As with the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet, that of the Shakespearean sonnet influences the kinds of ideas that will be developed in it. For example, the three quatrains may be used to present three parallel images, with the couplet used to tie them together or to interpret their significance. Or the quatrains can offer three points in an argument, with the couplet serving to drive home the conclusion
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 147
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed.
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Directions: Please choose a sonnet by Shakespeare (see link below). Cut and paste it into your post, and analyze it using the terminology we learned in class (see "The Poetry Cheat Sheet"). Most importantly, include a detailed personal analysis of the poem in your post.
In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes,
ReplyDeleteFor they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote.
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted;
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
This is sonnet 141, and I believe Shakespeare is describing how he doesn’t understand why he loves someone. There is repetition of “Nor” as he goes through the senses in which he concludes that she does not appeal to any of them. The diction of the poem is very negative, in my opinion. In addition, the tone is very perplexed and frustrated. The structure is definitely the structure of a sonnet with the correct rhyming patterns, and the imagery provides the emphasis to his point. I think what he’s trying to get at is that he loves this girl, but she’s not physically or situationally appealing. He is trying to pinpoint why exactly he loves her, and concludes that it must be something in his heart that he can’t control. I chose this poem because I found it quite easy to connect to Pride and Prejudice (although that wasn’t the goal). Not connecting it in the way that Darcy doesn’t find Elizabeth physically appealing, but her economic and family situation are not appealing to him. In addition, he also can’t control that fact that he likes her and doesn’t know what to do with himself, in a sense. I thought that it was interesting that I found a sonnet that I could connect fairly easily to the book.
If thou survive my well-contented day,
ReplyDeleteWhen that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover
And shalt by fortune once more re-survey
These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover,
Compare them with the bett'ring of the time,
And though they be outstripped by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
O! then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:
'Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
To march in ranks of better equipage:
But since he died and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love'.
This is sonnet 32. I think in this sonnet, Shakespeare's tone is modest over his poetic ability. He describes that after he dies (line 2), someone else, another poet, will rise up in his spot and prove to be better than he is. This is a very mdoest and statement by one of history's best poets as he depreciates his own ability. In this sonnet, the every other line rhymes with each other. However, only two of these lines rhyme at a time, then he goes onto another different rhyme. Additionally, Shakesspeare also uses iambic pentameter as each line has 10 syllables.
DeleteSonnet 129
ReplyDeleteThe expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Here's your run-of-the-mill Iambic Pentameter, abab cdcd efef gg, English sonnet. In this one, Shakespeare is criticizing the "Expense of the spirit in a waste of shame." I don't really know what that is, but he obviously doesn't think it's a good idea, judging by his details. Now that I think of it, he might be referring to the act of picking on one another. I never thought that was the right thing to do myself, because of course it isn't. I knew that before I even read Stephen King's Carrie. (I shall never be the same again after all that.)
DeleteIF YOU DO NOT APPRECIATE THE HONESTY OF THIS POEM THEN YOU PROBABLY HATE HUMANISM!!! and that is the TEA
DeleteLadies and gentlemen read this wonderful poem and take it in because it is so real. I love how Shakespeare brings up how lust can be so destructive. Something people are always warned of but never heed because we are all curious beans who want to see things for ourselves (we're all adults we can be honest with things like this).I believe this sonnet is part of the Dark Lady series in Shakespeare's work, where he talks of a potential mistress, so perhaps this sonnet is about a regrettable hook up he had?? The sky is the limit. Wonderful choice in poetry. 10/10
But I do appreciate the honesty of this poem.
DeleteChloe Hanrahan
ReplyDeleteMy mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she belied with false compare.
I had Ethan find me a sonnet and he reminded me of this one (130) from World Studies; Mr. Shea had read this sonnet to us while we were reading Romeo and Juliet. I love how it is so harsh towards the author’s wife until the last triclet. He lists all the reasons why he could not love her, but in the end switches it to say “oh but I love like crazy”. I thought this was a truly odd love sonnet because if Shakespeare ever gave this to someone he liked they would be pissed! It reminded me of Darcy’s decleration of love because he lists all the reasons he shouldn’t love her and why society would look down on this marriage, but at the very end switches it and says he loves her anyways and wants to marry her.
