"Shakespeare's Sonnets in the Focus of Time"

                                                Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

                                                                                         «Гимназия №7»

       Shakespeare’s sonnets

                                                                                                  Работу выполнила:

                                                                                                                            Ученица 10«А» класса

                                                                                                                            Лапина Оксана

                                                                                                                            Научный руководитель:

                                                                                                                            Учитель английского                                        

                                                                                                                            языка высшей категории

                                                                                                                           Мохонько Светлана   Олеговна

                                                                                             Саратов

                                                                                                2017

                                                       Contents

       Introduction ……………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

   Chapter 1. “Narrative of the Sonnets” ………………………………………………………………………………………………4

                    Chapter 2.  “The English Sonnet Style and Structure“…………………………………………………………..…..5

                      The English Sonnet Style…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…5

                       Sonnet structure ..………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

                            Chapter 3. “Paraphrase and analysis of sonnets” …………………………………………………………………………………6

                       Sonnet 130 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6

                            Paraphrase of sonnet 130 ….………………………………………………………………………….…..……6

                                  Video episode of “My So-Call Life” sonnet 130 ……………………………………………………………6                           

                                   Analysis of sonnet 130 ……………………………………………………………………………………………7

                       Sonnet 145…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…8

                                  Paraphrase of sonnet 145………….……………………………………………………………………….……8

                           Analysis  of sonnet  145 ………………………………………………………………………………………….9

                       Sonnet 75 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10

                                 Paraphrase of  sonnet 145 ……………………………………………………………….……………………10

                                 Analysis of sonnet 75 ………………………………………….…………………………………………………11

                       Sonnet 147 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

                                 Paraphrase of sonnet 147 ………………..……………………………………………………………………12  

                         Analysis of sonnet 147 …………………………………………………………………………………………..13

                       Sonnet  20 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….14

                                Paraphrase of sonnet 20 ……………………………..…………………………………………………………14

                               Analysis of sonnet 20 ……………………………………………………………………………………………..15

       Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

       Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………17

                                                Introduction

Shakespeare is undoubtedly the world’s most influential poet and dramatist, leading Ben Jonson to note that, "He was not of an age, but for all time!" Four centuries later, Jonson’s words still ring true. Shakespeare’s collection of 154 love sonnets is possibly the most beautiful written in the English language. Shakespeare is best known for writing the greatest sonnets. His works are read by people all around the world, and certainly they touch the soul of each of us and produce the best light feelings inside. There is no doubt that the classic is always relevant. Shakespeare’s sonnets are characterized by their romance and interesting plots.

There are a lot of factors which help to understand why Shakespeare is very popular nowadays.  First of all it is his characterization itself. When we look at his characters, they are universal and beyond all times. When we compare the modern people with that of Shakespearean characters we find similarity in their characters. The second factor is the English language itself. We have in many other cultures playwrights and poets much better than Shakespeare who lived much before Shakespeare. But still he is popular because of his language.

We would like to represent our own approach connected with analysis of Shakespeare’s sonnets because his sonnets are the most popular works,  and a few of them have become the most widely-read poems in the English literature.

We thought it could be interesting to find out some meaningful aspects of Shakespeare’s personal feelings. The research presents a certain interest for those who are really interested in the English poetry and particularly Shakespeare’s sonnets.  

                                                     Chapter  1.  “Sonnet style and structure”

                      Narrative of the Sonnets. 

The majority of the sonnets (1-126) are addressed to a young man, with whom the poet has an intense romantic relationship. The poet spends the first seventeen sonnets trying to convince the young man to marry and have children; beautiful children that will look just like their father, ensuring his immortality. Many of the remaining sonnets in the young man sequence focus on the power of poetry and pure love to defeat death and "all oblivious enmity". 

