Strategies
I have grouped Shakespeare's sonnets thematically. The sonnets discussed in this unit can easily be found online, or in other resources cited near the end of this unit. I present here what I have discovered, with the help of Shakespeare scholars. Students will not be expected to replicate the information below, but I have included a discussion of several sonnets so that any teacher using this unit, including myself, will be better prepared to guide them as they work. It is my hope that the more thoroughly explicated sonnets will serve as a model for the others. In a similar fashion, I will model an explication of one or two sonnets, and then expect my students to follow my lead and analyze several sonnets on their own. I also want students to look at connections and contradictions between the sonnets in their group. Just what is the poet saying about that subject? Is he saying one thing or many different things?
Attitudes Toward Love and Lust
One group will be assigned the theme of attitudes toward love and lust in Shakespeare's sonnets. They will be asked to study sonnets 4, 21, 130, 129, and 116 as representative of different views Shakespeare gives us on this subject.
What does Shakespeare say about love? And what about lust? Do the sonnets on these subjects complement each other, or do we instead find contradictions? Petrarch's sonnets were usually about love, so it would be natural for Shakespeare to follow suit, at least some of the time, given that the English sonnet was derived from the Italian. To say that Shakespeare wrote love poems, however, would be an oversimplification. Like the characters in Shakespeare's plays, the sonnets defy simple categorization. According to John Blades, "Practically all of the sonnets are concerned with love in some of its polymorphic aspects and, by the same measure, each sonnet is concerned with many other things besides love, including themes of time and art, gender attitudes, courtly ideals of love, notions of fidelity and deception, and so on."23 The goal here is not to label some sonnets love poems, or others as being about deception. Rather, the goal is to look at evidence from various sonnets that include a multitude of themes to glean a hint or two about the complexity of viewpoint in the poem.
The first seventeen of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a young man, urging him not to be selfish with his wonderful qualities, but to marry and produce offspring. Sonnet 4 is one example. Here is the rhymed couplet at the end of the sonnet: "Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,/ Which, used, lives th' executor to be."
The diction, or word choice, is worthy of investigation. Here we find that Shakespeare has used a multitude of economic terms to deliver his message. These include unthrifty, spend, bequest, lend, largess, profitless, usurer, sum, audit - at least nine such terms in a mere fourteen lines. David West says of this large number of economic references, "Shakespeare himself was a man of property, and took to the law courts on occasion. He exploited the poetic possibilities in the language of finance in several other sonnets, notably in 67, 74, 87, 134 and 146."24 These terms suggest that the young man is holding back his "loveliness." Nature has not given, or "bequested" his charms, but "doth lend" them so that they may be passed on to the next generation. Then, in a rather harsh tone, Shakespeare refers to the young man as a "beauteous niggard" who "[doth] abuse" his gift. He is a "profitless usurer," another derogatory label, making him even worse than the despised Jewish usurer of the day, because he is profitless. This "sweet self [doth] deceive" himself by indulging in "traffic with thyself alone." He is not sharing his wealth, but is self-indulgent by remaining single. The final couplet explains that the sad result would be that his "unused beauty" would be buried, or "tombed with thee."
When describing one's love, honesty is better than overblown flattery. Shakespeare makes this clear in two sonnets that satirize what he saw as foolish love poetry. The most famous of these is Sonnet 130, discussed earlier in this unit. The form of Sonnet 130 emphasizes its meaning. Very few lines in the first two quatrains follow an easy rhythm. Line 2 begins with an inverted iamb and continues to be irregular in the second part of the line. The meter of line two reinforces the satiric nature of this sonnet if we read the last three words with an emphasis on "her" and "red." The pauses in lines 3 and 4 break up the smoothness of the rhythm, and "wires" and "black," which follow one another, are both accented, accomplishing the same thing as the accent on "her." When we come to quatrain three, we find a much simpler, easy rhythmic flow. It is here where the poet speaks the truth about his beloved. The simpler form of the poem mirrors the plain-spoken message.
Sonnet 21 also pokes fun at the typical love sonnet:
So is it not with me as with that Muse,
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven itself for ornament doth use,
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse,
Making a couplement of proud compare
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,
With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O! let me, true in love, but truly write,
And then believe me, my love is as fair
As any mother's child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air.
