Saturday, July 12, 2014

What are some similarities between the poetry of William Wordsworth, William Shakepeare and John Donne?I am an undergraduate and want to know some...

All three of these poets were Englishman and rather revolutionary in their writing styles.


Both Shakespeare and John Donne wrote during the 1600s.  Their style of weaving wit and humor into their writing was unique to both of them, and they were not even compared to one another until many years later.  Most Elizabethan poetry at the time was colorful with metaphors, most of which could now be considered somewhat cliche and obvious.  Donne was noted for his use of unusual comparisons and analogies in his poetry.  Also similar to Shakespeare, Donne employed the use of puns and paradoxes that required his audience to think twice when reading his works.


Wordsworth, who was not considered quite as humorous as Shakespeare and Donne, was nevertheless equally revolutionary in his style of writing.  His works came out in the late 1700s and he is credited with helping to start the Romantic movement in England with the publication of his and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads.  Similar to the Romantic movement in America (which came years later), this movement was categorized by a rejection of the aristocratic social and political trends (something Shakespeare had done), as well as a presentation of nature as something in which to view beauty, rather than as a platform for scientific and rational thought (Shakespeare and Donne were also consistent with this).

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