Monday, August 10, 2009

In Sonnet 29, what are examples of poetic license?

The only example of poetic license in Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 would seem to be contained in the beautiful metaphor:



...and then my state,
Like to the Lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at Heaven's gate;



The poetic conceit here is that the lark flies all the way up to heaven, when in fact the bird can only fly a short distance above the earth. The image is so striking that the reader may momentarily believe the bird has actually soared all the way up to heaven. Heaven is a place that poets can reach very easily in their imaginations.


Another great English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), wrote a famous poem about the same bird. It is titled "To a Skylark," and may have been partly inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 29. The opening stanza of Shelley's poem also suggests that the skylark has flown almost all the way up to heaven--another example of poetic license. Shelley takes even more poetic license by claiming that the skylark is a spirit and not a bird.



Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
     Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it
     Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.








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