Let them say more that like of hearsay well,
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
As in Sonnet 130, the form of the sonnet underscores the meaning. The meter in line 4 adds a mocking tone, with its accent on the second "fair."25 Likewise, the meter in line 10 is used to make a point, emphasizing "my love." The opening octave is full of difficult, obscure words rarely used, even by Shakespeare himself: words such as "rondure" in line 8 and "couplement" in line 5. The vocabulary changes in the sestet. It becomes simpler, easier to understand, and words of mostly one syllable. This reflects the plainer meaning in description and more true, not overplaying the message or the way it is delivered.
In Sonnet 129, we get a poem dedicated to the subject of lust. I have shown the sonnet here as one long stanza of 12 lines. I think it would be worthy of study by my students to consider the reason for this. There is no turn in the customary sense, but instead we get a passion that goes on line after line after line. Sonnet 129 contains no reference whatsoever to love, or for that matter, no caring of any kind. Once again, we can see how Shakespeare reinforces his meaning using the form of the sonnet. In line 2 we find a repetition of words, but in a new order, "where the very order of the words reverses the order of the experience."26 "Bloody, full of blame" is made sharper by the alliteration. The meter of lines 3 and 4 forces us to stop over and over. Nearly every word forces a strong accent, and an emphasis. There is no easy flow of iambic pentameter, but a halting read "and the jolt is all the crueler for the assonance of "rude" and "cruel."27
In several lines we find a hunting metaphor where "a lustful human being is like an animal taking a bait."28 "'Hunted' brilliantly fixes on the almost manic intensity of the pursuit."29 An anaphora, the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive lines or sentences, is used twice within these fourteen lines of sonnet 129. In lines 6 and 7, two words, "past reason," are repeated, which "sketches out the intense grip of [the poet's] fixation."30 The experience of passion, according to this sonnet, is not one that leads to calm, logical, straightforward thinking. One in lust has lost his sanity. He becomes "mad in pursuit," and remains mad even "in possession" of that which he pursues. Once having accomplished his "quest," it merely is "proved a very woe." Lust is so enticing, enjoyable, even blissful, that despite knowing full well, as "all the world knows well knows," none know how "to shun the heaven that leads men to this hell." Man's ambivalence toward lust, something that is "enjoyed," even though it is immediately "despised" afterward, is evident throughout the sonnet. In line 11, we hear of "bliss" that is "a very woe," and the contrast between heaven and hell at the end. This ambivalence is also demonstrated in the frequent pauses in the middle of the line (seven of the fourteen), often with an alteration in feeling from one end to the other. Lust feels too good to forgo, even as it brings one to a state of self-loathing, and the lines cut in half help show that.
Sonnet 116 is the antithesis of Sonnet 129, and the two would make an excellent pairing for my students. It is the most commonly quoted sonnet in illustration of Shakespeare's attitude towards true love, and so idealizes the idea that it is often read at weddings. Shakespeare couldn't be further from the subject of lust than he is in this sonnet, where we do not find the physical self at all, but the "marriage of true minds." The "unstable convulsion of desire in [sonnet 129] is contrasted with the more tranquil steadfastness of love in sonnet 116."31 Sonnet 116 differs from sonnet 129 not only in message but in construction as well. John Blades explains: "While the first quatrain opens with abstract nouns the second now switches to concrete, conveying a sense of durability."32 Love is personified in line 6, where love "looks on tempests and is never shaken." Love "looks on" as if to say that it watches tempests without being part of them. Love can stand back and just observe, unswerving, unmoving, and steadfast. The two metaphors echo this theme. Love is compared to an "ever-fixed mark" and a "star."
The meter can be analyzed to support the theme. Line one, "Lét me nót to the márriage of trúe mínds," forces us to emphasize trúe mínds - as opposed to the false ones. Sonnet 116 begins with a stress on not, which is also emphasized by the meter in lines 9, "Love's nót Time's fóol, though rósy líps and chéeks," and 11, "Lóve alters nót with his bríef hóurs and weéks." We learn first what love is not, followed by two examples of what love is, and then two more of what love is not, providing a balanced, calm structure. Stability and unity are added by repeating "alters" in line 11, after it was used twice in line 3.
The Power of Love to Change Reality
Another group will be assigned the theme of the power of love in Shakespeare's sonnets – a power so great that that it can change our perception of reality. They will be asked to study five sonnets from among 5, 27, 29, 30, 33, 73, 57, and 64 as representative of different views Shakespeare gives us on this subject. Here I will offer an analysis of two sonnets from this group to demonstrate the type of information I am hoping my students will be able to recognize.
