But back in the day when the word 'conceit' itself was placed in an Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnet, conceit was used as a "figure of speech, usually a simile or metaphor, that forms an extremely ingenious or fanciful parallel between apparently dissimilar or incongrous objects or situations" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). This feature is very definitive in many of Elizabtehan poets' works. Interestingly, when we look deeper there are actually two different types of conceits which can be found throughout the sonnets. First of all there is the etrarchan conceit. Petrarchan seemed to be very popular between the 1820s over to the 1830s, obviously in this time Renaissance writers inherited this style at the time, and the name itself was inspired by a famous Italian scholar and lyric poet which goes by the name of Francesco Petrarca. This tool was used as a hyperbolic comparison used by a painful lover to his mistress. And secondly there was metaphysical conceits and most of these were associated with writers of the 17th century.
For example: In John Donne's sonnet 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning' here he compares the soul of two lovers to a compass.
"If they be two, they are two soAs stiff twin compasses are two,Thy soul the fixed foot, makes no showTo move, but doth, if the other do.And though it in the center sit,Yet when the other far doth roam,It leans, and hearkens after it,And grows erect, as that comes home."
(Poetry foundation, 2015).
But even in those times there were some poets who weren't really big fans themselves of these features such as Shakespeare himself. We can tell this in his sonnet #130 he responds to the use of Petrarchan conceit. Personally, out of all of Shakespeare's sonnets I found this to be one of the easier ones to read in terms of understanding the translation to the 21st century person.
"My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rareAs any she belied with false compare."
(Shakespeare Online, 2008).
Arguably, in these comparisons some of these examples may come across as very brutal or confronting to us simply because it is not the usual way we use metaphors or similes. But from my experience, after learning Elizabethan works and sonnets through high school and analyzing their works, have given me an understanding to why these sorts of poems were written the way they were in their times. In a sense, the roarness of language that is not only written but felt through the words has a true beauty to it and I believe once that is accomplished then the piece is successful.
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2015). Conceit. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/art/conceit
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2015). Conceit. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/art/conceit
Merriam Webster Dictionary. (2015). Conceit. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceit
Poetry Foundation. (2015). A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173387
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 130. Ed. Amanda Mabillard. Shakespeare Online. 8 Dec. 2008. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/130detail.html
