In my survey of Shakespeare's Sonnets, I have found it difficult to sincerely regard any single sonnet as inferior. However, many of the themes could be regarded as rather trite. For example sonnet XCVII main idea is that with my love away I feel incomplete, sonnet XXIX says that only your love remembered makes life bearable, while sonnet XXXVIII makes the beloved the sole inspiration in the poet's life. These themes recycled in love songs and Hallmark cards, hardly original now, would hardly have been any newer in Elizabethan England. However the hackneyed themes of these sonnets is in a sense the source of their essence. These emotions, oftentimes difficult to adequately articulate, are shared by all that have loved, been loved, lusted or been hurt in a relationship. Still, it is certainly difficult to criticize Shakespeare's work as a whole. One would only show his ignorance if he were to argue against Shakespeare's sophisticated style. Far easier than finding inferior works from this cornucopia of verse would be to snatch and guard his more elaborate, brilliant works such as sonnet XVIII. These lucky few need very little explanation for they speak for themselves. Scholarly glosses, profound explanations, and critic's interpretations - needed in the more ambiguous sonnets - are not only unneeded in these sonnets but sometimes unwanted. It is an insult to the intellect of the reader for a scholar to be as presumptuous with these jewels of verse to think that it needs someone asserting meaning ex cathedra. They have their distinguished place because, after slow and careful reading, one may bask in meaning and beauty, contemplating the sonnets bearing on his life. One does not need a critic to el... ... middle of paper ... ...Linda Gregerson's explication of Sonnet 116. http://www.the atlantic.com/unbound/poetry/soudings/shakespeare.htm. 8 I say that this is not a popular reading and not without error because I have not yet seen any scholarly work to confirm my reading of these lines. In fact, I have seen much to contradict my assertion. Helen Vendler notes that most readers, guided by the beginning of the sonnet, misinterpret it. I agree with Vendler's assertion but not her reading (or other scholars for that matter), and hence I present my own. 9 Ingram and Redpath, 268. 10 Helen Vendler, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997) 489. 11 Booth, 385. 12 Booth, as well as Ingram and Redpath seem to be of this mind. 13 Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind (New York: New Directions, 1958) 30.
on the gothic genre of the book, and her life is also mirrored in that
They told the Army to only listen to them and not the PG; this meant
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
Good morning/afternoon Ms Pritchard and 10B English, today I will be exploring two of the same scenes from different film versions of Romeo and Juliet. Each film was directed by different but equally professional directors to allow the audience to understand the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The scene I am going to analyse is the party scene when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. The first film being discussed was directed by Baz Luhrman in 1996; an Australian director who loves to spice up his films to keep the audience on their feet. The second film was directed by Carlo Carlei in 2013; an Italian master mind of directing who prefers to stay true to his films and become one with the audience and the story being told. Both directors
The sonnet opens with a seemingly joyous and innocent tribute to the young friend who is vital to the poet's emotional well being. However, the poet quickly establishes the negative aspect of his dependence on his beloved, and the complimentary metaphor that the friend is food for his soul decays into ugly imagery of the poet alternating between starving and gorging himself on that food. The poet is disgusted and frightened by his dependence on the young friend. He is consumed by guilt over his passion. Words with implicit sexual meanings permeate the sonnet -- "enjoyer", "treasure", "pursuing", "possessing", "had" -- as do allusions to five of the seven "deadly" sins -- avarice (4), gluttony (9, 14), pride (5), lust (12), and envy (6).
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
Shakespeare’s sonnets include love, the danger of lust and love, difference between real beauty and clichéd beauty, the significance of time, life and death and other natural symbols such as, star, weather and so on. Among the sonnets, I found two sonnets are more interesting that show Shakespeare’s love for his addressee. The first sonnet is about the handsome young man, where William Shakespeare elucidated about his boundless love for him and that is sonnet 116. The poem explains about the lovers who have come to each other freely and entered into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet’s love towards his lover that is constant and strong and will not change if there any alternation comes. Next four lines explain about his love which is not breakable or shaken by the storm and that love can guide others as an example of true love but that extent of love cannot be measured or calculated. The remaining lines of the third quatrain refer the natural love which can’t be affected by anything throughout the time (it can also mean to death). In the last couplet, if
The persona of Wordsworth’s sonnet has the reader question the need for restrictions throughout the poem, first rejecting it as soon as the opening trochee, then embracing it in the final lines. Wordsworth’s sonnet is Petrarchan, but several substitutions push the sonnet’s limitations while still
William Shakespeare’s sonnets are renowned as some of the greatest poetry ever written. He wrote a total of 154 sonnets that were published in 1609. Shakespearean sonnets consider similar themes including love, beauty, and the passing of time. In particular, William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 75 and Sonnet 116 portray the theme of love through aspects of their form and their display of metaphors and similes. While both of these sonnets depict the theme of love, they have significantly contrasting ideas about the same theme.
The first four lines of “Sonnet 23” dramatizes the sonneteer’s preference for pursuits of the mind and soul. The sonneteer muses about activities others enjoy in their “pleasing pastime” (Wroth Line 1) and how the sonneteer’s “thoughts do far above these [pastimes] prize” (Wroth 4). In other words, the primary conflict explored in this sonnet involves pursuits of the mind and soul contrasted against pursuits of the body. In this regard, the sonneteer deems both intellectual and spiritual pursuits as “higher” or more significant than pursuits of the body. Specifically,
This Shakespearean sonnet consisting of 14 lines can be subdivided into 3 parts. In each part, the poet uses a different voice. He uses 1st person in the first part, 3rd person in the 2nd part and 2nd person in the last part. Each section of the poem has a different theme that contributes to the whole theme of the poem.
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
Much has been made (by those who have chosen to notice) of the fact that in Shakespeare's sonnets, the beloved is a young man. It is remarkable, from a historical point of view, and raises intriguing, though unanswerable, questions about the nature of Shakespeare's relationship to the young man who inspired these sonnets. Given 16th-Century England's censorious attitudes towards homosexuality, it might seem surprising that Will's beloved is male. However, in terms of the conventions of the poetry of idealized, courtly love, it makes surprisingly little difference whether Will's beloved is male or female; to put the matter more strongly, in some ways it makes more sense for the beloved to be male.
Spencer, Edmund. “Amoretti: Sonnet 37”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. David Simpson. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2006. 904. Print.
Almost four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare's work continues to live on through his readers. He provides them with vivid images of what love was like during the 1600's. Shakespeare put virtually indescribable feelings into beautiful words that fit the specific form of the sonnet. He wrote 154 sonnets; all of which discuss some stage or feature of love. Love was the common theme during the time Shakespeare was writing. However, Shakespeare wrote about it in such a way that captivated his reader and made them want to apply his words to their romances. What readers do not realize while they compare his sonnets to their real life relationships is that Shakespeare was continually defying the conventions of courtly love in his writings.