Elizabethan Love Poetry Poem Review by Nicky

This paper discusses how Elizabethan love poetry is laden with themes related to morality, such as in relation to sexual relations and how many Elizabethan poems also address morality in the general context of ethics and social grace. In particular, it looks at how William Shakespeare's "Sonnet #29" is one such poem that addresses morality within the context of politics and social norms and how it displays the poet's remarkable ability to convey moral meaning without being pedantic. In comparison, the paper examines how a set of religious Christian morals is addressed in Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke's "Psalm 51" and how by simply calling her poems psalms reveals Herbert's religiosity. The paper further discusses how her poem also reads like a guilt-ridden confessional and therefore has a different tone than Shakespeare's "Sonnet #29". The paper concludes that both Shakespeare and Herbert demonstrate the distinction between secular and religious moral attitudes that emerged in Elizabethan England.