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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
Classic, absolutely amazing. I love coming back to these sonnets every few years and see how my perspective changes.
"Your monument shall be my gentle verse
which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;
and tongues to be, your being shall rehearse"
I really adored these sonnets, I started out with reading them aside no fear Shakespeare but after I got into the flow of his style and saw the threads of story being weaved, I just wanted to consume every line. Even with stranger language and four hundred years removed, he manages to convey universel feeling and longing. I read and reread many verses and I think I will return to this many times.
A good author, makes you want to stop just so you can write poetry but y'know you want to finish first.
which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;
and tongues to be, your being shall rehearse"
I really adored these sonnets, I started out with reading them aside no fear Shakespeare but after I got into the flow of his style and saw the threads of story being weaved, I just wanted to consume every line. Even with stranger language and four hundred years removed, he manages to convey universel feeling and longing. I read and reread many verses and I think I will return to this many times.
A good author, makes you want to stop just so you can write poetry but y'know you want to finish first.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
From Wikipedia: A collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. (although sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim). The quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal.
One interpretation is that Shakespeare's sonnets are in part a pastiche or parody of the three-centuries-old tradition of Petrarchan love sonnets; Shakespeare consciously inverts conventional gender roles as delineated in Petrarchan sonnets to create a more complex and potentially troubling depiction of human love.[26] He also violated many sonnet rules, which had been strictly obeyed by his fellow poets: he plays with gender roles (20), he speaks on human evils that do not have to do with love (66), he comments on political events (124), he makes fun of love (128), he speaks openly about sex (129), he parodies beauty (130), and even introduces witty pornography (151).
Here are some of my favourite sonnets:
Sonnet 4: Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
Sonnet 20: A Woman's Face with Nature's Own Hand
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse,
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;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
I had always been kind of afraid to read these sonnets, because I thought I wouldn't like them at all. But I enjoyed listening to them being read by people who obviously knew what they were doing. I took them in small chunks and so it took me a few weeks to listen to all of them, but at least I enjoyed them.
More information on all the sonnets you can find on William Shakespeare Sonnets.
One interpretation is that Shakespeare's sonnets are in part a pastiche or parody of the three-centuries-old tradition of Petrarchan love sonnets; Shakespeare consciously inverts conventional gender roles as delineated in Petrarchan sonnets to create a more complex and potentially troubling depiction of human love.[26] He also violated many sonnet rules, which had been strictly obeyed by his fellow poets: he plays with gender roles (20), he speaks on human evils that do not have to do with love (66), he comments on political events (124), he makes fun of love (128), he speaks openly about sex (129), he parodies beauty (130), and even introduces witty pornography (151).
Here are some of my favourite sonnets:
Sonnet 4: Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
Sonnet 20: A Woman's Face with Nature's Own Hand
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse,
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;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
I had always been kind of afraid to read these sonnets, because I thought I wouldn't like them at all. But I enjoyed listening to them being read by people who obviously knew what they were doing. I took them in small chunks and so it took me a few weeks to listen to all of them, but at least I enjoyed them.
More information on all the sonnets you can find on William Shakespeare Sonnets.
De nuevo decidí animarme a leer un poco de poesía. No había escuchado antes que Shakespeare tuviera poemas escritos y cuando me enteré fue una grata sorpresa. Debo decir que algunos se tornan un poco repetitivos porque los temas que toca son los mismos, de igual forma, se disfrutan mucho.
Saber que los primeros sonetos estuvieron escritos para un hombre me causaba intriga. No hubiera imaginado que Shakespeare tuviera un amante, tampoco que fuera queer.
Hay sonetos muy bellos, leer este libro fue una excelente decisión.
“Los días son noches si no te veo,
Y cuando sueño en ti, son días las noches”
“Este pensamiento es casi como morir
¿cómo no llorar ante el temor de perderte?”
Saber que los primeros sonetos estuvieron escritos para un hombre me causaba intriga. No hubiera imaginado que Shakespeare tuviera un amante, tampoco que fuera queer.
Hay sonetos muy bellos, leer este libro fue una excelente decisión.
“Los días son noches si no te veo,
Y cuando sueño en ti, son días las noches”
“Este pensamiento es casi como morir
¿cómo no llorar ante el temor de perderte?”
I think it's great to get a better grasp on The Bard's poetry. Too many people just think "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day" and that's about it, but Shakespeare covered a variety of topics in his poem, not just love. Even though I usually don't care for poetry, I really enjoyed this read. Any other Shakespeare lovers should try to get this one in too!
It's Shakespeare at his most woeful teenage romance stage, come on! How can that not be 5 stars?