Hungry for LOVE

Everyone has desires, and one desire, love, is one for which most people crave. Pablo Neruda’s poem “I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair,” describes how someone is hungry for love. Other poets express this craving for love as fatal as others will tend to kill to be loved. In “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth B. Browning and “Sonnet 116” by Shakespeare also express how powerful love can be. Although there are many differences, they share similarities with the devices they used to convey their messages. They both used imagery to describe the measurement of love in a creative way. Also, they used diction to express the realness in undying love. This is also shown through figurative language. The two sonnets use a wide variety of literary devices to clearly say love is forever. For Elizabeth and Shakespeare, love is far more complex than romance. They each discuss the measurement that is put on love through imagery, which helps define the overall meaning in the poems. In Sonnet 43, line 2, it reads “ I love thee to the depth and breadth and height.” Elizabeth found a creative way to depict images of space, time, and eternity. She’s basically saying there’s no set height of how much she loves this person. In sonnet 116, line 8, Shakespeare says “whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” He’s clearly saying we don’t know the value of love, but we’re always trying to measure it. Nevertheless, the two sonnets use imagery to help clarify that if it is true love, then it can not be measured nor contained; it will forever prosper past limitations. In Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 116, the diction used is quite different in tones, but they both state the same overall meaning. In Elizabeth’s Sonnet, 43, her word choice voiced a tone of joy, proud, and strength. The words she used like freely, grace, all my life, and passion all meant that her love was unconditional for this person. Unconditional means you love this person through all the bad and good times, and nothing can replace or alter that feeling. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet, 116, his word choice created a tone of confidence and more adamant. Words like remove, impediments, ever-fixed, and proved guided him in expressing that if it is true love then it will conquer and defy time and death by continuing on after people go away or move on. Although the tones are different, the diction used in both sonnets state that love is undying by clarifying it does not change regardless of the best or worst situation. Both Browning and Shakespeare took a deeper spin on what love really is. They used a vide variety of figurative language, but the two sonnets contain similar hyperboles that exaggerated how powerful love can be. In Sonnet 43, she says “ I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life..” This is hyperbolized because you cant love someone with everything in you before you even have met them. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare wrote, “ but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” This is overdone because we don’t know what the edge of doom is. It’s just a more inventive way to say love is unaffected throughout time and remains so after death. The use of hyperboles explain how love is the most over the top feeling, and why it is the only real thing in people’s lives. Love is the most complicated feeling, but yet the best one as well. Just like Elizabeth and Shakespeare, majority of poets write about how love is boundless and continuous. Through imagery, they both express that you can’t measure the existence of love; limitations cannot delay or damage it. The declaration of love that will survive the grave in Sonnet 43 is similar to how love defies death in Sonnet 116, which is shown through diction. Elizabeth is articulating feelings of love about someone, but Shakespeare is persistence in explaining love in its most ideal form; however, they both used figurative language to stretch out in someway just how real and pure love is. The connection between the two sonnets illustrates that love’s actual worth is not known its remains a mystery. In conclusion, each poet did a phenomenal job by using literary devices in similar ways to clearly state love is eternal.