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Read more about the theme of romantic love in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Shakespeare uses the language of Petrarch’s sonnets to show Romeo’s growing maturity as a lover. When we first meet Romeo, he is trying to describe his love using unlikely comparisons, in the style of Petrarch: “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs” (1.1.). He is doing a bad job. Lovers’ “sighs” feature often in Petrarch’s sonnets, and by Shakespeare’s day these sighs were a cliché. On top of that, comparing “smoke” with “sighs” isn’t very striking, because smoke and sighs are both intangible. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time, however, he begins to make original and striking comparisons: “she hangs upon the cheek of night / As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear” (1.5.). Nothing in this line is a cliché, and the comparison of Juliet to an earring is quite unlikely. Romeo has also punned on Juliet’s name, because “Jule,” pronounced “Jewel,” was a common short form of Juliet at the time. Petrarch frequently punned on the name of his beloved, Laura. Love has made Romeo a better poet, which helps us to believe that his love for Juliet is real.
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