I'm pretty sure I read on the site that the poem came from that the poems you and I chose were connected. Which makes sense because the poet is referring to what he can't love about her, but still admits he loves her.
Deleteily
DeleteChloe I was going to choose this sonnet!! I love that we agreed in its almost Darcy-esque "and yet" notion. It's very you love who you love.
DeleteLike as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
ReplyDeleteSo do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
This is sonnet 60. I think this Shakespearean sonnet attempted to describe the complexion of time as it passes, and how it plays a part in human life. There are a lot of similes, and metaphors that play a part in this sonnet for example the sonnet starts out with a simile, "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore." This simile is pretty much self explanatory it says how the waves repeatedly approach the shore, but there are only pebbles covering the shore line and there is no sand. This simile compares time to the ocean. There is a metaphor used in line 10 of the sonnet, "And delves the parallels in beauty's brow." This metaphor compares beauty's brow to a field, Shakespeare uses this comparison to capture the calamitous power of time. This sonnet also contains some imagery, "Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight." The imagery in line seven states that as it reaches noon time the sun reaches the highest point in the sky and remains there until the night eventually arrives. The figurative language Shakespeare used in this sonnet was difficult to analyze in the beginning, but as I began to understand it I started to enjoy reading more of it. Overall, I thought this sonnet was interesting because Shakespeare describes the sadistic effect that time has on humans and their surroundings.
Sonnet XCVIII
ReplyDeleteFrom you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leapt with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seemed it winter still, and you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.
This is Sonnet 98, which is about the absence of the partner in the author's (Shakespeare's) life. It uses comparisons to spring and winter, that despite the fact that "the sweet smell / Of different flowers" came with spring, Shakespeare is still stuck in winter. The tone is a bit more lulled, like the bridge of a love song. He repeats the word "sweet," since he associates spring with sweetness but also his lover with that sweetness, overlapping spring and his partner in that regard. The imagery and its impact is probably my favorite. He claims that "the lily's white, / Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; / They were but sweet, but figures of delight, / Drawn after you, you pattern of all those." He is saying that (once again) that he cannot truly revel in the beauty of spring when he is away from his lover, the person whose presence is like spring. How can he relish in actual spring when this person is gone? Spring is no longer spring, his lover is spring. Therefore the absence of his lover is the absence of spring: an long winter, as long as the lover is gone. The whole poem is a comparison of his life without his love to the season of winter. His lover is spring (as I've said before). The actual season of spring now cannot compare to his lover. The rhyme scheme is normal for a Shakespearean sonnet. His descriptions of April "put a spirit of youth in every thing" is one of my favorite lines. It's a very simple sonnet, but I like that it is more straightforward. Everyone can see what message is being passed, and everyone can relate. It's a love sonnet, after all. I loved it. I used "lover" way too many times in this, but it was necessary to reiterate the point, which is that love is so strong, and a person so iridescent that even when everything tangible is bright and alluring, you can still be caught up in the cold and dark (which isn't healthy but it happens and it's real so) sometimes. Anyways, once again, 10/10 sonnet, love that love ;))
This is a really beautiful sonnet and the extended metaphor that Shakespeare uses helps to show his feelings of love. I really like how you compared this sonnet to the bridge of a love song and I definitely agree that this particular sonnet has that cadence and feel, as if you can almost sense a melody in the words.
DeleteWhen I consider every thing that grows (Imagery)
ReplyDeleteHolds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows ("Personification"(in a way))
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase, (Personification)
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory; (Imagery)
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,(Imagery)
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new. (Rhyme)
This is Sonnet 15, a poem that compares a person that the writer is in love with with that of a beautiful flower. Although the meaning isn't immediately noticeable, upon finishing the poem, the reader understands that the writer (most likely Shakespeare himself) creates an image of beauty beyond anything they could comprehend. I thoroughly enjoyed this poem and how the writer relates the beauty of said person with that of a flower.
