For Friday: Starting (Slowly) the Sonnets!

For Friday: Shakespeare. The Sonnets (1-18)

NOTE: I am only assigning the following Sonnets in the range of the first 18: 1, 3, 9, 12, 15, 18. You can read all of them if you like, but these are the only ones you need to read. And even as you read them, try to single out 2 or 3 to read more than once and to get inside a little bit more than the others.

NOTE ON SONNETS: A Shakespearean sonnet is in iambic pentameter, which means each line has 10 syllables (sometimes 11) that alternate with unstressed and stressed beats. It follows an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme every time. It ends in a Couplet, which are two rhymed lines which provide a little twist to the meaning of the poem. It often gives us a little jolt or surprise, and it can contradict other aspects of the Sonnet. We’ll discuss more on how to read Sonnets and Shakespeare’s poetry in Friday’s class.

Answer TWO of the following using any of the poems in this range:

Q1: Discuss a line that employs unusual syntax, meaning the arrangement of words in a poetic sentence. What do you think this line would translate to in ‘normal’ English? Why might he write it this way? In other words, why does he try to be more confusing than direct?

Q2: How does a specific poem (or a specific line or two) seem to underline some of the ideas discussed in de Sousa’s book about love, hierarchies of love, philosophies of love, etc.? Feel free to quote the passage in Love: A Very Short Introduction to illustrate this.

Q3: Choosing one specific sonnet, what makes it unusual to call this a “love sonnet”? What might it stretch the definition or experience of writing about love to a lover? Does this sonnet seem to be concerned with Eros love, or a different type of love? How can we tell?

Q4: Discuss a specific metaphor in one of the Sonnets that you find interesting, exciting, strange, or simply revealing. What is Shakespeare using the metaphor to explain, and what makes it such an interesting/unusual image? How might it reveal something about the nature and experience of love in Shakespeare’s time?