England
Day-3
A song of Renaissance.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He was borned in England in 1564 and died in 1616. Shakespeare's written works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and a number of poems. His most renowned works include Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. These works are translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. His sonnets, poems, and plays are also taught in schools all over the English speaking world.
Sonnets
Sonnets originate from an Italian poet called Petrarch, who pre-dated Shakespeare by some twp hundred years. Shakespeare altered the Petrarchan form to what we now refer to as the English sonnet form, or Shakespearean sonnet.
This is the stucture of a sonnet:
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They are 14 lines long.
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They are consisted of three quatrains (a cluster of four lines) followed by a rhyming couplet.
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They have a rhyming scheme (a, b, a ,b ,c ,d ,c ,d ,e ,f ,e ,f ,g ,g ).
With this form, poets can pursue one idea throughout the three quatrains, and the end with a surprise in a couplet. Sonnet were most often used as a lament for love and used conventions of similes, such as a lover's heart being like a storm-tossed boat.
Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18 praises the immortality of the beauty of his lady since the written lines will be preserved on the paper.
Opening the poem with the question "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", Shakespeare begans to compare his lady and the lovely summer. However, he has vauguely suggested that the value of his lady is beyond the summer at the very next line, but without giving a deliberate reason.
As the sonnet goes on, Shakespeare states that "rough winds" in the summer will shake the freshness away because summer always end in a glimpse. The "eye of heaven" in the summer, which is known as sun by using metaphor, often shines either to bright or too dim between line 5 and 6, then the autumn comes.
Next, a development in the third quatrain appears by suggesting that there is a eternal beauty that will not fade nor capture by death as this poem is written down.
Finally, Shakespeare reaffirms that beauty of his lady will not fade like summer time because poetry will nnot flee, which resonates with the second line.
Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnnet 29 is full of depression and melacholy. The sonnet starts with Shakespeare falls into dishonor by the "disgrace with fortune", which means he has been unlucky, and "men's eyes", which means pulic has been looking down him unfavorbly. The way that Shakepeare fells could be imagined or subjective.
However, the next line "beweep my outcast state" implies that he is caste out from the society; this shows us that Shakespeare is really depressed by his current situation becuase being cast out from a society can only be a fact and not judge by feelings.
As the next few lines goes on, Shakespeare aches to be someone who is "one more rich in hope", "Featur'd like him", and" him with friends possess'd,". This suggests that he wants to be rich, handsome, and famous, which are the qualities Shakespeare may lack of.
Next, a development appears in the third quatrain. Shakespeare is contented when he thinks about his lady as if "the lark at break of day rising". Shakespeare uses the words "break of day rising" as a symbol of rebirth or a new start becuase dawn often signifies as a renewal in literary workds.
Along with his "new start", Shakespeare's moode is relieved due to his lady that the wealth of a king would not be better in the couplets.
Discussion: Shakespeare's lady
Shakespeare's sonnets seems to offer the concept of courtly love becuase Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 29 is writing to a women he is secrete in love with, but unable to confess, which the possible reasons might be social status or marraige. In addition, I have produced my own sonnet that does not illustrate the concept of courtly love, but still follows the structure of a sonnet.