The sonnet's structure's rhyme scheme is every other line. I'm not sure if you noticed this because you only annotated the rhyme part in the last line.
DeleteWhen my love swears that she is made of truth,(metaphor)
ReplyDeleteI do believe her though I know she lies,(contradictory)
That she might think me some untutored youth,(simile)
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.(read as ties to rhyme)
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,(euphemism)
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:(personification?)
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed:
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?(parallel structure)
O! love's best habit is in seeming trust,(personification)
And age in love, loves not to have years told:
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.
In this poem the speaker knows that his wife lies to him but believes it anyways. He also knows that he is old but denies it. While both parties have their lies, their mutual trust that has built over the years nullifies it and they all just live their lives as is. He has his own flaws so he can’t argue against others. The poem has the same depressing feeling when you have just given up because there is no answer so you just accept the outcome. I wonder is the wife has the same view as him? I connected this poem with how society viewed marriage in the time period of Pride and Prejudice. People would marry for status and money and get to know each other after. All of the partner's flaws they would have to live with.
But even after you see the flaws of the person you're married into, their flaws shouldn't stop them from loving and caring for each other. Also, if married couples do have that trust in each other, thats another way of showing their affections and love toward each other.
DeleteI figured such distrust would lead to divorce.
DeleteThere it is again, the old "I love you because of your status and money" ploy. This is what I HATE about Pride and Prejudice! They're using factors unrelated to their attitudes towards one another! That's commercialism if I ever saw it!
DeleteTo me, fair friend, you never can be old,
ReplyDeleteFor as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.
This is sonnet 104. I loved the tone and imagery of this poem. The tone is very loving, beautiful and graceful. When he wrote about the seasons, in my mind I was seeing every season that he described and it was lovely. In the sonnet Shakespeare is saying that this woman's beauty never goes away in his eyes, even through all the 'seasons'/aging her beauty remains. I also thought it was sweet at the end how he basically says, to all future generations you will not see the most beautiful woman because she is dead. This is a little depressing because he talks about her death but also very sweet at the same time.
Good choice the imagery is superb in this one.
DeleteSonnet 13
ReplyDeleteWhen I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.
U think that ur life is big to you, but in reality it falls into a bigger picture and the world influences you (stars are a metaphor for judgement in the world) - First quatrain
As the population grows, cheerful yet ignorant, they lose their youth and don’t show their insecurities and weaknesses - Second Quatrain
Their pride gives in and live as they please, but in the end waste their time - in between second and last quatrain
To not have a prideful life, renew yourself with new life of being selfless and see clearly of the wreckage of the world - Last Quatrain
I think it’s amazing how Shakespeare can convey the struggles of how people can be prideful and be blind to it, into a beautifully written sonnet. We let our judgements and pride get in the way of what's really important to us and that’s something we should apply in our everyday lives. Pride can sometimes come off as being egotistic or ignorant in certain topics and of course we do have moments when we are prideful for whatever reason it may be. But in the end, we always want to be selfless and give back to people, whether that be materialistic needs, physical or emotional support. With that selflessness, you can show people what that looks like and then they give back to those in need and a cycle forms and keeps going. I do believe that Shakespeare intended us to be selfless in that way and tells his readers to not only care about yourself, but care for others around you, which still applies today in our society.
ROMEO [To JULIET]:
ReplyDeleteIf I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.
ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.
ROMEO: Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.
This poem is kind of my sauce guys not gonna lie. Just take a look at this piece of pure romance. These love birds are talking in literal bars (iambic pentameter I mean) and it is so beautiful. I’d first like to worship this by pointing out Romeo’s overwhelming confidence. He slides into Juliet’s metaphorical DMs by asking if he can get some in literally 40 syllables. WHO’S MANS ASKS FOR A KISS IN LESS THAN 50 SYLLABLES INTO A FIRST IMPRESSION???