Sonnet 73 also has a love theme, but what stands out far and above any mention of love is the reference to the effects of time's passing: aging and eventual death. Shakespeare uses three metaphors to describe aging, one per quatrain. Quatrain 1 compares the poet's old age to the autumn of the year, the time of "yellow leaves." David West discusses the pace and the order of the second line, saying, "The choppy order makes the line sound like a man brooding, and correcting himself…"33 It also might be interesting to my students to understand that "bare ruined choirs" refers to the oft sighted remains of Catholic churches that dotted England's landscape in Shakespeare's day – so many were destroyed during the reign of Henry VIII.
Quatrain 2 refers to the parts of the day as its extended metaphor, and old age is the "twilight of [the] day." Night is "Death's second self," both shutting out the daylight. Quatrain 3 begins with the same opening as the second quatrain, but now has a fire metaphor. The fire "consumes" the wood that feeds it, just as time is "consumed" as we age. As depressing as these twelve lines might be - when all is rushing toward an end, whether seasons, a day, or a fire (the speed increases with each quatrain) - they just serve to strengthen the power of the final couplet once the turn arrives in line 13. This mimics the strengthening of one's love toward another, made that much more powerful and precious once the end is in sight.
Sonnet 29 is an interesting contrast to sonnet 73 because of the similarity in subject matter, but with a different placement of the turn. Quatrain 1 gives us a litany of the poet's miserable existence. Others disapprove of him, maybe even despise him, for after all he is in disgrace. Even Fortune is against him, and not just ordinary fortune, but all-encompassing Fortune with a capital letter, as one would capitalize the name of a god. When going through this, the speaker is "all alone" and "outcast." The aloneness is strengthened by the meter, where three out of four syllables are emphasized, reading, "Í áll alóne." Even Heaven, also capitalized, is deaf to his condition. The placement of the stress reinforces this. Line 3 says, "And tróuble déaf Héaven" with the unusual two stressed syllables in a row, where the poet really goes out of his way to have us stress the words "deaf" and "Heaven." Also, West asks, "Does this lurch in the metre suggest despair?"34
In sonnet 29, we find an individual in a state of misery and self-pity. Line 4 tells us that he is looking upon himself and cursing his fate. This is followed by as many as ten self-referential terms, including I, myself, me, and my. This is a man contemplating his own navel! Quatrain 2 conveys ways in which the speaker is filled with envy. He wishes to be like someone "more rich in hope," to look like one, to have the friends of another, to write as well as still another, and wanting "that man's scope." Has any aspect of life been omitted? West believes, "The flavour of an endless list of complaints is heightened by the monotony of the metre."35 I see particular emphasis on "him," repeated twice in line 6, but also stressed each time. In line 7, "this" and "that" are accented, reinforcing the distance from himself of what he desires.
Following the most downcast lines of all, crossing from lines 8 to 9 in the third quatrain, we get to the point where the poet admits he "almost" despises himself. The turn of sonnet 29 comes at the start of line 10, with the powerful "Haply." Now, the "I" is no longer receiving the stress, but rather the next word "think" and then "thee." The line reads, "Heply I think on thee…" Line 10 reads, "Líke to the lárk at bréak of dáy arísing." Here is the sort of analysis I would love my students to understand:
The trochaic first foot gives an energetic snap to the line (reinforced as well by the shared l's and k's of "like" and "lark") appropriate for the early morning upward soar of Shakespeare's emblematic bird. How do our ears respond when this substitution is made? For one thing, we hear a strong stress in the first syllable where the meter makes us expect a weak stress only. This surprise gives the line a strong inauguration rhythm that focuses special attention on the opening words — an attention justified by the sense contained in the line. Notice also that putting a trochee before an iamb also results in two consecutive syllables with weaker stress —here, "to" and "the"— a rhythm that cannot occur in a regularly iambic line. This has a speeding up effect, adding a kind of skipping rhythm to the line, which, in this case, vividly corresponds to the darting flight of the bird.36
The Power of Poetry to Bestow Eternal Life
Perhaps in a world where life expectancy was forty, and where smallpox outbreaks regularly killed large portions of the population, life seemed unusually precious, and beauty especially fleeting. Those who miraculously survived smallpox were left horribly scarred, including Queen Elizabeth herself. In such an atmosphere, Shakespeare's preoccupation with time is understandable — but Shakespeare had a solution. In his sonnets, poetry can do amazing things. It can conquer death by keeping the memory of the beloved alive for eternity. Sonnet 18 tells us that the poet's "eternal summer shall not fade" because "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Sonnet 19 concludes by telling us that "My love shall in my verse ever live young." Sonnet 55, like sonnet 18, refers to "this" instead of directly naming it as verse, and concludes: "You live in this and dwell in lover's eyes." In sonnet 60, Shakespeare did not ignore the reference of the sonnet number to the sixty minutes of an hour, and he talks of "our minutes hasten[ing] to their end." Yet once again, he says, "My verse shall stand." After discussing the "lines and wrinkles" of old age in line 4 of sonnet 63, "His beauty shall in these black lines be seen,/And they shall live, and he in them still green" is the final sentiment. Sonnet 65 talks not of "black lines," but of "black ink" in which "my love may still shine bright." Sonnet 81 begins with a reference to "your epitaph" and ends with "You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen, /Where breath most breathes, ev'n in the mouths of men."
