For Friday: Shakespeare, Sonnets 30, 35, 36, 42,
46, 71
NOTE: I gave the class a handout with these sonnets on Wednesday, but if you missed class or lost the handout, you can find the Sonnets here: http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/
Choose TWO sonnets in this
sequence and discuss how it creates a metaphor that helps us see a familiar
situation/emotion in a new light. For
example, in Sonnet 30, Shakespeare explains how he mourns “friends hid in death’s
dateless night.” This metaphor suggests
that death merely “hides” people who are otherwise still in plain sight, yet
the darkness is “dateless,” meaning it has no beginning or end. It suggests that the memory of a loss remains
fresh because no one really “goes away,” but they remain with you, merely hidden
from sight—though you can still feel them.
So pick another poem (or other metaphors in this one) and explain how it
does the same thing—challenges how we read the world through a unique poetic
metaphor.
BONUS: Even though the Sonnets are individual poems, they seem
to be developing a hidden story about the poet and his lover. Based on these 6 sonnets, what seems to be
the general story behind them? What kind
of relationship is this? What are the
clues/metaphors that suggest what kind of love this is? (we’ll discuss this more in class)
In sonnet 35 Shakespeare says "Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud" which he kind of explains a couple lines later by saying "all men make faults,and I even this...", but nevertheless I think what he is trying to imply with this metaphor is things aren't always what they seem to be, and even the most beautiful things can still fool you. Like a rose..a rose a beautiful flower that is a vibrant red and when in bloom is just gorgeous, but when you touch it you realize it covered in head to toe in thorns ans it hurts when you touch it. Same with the fountain. from far away it is beautiful and shiny but when you get closer you realize it is full of mud. Pretty much when you are thinking you like someone don't just take their word for who they say they are or what they look like, because even the most beautiful of people can have some of the ugliest hearts and temperments just like the rose or the fountain.
ReplyDeleteand in sonnet 71 he says "but llet your love even with my life decay,
I feel like what this metaphor is trying to say is like it is ok to let me go "decay", you can still love me but not at the level you did as when I was alive. That pretty much it is ok to move on without me and find happiness elsewhere.
Margaret Mitchell
ReplyDeleteSonnet 46: In the first line of this sonnet Shakespeare says “Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war”. Meaning that what he sees and what his heart feels are working against him and are essentially two different things all together. You can see something and be attracted to it but what is in your heart is what really matters. Consider being in love. If you are in love with someone only because of their looks, how long do you think it will last? Lasting things begin in the heart because our outward appearance soon fades. Therefore by saying that his eyes and heart are at a mortal war, he means that seeing something will never be the same as feeling it in your heart.
Sonnet 71: In this sonnet he says in a line “But let your love even with my life decay”. Meaning make sure to love even when I am dead and gone. Simply don’t grieve my lost life forever and not love again. But let your love be known to another and make sure to not let it go to waste because I am gone.
Andrew Reeves
ReplyDeleteSonnet 46: "Mine eye and heart are a a mortal war" This seems to be saying that his heart is clouding the judgement that his eyes could bring clearly without his heart being in the way. For example without feeling affection for someone you can be critical of their flaws, but over time as you grow to care for them the flaws seem to fade away and you don't notice them, you just notice what your heart wants to notice.
Sonnet 35: "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" This metaphor implies that the writer is at war within himself. loving someone he cannot have, or that doesn't return his love; so he alternates between loving them and hating them for not returning their love. He then states that his feelings are making him vulnerable and stealing his common sense, or his feelings are making his mind an 'accomplice' to the confusion stealing his reason and common sense.
Bonus: The general story behind these sonnets seems to be an unrequited or spited love. He seems to not be able to get the person he wants and agonizes over said person.
In sonnet 35 Shakespeare says “Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
ReplyDeleteClouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun.” I feel this sonnet
is saying many things in life are not as they seem, one’s view of love
may be beautiful at a distance like the rose and fountain, but sometimes
after you get to know that person, their dirty or thorny side shows and
tarnishes your feelings. However on the next line, “Clouds and eclipses
stain both moon and sun, and loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.”
This passage I think is saying that when you first meet or get to know
someone the clouds and eclipses may be clouding your view and believe
the person not worthy of love, but you later learn that inside them is the
sweetest soul.