Keep dreaming you find someone like Romeo. The first 2 quatrains are pretty lit because Romeo and Juliet get an equal amount of sentences with strong syntax and meaning. Then they start trading off lines in the third quatrain and couplet. What an actual power move. People always diss Romeo and Juliet for falling in love too fast but honestly if your first conversation with someone attractive was a literal love poem filled with sensual language and metaphors then you’d probably fall in love too.
Just take a look at that absolute unit of a couplet. They talk about saints and religion, very powerful things, things that have to do with ultimate fate and the grand themes of life. Juliet is trying her best to be a reserved and faithful girl although she knows that she really does want Romeo. Romeo smooth talks his way into her heart by asking if he can seek pilgrimage on her lips. I can literally imagine that smug look on Shakespeare’s face as he wrote Romeo’s last line where he SNATCHES Juliet and grabs a kiss and they both fall in love. I don’t know what made that kiss so explosive, maybe they both like tongue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteYou definitely picked an interesting sonnet,good choice.
DeleteI really liked that you chose a sonnet that was out of there. Romeo and Juliet is always made fun of for being so overdramatic and not a love, but I really like your perspective that they're not being overdramatic, they just fell in love quicker. It's not like it can't happen, but it's rather a rarity, making their love even more of a diamond in the rough. And their kiss is quite sweet, and their metaphor seems like flirtatious banter, which is lovely so 10/10 Romeo and Juliet are the OG
DeleteXII.
ReplyDeleteWhen I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
Shakespeare is noticing how everything that is once beautiful eventually wilts away and dies, he sees this in the transition of summer to winter. He then begins to explain that this works with people as well. His love who is currently young and still beautiful will also age, and with age will slowly lose her beauty. He ends the sonnet by saying the only way to prevent this cruel trick that time plays on all of us, is to have children of your own, to create youth. However time is a never ending cycle.
SONNET 27
ReplyDeleteWeary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
It begins with a familiar scene, and something we’ve probably all endured at some point. The writer goes to bed, his body tired out and ready for sleep, but his mind is running wild and keeping him from awake. He finds his thoughts wandering to the Fair Youth, and such preoccupations keep him wide awake and his eyes wide open, staring into the darkness of night. While at night, it’s his mind’s turn to be kept busy by this bewitching vision of the Youth’s beauty.T In this poem shakspeare uses metaphors like "journey in my head". The rythem and tone is goes very well with the meaning of the poem. The use of imagery is great even if it is not really discription in detail, it is a pic you can understand.
That couplet is actual money. True genius is shown in his metaphors of work. Him comparing his mind rattling to his muscles being tired is a work of art in itself, nevertheless the rest of the sonnet is breathtaking.
DeleteSonnet 73:
ReplyDeleteThat time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
This sonnet has an overall somber, melancholy tone since it focuses on aging and death. The uses of metaphors in the poem help to create this tone. When the author likens his aging to the end of fall with the line “When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang,” the metaphor helps to create a sense of ending. The imagery describing the cold, and the “bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang,” help to enhance the dark, sad feel of the poem. The “bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang” sembles to be relating to the emptiness and the rather lack of happiness in aging. The author then compares aging to twilight, it slowing approaching, with darkness and sleep, or death, very close. After which he likens aging and death to the remains of a fire which lie “on the ashes of his youth,” slowly getting rid of the past. However, and once the fire is gone, you cannot relight the fire just like you cannot bring someone back to life. In the final couplet, the author describes how the knowledge that you will be gone soon makes loves stronger since you know what you will lose. In general, I enjoyed this poem because it brought up a new topic that is not typically focused on in sonnets during this time period, since many are about love and relationships. While this was rather dark, the author also does lighten the mood some at the end by informing that, due to their little time left, their love will be even stronger which is very different from the quatrains that are simply different metaphors for death.
#60
ReplyDeleteLike as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
This poem I found interesting due to its topic. It’s about mortality. We are all going to die, and that's life. Not necessarily something you should focus on but it's important to keep with you. It's a bit of a reminder to not waste the time you have. I also found fascinating the things this poem says about getting older. Fighting maturity, always wanting to be younger. Even though I am very much in my youth I have experienced the feeling of wanting to be younger, or wanting to stay at one age. I can’t imagine how much I might feel that way when I get older.
(I read that this it number 60 because of the 60 minutes in the hour, reminding us of our mortality. so that's cool)
Too real. This is some good stuff my man. Mortality and love are sadly things thatt must go together, like you highlighted here. In essence, it is like a rose going to wilt.
DeleteWill Mears
ReplyDeleteMy love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed.
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
In this poem, I saw repetition of sounds when it rhymed words, like "still" and "ill", "unrest" and "expressed", and "bright" and "night".I especially liked the way that they rhymed unrest and expressed, because those aren't words that look like they have the same sound in the end, but they do. I think that throughout the poem, there was a negative diction and a negative tone. This is because word choice, and he often used words relating to dark things, like death. The poem usually rhymes every other line, and this is the sound that I picked up from it. In the last line of the poem, he uses the similes "as black as hell" and "as dark as night". I think that the poet loves someone that doesn't love them back, and that they don't think will ever love them back. This is because they start off the poem by saying that love is their fever, and in the next line describes it as a disease, meaning that they think of it as a bad thing that they don't want, and I think the only logical reason that they would describe love in this fashion is if they don't want to be in love but are. They say that the physician does not have there prescriptions, meaning that no one has the cure to fixing there disease of love. I am guessing that this means that they are not being loved back.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
ReplyDeleteThou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
One of the things that makes me like an author is when they can create good imagery. So reading this sonnet and seeing the imagery used interested me. I really enjoyed the line "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May," because of how it made me picture a nice windy summer day. Also I enjoyed "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade". I could really picture this sonnet easily. Also the tone of this sonnet is something I liked. It's a very calm and warm tone which comparing a person to a nice summers day which I find very nice.
Poem:
ReplyDeleteShall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Analysis:
I think this poem is very beautiful and romantic because of how Shakespeare is relating a woman to a summer’s day. The tone is very warm, calm and happy as well. He repeats summer very often because of how he is describing this woman, even going to say that her “eternal summer shall not fade,” which I think means that she looks beautiful eternally. The words Shakespeare uses in this poem are very positive and he is complimenting this girl and almost relating her to a goddess. I noticed that this poem is written in iambic pentameter and that it uses the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. I love the imagery used in this poem because it is very descriptive and the vocabulary is as well. Some vocabulary I liked in this poem was eternal, wand’rest, and temperate because many of the words Shakespeare uses sound nice to the ear when I read his poems. I also noticed that this poem has a lot of repetition at the beginning of the different lines, like in the couplet at the end when he repeats “So long” twice. I like that about the poem because it makes it more amusing to the reader. I also find it ironic that he is talking about this woman like she is a goddess, while also saying that she has faults as well. I don’t find that this poem is very personal to me, but sometimes I can be a perfectionist and I like how this poem shows that not everything is perfect.
No more be grieved atthat which thou hast done:
ReplyDeleteRoses have thorns, and silver fountains mud:
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate,
That I an accessary needs must be,
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
The tone of this sonnet seems to be somber. To me it seems as though Shakespeare is telling us that what we think are good things have another side to them that we might not realize. There isn’t very much repetition in this sonnet but I think of the list of examples after his first line to be somewhat of a repetition. I think with these lines he is trying to emphasize to us that the more we think of things which seem to only be one thing, we will realize that everything has two sides to it. This sonnet has a lot of examples of irony. One is “roses have thorns”. This example means that while you may think roses are wonderful things, you still need to be careful with them.
My personal analysis of this poem is, while many things are very good they will always have a second side to them. I think this sonnet says that we think of certain things to only have one meaning and we completely disregard the other side of it. Shakespeare said “All men make faults, and even I in this.” He is saying how some people may think he’s perfect, but what they don’t realize is that he also makes mistakes. I believe this poem was written so people would stop looking at only what they want to see in things but to see everything in something and embrace it for being what it was.
