The Raven" interesting.

"Death, be not Proud" by John Donne again lacks that special lovey feeling. Well, unless you get turned on by death. Donne has made Death almost into a person and called him proud because he is so powerful. Instead, Death is not such a powerful force that people should fear. Too much impact is placed on Death and has made him proud (hence the name of the poem).

Now for the love. Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" is such a classic love poem that every knows at least a few lines. He is obviously comparing his lover to a summer's day and saying that really, there is no comparison. She (or, now that I think about it, he. We've all heard the rumors) is "more lovely and more temperate". Summer is nothing at all when compared to this lover. As a hopeless romantic, I'd sure be won over with a poem comparing me to summer...hopefully she (or he) felt the same way.