“Sonnet 30” by Edmund Spencer, the speaker is infatuated with something he can never harmonize with. In “Bright Star, Would I were Steadfast as Thou Art” by John Keats, the speaker is also attracted to an entity that baffles him and he to tries to understand it. The speaker in “Sonnet 30” is the element of fire while his lover represents ice. He continually tries to melt her icy, cold demeanor through his actions but results in failure each time. The speaker constantly questions himself about why he is pursuing this opposite entity, but at no point does he give up. He wonders why he is own desire for her is not discouraged because of her behavior towards him. Instead, her repeating rejections make his fire burn brighter which increases his love for her. The speaker realizes that his fire is hardening the ice as well and concludes that no force can oppose love, not even utter opposites.
The speaker in “Bright Star” is not trying to understand a woman, but a star. The star is millions of light years away but the speaker envies it and longs to exhibit its nature and status He wants to live his life observing humanity in a passive superior perspective. Conflict arises when he realized that being a star means being immortal; he will be forced to leave his lover behind to die by herself. The common qualities of romanticism that these poems share are the expression of love and how both speakers desire things that should be out of their reach. In “Sonnet 30” the speaker goes against all odds and reality to be with his lover, in “Bright Star” the speaker deeply loves a specific way of life, never moving and unchanging, but his love for his girlfriend exceeds all.
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