Since Sonnet 18 was written in 1609 and sonnet 43 in 1850, it can be perceived that the emotion of love has evolved over the centuries, finding different expressions, meanings, and norms in different circumstances.
With Browning and Shakespeare's distinctive styles of representing love, another contrast can be observed between religion and nature. Browning compares love to weighty, and divine concepts like ""Being and ideal Grace"", ""Right"" and ""Praise"". Browning's use of capital letters emphasizes these words equating the power of her love to the power of the Almighty. Further, Browning assigns paramount significance to 'God's' judgment in allowing her to eternally love 'thee' illustrating her devotion and commitment to divine beings. She shows no appreciation of nature as such in this Sonnet, apart from a single reference to the 'sun.' On the other hand, Shakespeare refrains from using capital letters in reference to religious beliefs 'heaven,' this demonstrates that religion and God's consent is insignificant to Shakespeare, although nature plays a significant role in his language. He immediately compares his loved by a rhetorical question – "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and deems her as greater, and superior to a summers day. The repetition of "more" in Thou art more lovely and "more" temperate strengths her superiority. Furthermore, the adjectives "lovely" and "temperate" insinuate that Shakespeare's lover is of perfect balance, unlike nature that experiences "Rough winds." In both the sonnets, different elements of life have been approached to demonstrate the multifaceted comparisons that can be made to symbolize love. Browning's sonnet evokes a spiritual quality that is enhanced by the mention of "faith", "God", "saints" and "candlelight" while Shakespeare makes the beauty of his lover vivid and transparent, for all to imagine and hence, to admire.