When I first read our Prologue for this week and the introduction to Shakespeare in our Norton’s Anthology, I was surprised to read that Shakespeare’s thoughts and themes were thought to be unoriginal. I just reread some of Vendler’s claims that are mentioned in the Prologue for week four. I decided to investigate these suggestions. As I was researching British literature, I stumbled upon a pretty helpful timeline, which I will post and explain above my rumination as my creative engagement for this week. The timeline gives a pretty good jist of the major concepts of the time period and also provides some staple examples by authors of the era.
So far in our course, we have “traveled” through the Old English/Anglo-Saxon Period in which there was an emphasis on fate, the success of heroic characters (as we saw in Beowulf), and expression of religious beliefs. To me, none of these concepts showed up as prominent themes in Shakespeare’s sonnets. The next stop on our travels was the Middle English Period. This is where I began to see Vendler’s point. When we read the works from the Middle English period, we saw themes revolving around love, which Shakespeare also focused on.
However, after I began writing this Rumination, I started to think of another quote by Vendler mentioned in the Prologue by Professor Calhoun. He pointed out Vendler’s quote that “The appeal of lyric lies elsewhere than in its paraphrasable statement” (14). I will admit that I had to reread this statement several times before I could make sense of it for myself. What I took away from this is that maybe what we should be appreciating about Shakespeare’s sonnets is the actual format of the sonnet and not necessarily the sonnet’s theme or message. Sonnets are definitely a difficult form of poetry to write. In the appendix of our anthology, a sonnet is defined as “a form combining a variable number of units of rhymed lines to produce a fourteen-line poem, usually in rhyming iambic pentameter lines” (A48). It also goes on to explain the Shakespearean sonnet as being “formed by three quatrains (abab cdcd efef) and a couplet (gg)” (A48). Talk about a mouth full! I was challenged by my high school honors English teacher to write my own sonnet, and let me tell you it was not easy. There are so many things to work with while trying to express an idea. You not only have to worry about conveying your ideas but you also have to think about the meter and the rhyme scheme of the sonnet. I now understand Vendler’s point that, yeah, maybe Shakespeare’s sonnets about love were not the most original themes or ideas but maybe that is not what we are supposed to worry about while analyzing the work. To me, Vendler was trying to tell us that the actual format of the sonnet is something that we should appreciate while reviewing the sonnets of Shakespeare instead of the theme or message of the sonnet.
As I started reading the sonnets from this week, my focus was more on the main idea of the sonnet. However, after I began this Rumination, I continued reading and rereading the sonnets focusing on the format of the sonnet versus the message. It really is impressive that Shakespeare was able to write this many sonnets while having to focus on the meter and rhyme scheme of each one. I definitely have a newfound respect for the sonnets of Shakespeare.
6 comments:
Kate thanks for posting this rumination. Like you, this week I was reading the sonnets mostly for meaning and not necessarily analyzing the format/form Shakespeare uses. I think it is a good point that this is what makes Shakespeare such a profound writer, not necessarily his unique themes and/or messages.
The idea that Shakespeare's sonnets aren't original in content is also somewhat true with regards to his plays. I took a Shakespeare class last semester and the Professor pointed out that of all Shakespeare's plays only "The Tempest" wasn't significantly based on an earlier source. But also like the poems the real magic of Shakespeare's plays is in the language and the subtleties that language adds to the meaning. Writing a sonnet would be near impossible to me, I can't even imagine trying to write a whole play in blank verse.
Kate, I actually read your Rumination between passes. I had already read the sonnets a number of times, but after reading your rumination I starting thinking more about th sonnets themselves, like you said above. If you think about it, for how long can an idea be original? Especially with a topic like love, there are thousands of people who feel, and write about it. I agree with you, what sets Shakespeare apart from the rest was his ability to convey different ideas, (perhaps not original), in his own original sonnet form.
It was definitely an amazing feat that Shakespeare was able to write the amount of sonnets while maintaining the iambic pentameter. What I found fascinating was that while focusing on the rhyme scheme, he managed to include many types of literary devices such as assonance, enjambment, metaphor, alliteration, oxymoron and personification (I’m sure there is other to add to the list). In addition still, he created an abundance of over 3,000 words in which we use today, along with common expressions such as, “neither here nor there.”
I'm glad that you focused in on the structure of the Shakespearean sonnet. I have always been really interested in the format because of its strict guidelines. Combing through both the form and the content along with close reading can tell the reader a lot more about the sonnet than just simply reading it does.In my creative engagement, I will be discussing one of Shakespeare's poems and will be zooming in more on the structure of it and how that effects the meaning. Shakespeare was a smart guy--he knew the rules of "how to write a sonnet" like you explain above, but sometimes he differentiated from the guidelines. In instances like that, the audience needs to look for the deeper meaning and try to figure out WHY he did so. He knew like a billion words, he could have found something to rhyme at the end of the line--he just choose not to in some cases, which is why I am always so interested by the format.
The idea of Shakespeare not being original was a struggle for me too. However, what I have discovered from reading his work is that he does have great originality. It is true that many of his plots are taken from history or past plays. However, many of his themes and writing quirks make him stand out. His sonnets show so much of this, with the ambiguous narrator and his nuances with rhyme.
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