Homework Help > Shakespeare's Sonnets

Are both sonnets 75 & 79 by Edmund Spenser themes that the object of love shall last forever in the poets verses the same?

4 Answers

gbeatty's profile pic

gbeatty | College Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus

Posted on

The two sonnets are related, and their themes are related, but they are not quite the same. Sonnet 75's theme is much as you say: the beloved will die, but will live forever in Spenser's writing, as will their love.

Sonnet 79 does say that the object of the poet's love will live on in his writing. However, it also draws a contrast between the beauty the world sees and the beauty the poet sees, claiming that the poet sees a truer, more spiritual beauty, and that this is what will last.

So, related, but not identical.