Poetry studying

[PaintItRed]

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou Art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds shake the darling buds of May.
And Summers lease hath all to short of date.

Sometimes to hot the eye of heaven shines
and often his gold complexion dimm'd
From every fair from sometimes declined.
But chance or nature changing course untrimmd.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade.
Nor lose possesion of that fair or owest
Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade.
When in eternal lines to time thou growest
So long as men can beathe or eyes can ess
So long lives this and gives lives to thee.

WHAT IS THIS???
I HAVE TO LEARN THIS STUFF?
Shakessphere barely makes sense.
Its like he has some speech problem.

[JCShutout]

He's a tough read the first time through, but if you have a good teacher/prof who takes the time to help you find the constant cultural references, you might really like him, or atleast be able to understand most of him.

You have a final coming up in this?

[docellis]

They all talked similarly...taking a history class or reading books written during that time - helps.

But I loved stuff like that when I was in college. Never a wrong answer. If you used your brain and interpreted things however you might, you could never be wrong.

[dangerous]

Be sure you know the difference between exit and exeunt.

[lukethedrifter]

Unfortunately, I never really understood the language of Shakespeare. Now I'm waiting for my daughter to explain it to me since she's SHAKESPEARE CUH-RAZY.

[doe_boy]

It helps to get down the rhyming schemes.

I remember trying to 'get' Dylan Thomas and, later, Coleridge and Walt Whitman. They all have their distinct rhythms since what they wrote is meant to be spoken (articulated) as much as it is read.

[Dillagii]

Tell your dad to help you rather than watching Bulls sucking up tonight!

[sighyoung]

Remember that it's a sonnet--follow the rhyme scheme.

Sonnets often state a problem (whether about a loved one, or a social problem), and attempt to work through the solution during the course of the poem. (A sonnet reflects a mind at work, searching for a solution.)

Shakespearean sonnets are divided into four parts: three four-line sets (abab cdcd efef) and a final couplet (gg). Additionally sonnets have turns (or voltas) in which the mind turns from reflecting upon a problem, toward the achieved solution (or, at least, some conclusion about the problem).

In Shakespearean sonnets, the volta (or turn) from problem to solution (or acceptance) usually takes place after the first three quatrains (between lines twelve and thirteen). (This sonnet is slightly different, but don't worry about that for now.)

Mind you, you can't solve many twelve-line problems with a two-line solution--all you can do is be a smart ass. And that's what Shakespearean sonnets are known for--witty (or smart-ass) comments on the task at hand.

****But remember that poems aren't just about the subject at hand--sonnets allude to (are in conversation with) other sonnets. Writers write sonnets not only because of the form, but because they are talking back to/interpreting/ prior sonnets. So Shakespeare's sonnet is not only about a loved one, but about sonnet writing and appropriate ways to write about love and desire.

To understand what Shakespeare is up to, it helps to know how Shakespeare is responding to prior love sonnets (including those written by his contemporaries). Essentially, Shakespeare's sonnet takes up a standard challenge for poets of the time--how can I show off my wit while describing your beauty and my desire? This sonnet takes a different tack, deflating the artificial comparisons of the day. I'll comment more fully when I have time.

The sonnet you've quoted has some misspelled words, which makes reading it more difficult. Later, I'll try to find a more accurate version of the poem, though.

Well, I'll shut up for now. And don't worry--it's fine not to like it. But it's useful to know what's going on in the poem, too.

[ghostrunner]

I don't like most poetry. I don't think it's for lack of understanding. It's much in the same way I know I don't like theatre, or musicals. To me it's an inferior way to communicate an idea. I know many people who think it's the highest literary form there is, but even making such a claim unsettles me. So there's probably an iconoclastic aspect to my dislike.

There are exceptions to that, though. Always liked Walt Whitman, and EE Cummings.

[sighyoung]

I don't like most poetry. I don't think it's for lack of understanding. It's much in the same way I know I don't like theatre, or musicals. To me it's an inferior way to communicate an idea. I know many people who think it's the highest literary form there is, but even making such a claim unsettles me. So there's probably an iconoclastic aspect to my dislike.

There are exceptions to that, though. Always liked Walt Whitman, and EE Cummings.

It took me years to like poetry--the more I read, the more I tended to like it. (I do most of my research on poetry.) It helps to read many poems by a particular writer to begin to see what that writer is doing.

I don't think it's inferior, just different. I agree, though--it's useless and pompous to uphold up one literary genre as the acme of literary achievement. (I get tired of pompous twits who use literary texts as bludgeons against others' intelligence.)

Funny you should like Whitman and Cummings--although stylistically different, I've long thought that Cummings and Whitman shared certain ideas and influences.