Sonnets and Poems Introduction Poetry is an interesting form of literature because it‟s so economical. Poets (unless they are writing epics like Milton or Homer) have only a few lines in which to say what they wish to convey. This paper explores one of Shakespeare‟s sonnets, and a poem by Robert Frost, with regard to themes, word choice, language and metaphor; and other techniques. Discussion We‟ll begin with Shakespeare, and take Sonnet 130, which is an “antiPetrarchan” sonnet (Abrams 1040 n.2). At the time Shakespeare was writing, the usual type of sonnet was (obviously) based on the ideals of Petrarch, an Italian scholar and poet of the early Renaissance; these poems often featured a “despairing Petrarchan lover” (Abrams 1028). Shakespeare‟s work did not. His sonnets are full of all kinds of emotions including pride, shame, and melancholy but also delight and downright comedy (Abrams). So it is with Sonnet 130, which begins with the line “My mistress‟ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Shakespeare). Obviously, he is poking fun at the poets who describe their lovers in terms of nature: eyes like stars (or the sun); lips like cherries, breasts white as snow and so on. If we stop to consider just what one of these ladies would look like if her eyes really were like the sun, we‟d run screaming in the other direction. Shakespeare apparently felt the same, as he catalogs all the things his mistress is not: her lips are not red as coral; her breasts are not white but dun colored; her hair is coarse and wiry (on her head; Shakespeare being Shakespeare we need to make that clear); she doesn‟t have roses in her cheeks; and her breath is not is as sweet