Nikita Orbits
Sonnet 19
ReplyDeleteDevouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young
This sonnet talks about how time 'devours' our youth and even though eventually time will devour him and he will die he says "My love shall in my verse ever live young" which is saying that the love he is putting into this verse and his others will be everlasting. I like this one because of how it portrays the concept of time. In this sonnet Shakespeare depicts time as a beast and I find that pretty cool. Time is the one thing no one really has control over and it's interesting to see it depicted this way by Shakespeare. Overall I like the sonnet a bunch and time is kind of a scary concept if you think about it and Shakespeare's sonnet 19 really encapsulates the fer of running out of time and how to make things like your writing everlasting.
Sonnet VII
ReplyDeleteLo! in the orient when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head, each under eye
Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,
Serving with looks his sacred majesty;
And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage:
But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,
Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,
The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are
From his low tract, and look another way:
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon
Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.
I chose this sonnet for a few reasons. One, because 7 is my favorite number. And two, I was interested by the topic Shakespeare talks about. This topic I'm referring to is getting older and making a mark. This poem dwells on the fact that if you don't have anyone to carry on your legacy (for example: children), then you'll just be lost in the depths of time; forgotten. It reminds me of the son and moon and the cycle of a day (which Shakespeare might've been influenced by). What I mean is that when the sun comes up in the morning, people admire it, treat it like a king, almost. This admiration continues until the evening, where people start to forget about it and admire the other stars that take place of the sun. This leaves the sun forgotten until the next day. This shows just how (almost) cruel the world is. Knowing that one day, your life will end and if you don't have an offspring or someone else to carry on your life/legacy, you'll be lost and forgotten forever. But, one way to escape this fate would be in literary works. You would be immortalized in words on a page.
What is your substance, whereof are you made,
ReplyDeleteThat millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Since every one hath, every one, one shade,
And you but one, can every shadow lend.
Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit
Is poorly imitated after you;
On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set,
And you in Grecian tires are painted new:
Speak of the spring, and foison of the year,
The one doth shadow of your beauty show,
The other as your bounty doth appear;
And you in every blessed shape we know.
In all external grace you have some part,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart.
I was particularly drawn to the first line in my poem. I don't think he is talking about he actual chemical substances of what we are made of, rather then the emotional substance that form us. What we care about and what our passions are make up who we choose to be as a person. The part about the shade could be everything that we put out of ourselves that you can see. Like I love photography so my shadow would be my camera. The part where he brings up counterfeit could be about people who are jealous of you and want to be you, but they can't because they don't cast the same shadows that you do. They don't have the same dedication and passion as you so they can't be you.
I never saw that you did painting need,
ReplyDeleteAnd therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
The barren tender of a poet's debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself, being extant, well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
In this sonnet, shakespeare’s talking about a woman whose beauty is indescribable. He thinks that trying to write a specific poem about her beauty would be a disservice to her. The line “And therefore have I slept in your report,” means he hasn’t even tried to write a poem about her because he knows it’ll never be just right. He also speaks on other poets, “There lives more life in one of your fair eyes Than both your poets can in praise devise.” like “it’s not just me who’s a trash poet that can’t describe how you look, no one can!”. Maybe he was trying to be romantic but it sounds lazy to me.
Sonnet IX
ReplyDeleteIs it for fear to wet a widow's eye,
That thou consum'st thy self in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind:
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty's waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused the user so destroys it.
No love toward others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
In the first 2 lines, the poet wonders to himself if the reason that young men don’t marry is that they worry they’ll make their wife sad when they become a widow when he dies. The poet basically calls this a load of crap by personifying the earth as it becomes the widow of the man if the man were to not marry. If a married man dies and leaves behind a widow and some kids, they will still have his memory to remain behind, but if a single man dies, the world(people) simply forgets him. By not marrying then dying, that is when the earth truly loses the man and the memory of him. And that is what the poet claims is a true loss. The poet says in the last few lines how by not taking advantage, of the beauty in the world i.e. not marrying a woman, the single man basically destroys its usefulness and existence. Which could be taken in a wrong way i.e. people might think the poet is objectifying women by saying that they’re just for marriage. The way I see it, the poet is saying how the world is full of beauty for us to admire, but by not admiring it, it loses value.