Tasnim Afza Mredula

1821964615
ENG230.2

Poems: SONNET LXXV and THE SONNET-BALLAD

1. Write the difference between the two sonnets.

The poems, Sonnet LXXV and The Sonnet-Ballad, written by Edmund Spenser and
Gwendolyn Brooks respectively are both about love and death. Given that the poems are
similar in its themes yet they are different from the readers' aspects. Where Sonnet
LXXV talks about immortalizing his love, The Sonnet-Ballad, on the other hand, talks
about her feelings that she thinks has disappeared.

In Sonnet LXXV, the narrator was having a conversation with his beloved. He says that
he wrote her name in the sand but the waves came and washed it away. He tried it again
but the waves came back and erased her name away. By this, the narrator is now hurt and
was asked by his lover why he would try to write her name in the sand any way; by the
response of the narrator we can assume that he tried to immortalize his beloved's name.
The narrator wanted to do something by which he can forever and always remember his
love. He then professes his love by penning it down through poetry (like this one) making
his lover immortal. For example, in the poem, the narrator says, 'To die in dust,... rare
shall eternize ' (Lines 10,11,12)

On the other hand, in The Sonnet-Ballad, the narrator talks about her lover going to the
war leaving her behind. In this poem, we see how she is sure that her lover will not come
back from war, and even if he does she is sure that her love for him is not true. This
suggests that she is not ready to accept the new form of change that might come to her
lover after coming back from war. So, she subtly questions her feelings which she thinks
has disappeared right after her lover left. For example, in the poem, the narrator says,
'That my sweet love…. The one to stammer, "Yes". ' (Lines 8-13)

While Sonnet LXXV talks about his deathless love, The Sonnet-Ballad talks about her
love that might go away with or without her lover's death. The underlying themes and the
plot of these poems are what differentiate them from each other.
(357 words)