Introduction to “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”
Love is a common theme in “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116” by Armitage and Shakespeare respectively. Sonnet 116 is a sequel of two other sonnets and culminates the definition of love Shakespeare started in his love sonnets. Love has been a theme of several poets before him such as John Donne and others of the metaphysical school, but Shakespeare surpassed all with metaphors and similes he uses for love specifically to demonstrate conjugal love. Sonnet 116 truly explains his idea of love that if it changes, it is not love but something else. This feeling has traveled from Shakespeare to modern writers but during this long journey, several things along with expressions, vocabulary, and realization of the facts have changed. Yet, love has stayed the same. “The Manhunt” by Simon Armitage also explores the same theme that Shakespeare has done and both have concluded the same. “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116” explores the deeper meanings of the permanence of conjugal love in different contexts.
Love in “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”
Love is permanent and if it is not permanent, it is not love; rather it is just infatuation. Shakespeare is very much clear about it. There is nothing hidden in saying, “
“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:”
(Sonnet 116, 2-4).
He clearly states that it is not love but something else that changes or alters with time. It does not accept any impediment whether it is of time or society, or anything else. It is like a tempest that takes with it everything that comes its way and “The poem’s ideal is unwavering faith, and it purports to perform its own ideal” (Gregerson). This permanence of love is the same even in modern times. This permanence lies in conjugal life and not just in just simple marriage. However, this permanence is quite different in the modern poem “The Manhunt” although the couple in it is also married, the man has returned from war and his beloved, Laure, is searching for something from his body or better to say from his soul. Although she touches everything and reaches from the top to the bottom saying “only then could I picture the scan” (Armitage 16) or “buried deep in his mind” (19) and then finally, she has reached the point that she knows “around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed” (23-24), a point where she has reached his mind and knows what he is feeling about his injuries. This is the culmination of love that Shakespeare has started that there comes no “impediment” (Sonnet 116 2) and Simon has expressed it in modern terms in “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”.
Conjugal Love in “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”
The context of this conjugal love in both the poems is different in that the first is about the simple conjugal love where there is no impediment or at least the poet says there is no impediment and it does not change. During the time of Shakespeare, love was considered everything. In this Sonnet, he said, “It is the star to every wandering bark,/ Whose worth’s unknown” (7-8), and at the end reaches the point saying that it cannot change nor does it alter. He says, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/ But bears it out even to the edge of doom”, while this modern love is hurt and broken like the love himself but it is all the same conjugal love where she has “traced the scarring back to its source” (The Manhunt 20) that went back to before “After the first phase” (1) of their married life. She shares the injuries he bore in the war and this is how she reaches his soul at the end – a sign of her undying love that is the same as of Shakespearean in the last of “Sonnet 116.” However, only the contexts are different. However, despite the difference in contexts, permanence in conjugal life is there in both poems.
Conclusion
Summarizing my point, both poets speak about the permanent nature of love that comes with married life in their poems, “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”. Both the poems have supported its permanence through their own way and medium but of course within their own different contexts, but their love is unchanging and unfaltering. It stays the same till the end. However, the difference is that the old love is like the old people – full of sincerity, loyalty, beautiful and smooth but the modern love has become rough and tough like a person who has witnessed the horrors of war and then his beloved discovers it as shown by Simon in his poem. The major point is also of the use of language that has witnessed several variations in reaching from Shakespeare to Simon Armitage and that is very much obvious in the expression of love through similar metaphors and similes.
Works Cited
- Armitage, Simon. “The Manhunt (Lauras Poem).” n.d. School Portal. <https://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupId=1000644>. Accessed 02 Dec. 2022.
- Gregerson, Linda. William Shakespeare Sonnet 116. 27 October 1999. The Atlantic. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/soundings/shakespeare.htm Accessed 02 Dec. 2022.
- Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: With a Life of the Poet. Ed. George Long Duyckinck. Porter & Coates, 1869.
Relevant Questions about Love in “The Manhunt” and “Sonnet 116”
- How does the portrayal of love in “The Manhunt” differ from that in “Sonnet 116”? What are the contrasting perspectives on love and its endurance in these two poems, and how do the poets use language and imagery to convey these differences?
- In “Sonnet 116,” Shakespeare speaks of love as an “ever-fixed mark” and “the star to every wandering bark.” How does this idea of love as a steadfast and guiding force compare to the portrayal of love in “The Manhunt,” where it is described as a “blind panic” and “the damaged, porcelain collar-bone”? What insights do these differing representations offer into the nature of love and its effects?
- Both poems touch on themes of love’s challenges and resilience. How do the poets explore the idea of love enduring despite obstacles and hardships? What specific examples and imagery do they employ to illustrate the strength of love in the face of adversity, and what messages about love’s power and significance emerge from these explorations?
