REMEMBER, no class on Monday (Labor Day)! Otherwise, read the next 10 Sonnets for Wednesday's class (feel free to read more, but focus mostly on these 10), which form the basis of the questions below. As usual, answer any TWO of ONE in greater detail.
Q1: How do these 10 Sonnets effectively conclude the drama we've seen building up in the past few Sonnets? How does the relationship end? Is it amicable? Resentful? Does the poet excuse the lover and his mistress? Or does he go down swinging?
Q2: In these later Sonnets, a fourth character seems to enter the scene, someone else to complicate the initial love triangle. Where do we see a fourth person (and a second rival for the young man's love)? Why might this rival be even more threatening than the Mistress?
Q3: This is a subjective question, but do you think the Sonnets get better as they go along? Obviously all are written at a very high level, but do they become more innovative, exciting, surprising, and interesting as they reach the 70's and 80's? If so, why might this be? What might this say about the nature of love and poetry?
Q4: As a playwright, Shakespeare not only draws from a stock of theatrical metaphors, but also adopts dramatic poses and rhetoric. Where might we see the poet adopting a theatrical 'mode' for greater effect? In other words, why might the poet be adopting a role or simply "acting out" to elicit a specific emotion from the young man? How do we know this poem might be a little out of place because of this attitude?
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