The Odyssey Of Love: Shakespeare's Sycamore Sonnets

In all literary works of love,the approaches are various whereas the motif is the same,so is Shakespeare Sonnets – one different thing is that he means more by countless metaphors of love.Numerous metaphors and the single denotation form a one-to-many relationship,which is in congruence with topology.It is also breathtaking to see that those denotations are mostly traditional cosmological: four elements,four humours,stars,etc.,and the humans who are infected by the cosmos.From Sonnet 18 on,Shakespeare's idea of love experiences a sea change in his sonnets,apparently following a chronological order.The growth speed of his love is the quickest while he and his lover are apart.In Sonnets 27 and 43,the long distance between them makes him harbor a strong desire,he sees the shadow of his lover but only anxiety is aroused.In Sonnets 44 and 45,by assuming four elements,the distance gives birth to both desire and thought.In Sonnets 50 and 51,in the journey towards and parting from the lover,though bitter at first,the distance lets the poet experience the strong satisfaction and strength from his lover.In Sonnets 97,98,99,113 the vision of the poet becomes magnificent during absence,the application of four seasons,flowers and fruits describes a harmonious cosmos of the love,and his emotion is not full of so much desire and torment as before,because he sees every beautiful thing as his lover,and the universe also his lover.The function of distance in love relationship is also in accordance to topological space theory.Shakespeare's application of traditional cosmology does not play by the rules.Cosmological metaphors are the way people in Renaissance speak and think,so they can obviously draw close affinity of the audience.More importantly,Shakespeare uses them because he wants to refute them with their own ways.In traditional cosmological order,lovers are just transient human beings standing in the middle of the cosmological chain.Sonneteers before Shakespeare do not have the awareness of sending the lover up in the hierarchy.Shakespeare,however,out of great impulse of love,he tries his best deduction and rhetoric to reorder the universe and sends his lover to a higher place.The ancient dispute of the place of artistic work versus nature and mind reaches its culmination in the era of Shelly,when artists' attention turn from outside world to their own minds.In Renaissance,the practice of Shakespeare is no doubt pre-modern and pioneering.Implementing cosmological metaphors to reverse the cosmos for love,Shakespeare's Sycamore Sonnets are exemplary in combining tradition and individual talent.