Sonnets 18, 19, 55, 60, 63, 65, and 81, therefore, will be the focus for the group researching this theme. Sonnet 18 and 19 are a good pairing, and could even be extended to include sonnet 17, for a study of the sonnets as they relate to one another. There is much scholarly work concerning the 154 Shakespearean sonnets as a coherent whole. It can be said that when read one after the other, they in fact tell a story. This interconnection goes beyond the content to the structure. Edmondson and Wells make much of the fact that the rhymed couplet of one sonnet has an emotional and logical connection to the first line of the next sonnet. The ending of sonnet 18 seems to lead directly to the opening of sonnet 19, a pattern often followed by Shakespeare, and worth having my students note. The last line of sonnet 18, quoted above, refers to the power of poetry to give life to the poet's love, where "this" is the poem itself. The first line of sonnet 19 picks up from there with the theme of the power of time: "Devouring time, blunt thou the lion's paws."
Time's Eternal March
One of the more common themes in Shakespeare's sonnets concerns time's never-ending passage. Some of the messages about time include: Human reproduction and poetry are our only weapons against time's eternal march. Time does many bad things. It steals our beauty, and it takes away our loved ones. Time, like an accountant, is constantly counting down toward the destruction of us, of beauty, and of our monuments. Time runs out quickly, and we had better take heed! Time treats all equally, the common man and the king. Poetry can be controlled, but not Time! We are powerless in the face of Time.
In the first 17 sonnets dedicated to the young man, Shakespeare seems obsessed with time. The young man "has much to lose" with the passing of time. Shakespeare had been a fan of the poet Ovid, and Shakespeare's take on the effects of time mimics Ovid's own views, where "the shifts and change that occur over the course of time bring about decay, death, and, ultimately the disintegration of form that is the fate of all organic matter. The changes Ovid describes invariably involve a diminished rather than enhanced human identity."37
I plan on recommending Sonnets 2, 3, 6, 12, 15, and 64 to the group studying this theme. Again, I offer a consecutive pair of sonnets in the list in hopes that they may see a sort of continuation from one to the other. However, many of the sonnets connected with the previous theme, such as 19, would be good fodder for them as well, and I will offer them the option of considering additional sonnets. In sonnet 19, for instance, we find several wonderful metaphors for the power of time, with time so powerful that it can "blunt the lion's paw," "pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws," and more.
Five sonnets in this group come from those first 17 sonnets, sometimes called Shakespeare's procreation sonnets. Sonnet 15 "continues the theme begun in sonnet 1: the danger to the young man of passing time. Fearing the effects of time on the young man, whose 'days of youth' will last only so long, Shakespeare finds himself again 'at war with time' because of his love for him ('for love of you')."38
The study of sonnets 2 and 3 as a pair would be useful. The octave of sonnet 2 is full of images of old age, such as "deep trenches in thy beauty's field" to describe wrinkles on the brow. The sestet offers the solution: a child who would be "new made when thou art old." Sonnet 3 continues where sonnet 2 concludes. According to Edmondson and Wells, "This sonnet begins with a command which controls not only the lover, but the reader of the sonnet as well"39: "Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest." Sonnet 3 complicates the simpler message of sonnet 2, introducing the mother of the recommended offspring. Students can study these sonnets side by side, commenting on how one continues the theme of the other, but also further complicates it.
As I have stated before, the discussion of sonnets given so far in this unit is by no means exhaustive. I have only given a hint of the direction students can take. The more thorough explications are demonstrated earlier in the unit as examples of what students can look for as they examine each sonnet.
Comments: