NOTE: For some
stupid reason, the book decided not to number the individual Sonnets on pages
126-131, but they are numbered in the table of contents. The Sonnets
start with the poem “Look in thy glass,” and comprise the following poems:
Page 126: Sonnets 3,
15
Page 127: Sonnets 17,
18, 27
Page 128: Sonnets
29, 30, 55
Page 129: Sonnets
64, 66
Page 130: Sonnets
73, 91, 116
Page 131: Sonnets
130, 138
Answer TWO of the
following:
Q1: As in Sidney
Q2: The Sonnets (all
154 of them!) trace a loose story of a relationship from the wooing, the brief
happiness, the betrayal, the jealousy, the break-up, the obsession, and
finally, the love triangle of the poet, another woman, and the original lover. Discuss
where one of these poems might appear in the ‘story,’ and how it might capture
the poet’s response to the relationship.
Q3: Renaissance
poems are obsessed with giving the lover immortality through verse, since art,
alone, can transcend the ages. Though this had become a cliche by Shakespeare’s
time, how does he breathe new life into this theme without making fun of it? In
other words, how does he use metaphors and imagery to make us believe it? Examine
one of the following sonnets: 3, 15, 17, 18, or 55.
Q4: Choose a line or
two in one of these sonnets that has particularly unusual or tricky syntax: translate
the line into readable, grammatical English and consider why he wrote it the
way he did. What changes from translation to verse? What do we gain from the ‘difficult’
version?
Q3: Renaissance poems are obsessed with giving the lover immortality through verse, since art, alone, can transcend the ages. Though this had become a cliche by Shakespeare’s time, how does he breathe new life into this theme without making fun of it? In other words, how does he use metaphors and imagery to make us believe it? Examine one of the following sonnets: 3, 15, 17, 18, or 55.
ReplyDeleteA: Sonnet 17 sounds so breathtaking. One line that stood out to me was “So should my papers, yellow’d with their age, be scorn’d, like old men of less truth than tongue.” That line talks about men who tend to lie or be all talk with no walk. Scorn’d means to reject or be rejected so the author is explaining how he was rejected as the whole poem is the author telling a story. We imagine the papers old and crinkled with a tint of yellow for age as the story is how someone had seen it.
Q4: Choose a line or two in one of these sonnets that has particularly unusual or tricky syntax: translate the line into readable, grammatical English and consider why he wrote it the way he did. What changes from translation to verse? What do we gain from the ‘difficult’ version?
A: I’m going to double dip and state “So should my papers, yellow’d with their age, be scorn’d, like old men of less truth than tongue” from Sonnet 17 because I still love that line, but it’s tricky. What are the author’s papers that they are referring to? Why does it matter if they are yellow? Why are we talking about old men who lie? From the difficult version we understand that the poem is about men who tell tall tales, and with the papers being yellow we can infer he is talking about age as he wrote the story down while others tend to tell the story, but change details with each new tale.
Answer to Q2) I see Sonnet 18 as the point in the “story” where the man wants to pursue the woman, but to no avail, he has no means to support her. The poet mentions he is “bankrout,” or bankrupt. The poet seems obsessed with Stella and makes a point of losing things because of her. The poet seems to strive to make an effort to be with her, which also makes me think of the chivalric love. To me, it seems as if the poet keeps buying things for Stella, but he is bankrupt BECAUSE of Stella. The poet mentions it being a “sorrow” that he “lose no more for Stella’s sake.” I think there seems to be so much love towards Stella, he would do anything for her; this is a classic case of the feeling is not mutual.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Q4) From Sonnet 27:
“Yet pride, I think, doth not my soul possessed,
Which looks too oft in his unflattering glass;”
My soul does not possess pride,
Which looks too often into his unflattering glass
One of the reasons the syntax is the way it is, is because of rhyming. The sonnets all have a rhyme scheme to them, and if not for the way the sentence was written, we would lose that rhyme scheme. Also, they tend to put the most important thing first when constructing a sentence, which is why “pride” came before the soul. The poet wants the reader to know that pride is not present in their soul. The “unflattering glass” of the poet I feel correlates with the “eyes are the window to the soul” image. The poetic way in which a poet writes helps to make sense of what is evident in their life.
Q1) I think that 130 pushes against the grain of the poetry standards of this time. This feels like a poem about someone that he truly loves and doesn't want to lie to her or about her about her looks. She basically says, "I know you're not the best out there, but you're the best for me." It's revolutionary because he speaks about his lover's peculiar qualities.
ReplyDeleteQ4) "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,/ The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;"
Tired from strain, I rush to bed,/ The proper response for a travel tired body;
Shakespeare was obsessed with the stressed and unstressed syllabus in his poetry. I think when writing this sonnet, he paid very close attention to iambic pentameter, the sound, the rhythms, and also the way words fit together.