In sonnet 42 “If I lose thee, my loss is my love’s gain, And losing her,
my friend hath found that loss; Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross:” I think this says that two men
love the same women, and Shakespeare is willing to give up the love of the
women and concede he has lost, but in doing so he also loses his friend as well
and is willing carry the burden of that lost love of both.
Jacob Anderson
ReplyDeleteIn sonnet 35 when talking about grieving, Shakespeare says,"Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud: Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and mud." This metaphor seems to mean that not everything is as they seem. Also that even beautiful, seemingly perfect things have their faults. However, these faults should not overshadow who or what they really are on the inside.
In sonnet 46 on the first line Shakespeare states, " Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war." Meaning that his eyes and his heart do not always agree. They are competing on what is seen versus what is actually felt by the heart. By saying that the war is "mortal" he seems to suggest that either the eyes are the heart will eventually win. The eyes only see what is on the outside while the heart actually deals with the feelings and emotions.
Bonus: It seems that Shakespeare is always dealing with the emotions brought on by a girl. Maybe he can not have the girl that he agonizes over daily but still wants to do everything he can to get her.
In sonnet 35 he uses the metaphor "Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud" by this he is saying all beautiful things in the world have flaws. Even with these apparent faults of who ever he is speaking to it seems that he is trying to show her even with her problems or flaws he still loves her.
ReplyDeleteIn sonnet 30 the last two line "but if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end." I think here he is saying that he can look back on the bad memories of him breaking up or something and still remember all the good times he shared with that person that he misses.
Sonnet 42 begins, “That thou has her, it is not all my grief,/ And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;/ That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,/ A loss in love that touches me more nearly.” Shakespeare seems to be saying that his issue isn’t the fact someone else is her lover, it’s that she reciprocates his love instead of directing it toward him. He would be willing to love her if the other guy still had “ownership” of her and she actually loved Shakespeare, but he cannot accept her emotions are for another man. The “loss in love” indicates love is really a battlefield in this case, and Shakespeare has been defeated.
ReplyDeleteSonnet 71 pleads for the lover to forget everything about him when he’s gone. He says, “When I perhaps compounded am with clay,/ Do not so much as my poor name rehearse./ But let your love even with my life decay,” indicating he wishes her emotions toward him will be put to rest when he dies. He attempts to attribute death’s qualities to love, treating love as a living being capable of decay, but also asking his lover to remove all human emotion from the subject once his humanity is over.
In Sonnet 35 Shakespeare writes, "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." It is a metaphor comparing a love for someone that isn't good for you to a court case. This shows how emotions are at play when a loved one has done something horrible to you, because you try to find reasons to stay, but know you'll hate yourself when you do. This metaphor can be directly related to the one in Sonnet 46 which says, "To 'cide this title is impanneled/ A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,/ And by their verdict is determined/ The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part:/ As thus; mine eye's due is thy outward part,/ And my heart's right thy inward love of heart." This sonnet is saying that the man's eyes see things in the lover that aren't good for him, but his heart knows that is not everything that the lover is. They are fighting a case over this with thoughts as the jury, and they say that both are the eyes and heart are right. To truly know this lover, the man will have to keep going in the relationship and go between what the heart and eyes find.
ReplyDeleteSonnet 30 and 71 both use death and love as metaphors, although in different ways. In sonnet 30 he is talking about and how you never have to lose someone you loved who passed away. I feel like he is saying we have to pay for our grief ] and that even though it is hard as time passes the memories of those people don’t change or fade they just become less painful. It’s strange he uses love and death together because these are two things will happen to us and two things that will hurt us all deeply. In sonnet 71 I feel as if he is writing to his lover saying when he dies not to carry the sorrow or even the love around with her but to let it die with him. “But let your love even with my life decay”. and maybe this isn't was he is saying but that is how i interoperated it. These poems hit home to me because my grandmother died, and i think if i had sonnet 31 to ease my mind like, the grieving will get better even if it seems impossible right now, or if my grandma had been more like 71 and told me that when she died it wasn't my responsibility to mope around and let it ruin my life but to let her go. I see 71 as life is for the living and even though people we love are going to die we have to find away to let death be for the dead and not dwell on the people we’ve lost. Because no matter how hard we cry or grieve it wont bring them back.
ReplyDelete