Comparing Song 'I Will And Let Me Count The Ways'

Sonnets and songs share number of things in common. One example is that they both rhyme at the end of each line. Today’s songs don’t usually rhyme, unless if the songs are under the genres of hip-hop and rap, but most of the songs from the 60s, 70s and 90s do rhyme. One of few differences between a song and a sonnet is the way it appeals to the audiences or the readers and the kind of language that is used in these two different two pieces of writing. The song ‘I Will’ by The Beatles and ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the Ways’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. For number of reasons, ‘I Will’ by The Beatles appeals more affectively to the audiences as it has repetitions, exaggerations and it has the tune that will be remembered by the audiences.

Firstly, the sonnet ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a sonnet about her love, who is anonymous in the sonnet. She uses many adjectives and poetic devices such as similes and metaphors. She also used some repetitions such as “I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use” Although this sonnet is very sweet, it uses old English from 1800s that people today don’t use. Most of the people can’t understand most of the English that is used in this sonnet. The repetition shows a
little bit of the sonnet’s rhyming pattern. The pattern goes like ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It is quite different from the rhyming pattern that is in the song, ‘I Will’.

Secondly, The Beatles use some poetic devices just like Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet except with some exaggerations and most importantly, it is a song, which mean that it will have tune in it. The tune in ‘I Will’ is the biggest difference that differentiates songs from sonnets. The tunes in songs make songs more memorable than sonnets; for example, The Beatles’ songs are going to be more memorable than Shakespearean sonnets. Whereas Browning’s sonnet is about her love to this person, The Beatles’ song is about his willingness to do anything for his love toward this person. The Beatles also exaggerated a little bit in the repetitive part of the song such as “Love you forever and forever, love you with all my heart, love you whenever we're together, love you when we're apart” The rhyming pattern used in this song can be seen in the example of repetition. The pattern uses ABAC DEDF pattern, which means it rhymes every second lines but random words are in the every other second lines. Furthermore, everyone knows that normal person can’t live forever, so the exaggerations in the song lyrics make the audiences know that this man loves this person so much that he’ll wait until his death.

Thirdly, The Beatles were more effective than Browning when conveying the same theme because of the exaggeration, repetition and the tune.
The old English from Browning’s sonnet made it difficult for the readers from 2012 to read and understand the meanings behind the sonnet whereas The Beatles used the modern English and had the tune in their sonnet, basically a song, and they used the same theme, similar poetic devices. Furthermore they were able to get the meanings of the song over to the audiences. Having similar structure and theme made it easier to see which piece of writing is more effective in conveying the
theme.

To sum up, The Beatles’ song, ‘I Will’ was more effective in conveying the theme than Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ as it had easily memorable tune, exaggerations and some poetic devices such as similes, metaphors and repetitions. Although Browning and The Beatles used similar themes and poetic devices, The Beatles was more effective only because it was easily understandable by most of the people and had that easily memorable tune. Maybe if Browning’s sonnet had modern English and tunes, it might have been more effective in conveying the theme than The Beatles.