The final sonnets (127-154) are addressed to a promiscuous and scheming woman known to modern readers as the dark lady. Both the poet and his young man have become obsessed with the raven-haired temptress in these sonnets, and the poet's whole being is at odds with his insatiable "sickly appetite" (147). The tone is distressing, with language of sensual feasting, uncontrollable urges, and sinful consumption. 

• For a closer look at the negative aspects of the poet's relationship with the young man and his mistress, please see Sonnet 75 and Sonnet 147. 
• For a celebration of the love between the young man and the poet, see Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 29.
• For the poet's views on the mortality of the young man, see Sonnet 73.
• For the poet’s description of his mistress, see Sonnet 130.

The question remains whether the poet is expressing Shakespeare's personal feelings. Since we know next to nothing about Shakespeare's personal life, we have little reason or right not to read the collected sonnets as a work of fiction, just as we would read his plays or long poems. 

                                     Chapter 2. “The English Sonnet Style and Structure”

                                                             The English Sonnet Style.

Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

                                 Sonnet Structure.  

There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. The couplet has the rhyme scheme gg. This sonnet structure is commonly called the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to distinguish it from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet form which has two parts: a rhyming octave (abbaabba) and a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd). The Petrarchan sonnet style was extremely popular with Elizabethan sonneteers, much to Shakespeare's disdain.  Only three of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets do not conform to this structure: Sonnet 99, which has 15 lines; Sonnet 126, which has 12 lines; and Sonnet 145, which is written in iambic tetrameter. 

                                                             Chapter 3. “Paraphrase and analysis of sonnets”

                            Paraphrase of sonnet 130

                                                              Analysis  of sonnet  130

 Sonnet 130 is the poet's pragmatic tribute to his uncomely mistress, commonly referred to as the dark lady because of her dun complexion. The dark lady, who ultimately betrays the poet, appears in sonnets 127 to 154. Sonnet 130 is clearly a parody of the conventional love sonnet, made popular by Petrarch and, in particular, made popular in England by Sidney's use of the Petrarchan form in his epic poem Astrophel and Stella. 

If you compare the stanzas of Astrophel and Stella to Sonnet 130, you will see exactly what elements of the conventional love sonnet Shakespeare is light-heartedly mocking. In Sonnet 130, there is no use of grandiose metaphor or allusion; he does not compare his love to Venus, there is no evocation to Morpheus, etc. The ordinary beauty and humanity of his lover are important to Shakespeare in this sonnet, and he deliberately uses typical love poetry metaphors against themselves. 

In Sidney's work, for example, the features of the poet's lover are as beautiful and, at times, more beautiful than the finest pearls, diamonds, rubies, and silk. In Sonnet 130, the references to such objects of perfection are indeed present, but they are there to illustrate that his lover is not as beautiful -- a total rejection of Petrarch form and content. Shakespeare utilizes a new structure, through which the straightforward theme of his lover’s simplicity can be developed in the three quatrains and neatly concluded in the final couplet. 

Thus, Shakespeare is using all the techniques available, including the sonnet structure itself, to enhance his parody of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet typified by Sidney’s work. But Shakespeare ends the sonnet by proclaiming his love for his mistress despite her lack of adornment, so he does finally embrace the fundamental theme in Petrarch's sonnets: total and consuming love. 

                                              Paraphrase of sonnet 145

                                                          Analysis  of sonnet  145

Sonnet 145 is unusual in that, unlike any of Shakespeare's other sonnets, it is written in tetrameters. Some believe that Shakespeare is not the true author of this poem because of its anomalous rhythm, and for more serious reasons. In his comprehensive edition of the play, Raymond MacDonald Alden has compiled a selection of criticism from noted scholars. Dowden calls the sonnet "ill-managed"; Wyndham says it has "an unpleasing assonance between the rhyme-sounds of the first quatrain"; and Acheson concludes that Shakespeare "certainly did not write [this sonnet], nor did anyone to whom the title of poet might be applied: it is possibly a flight of Southampton's own muse.  

Whether the above reasons are enough to conclude that Shakespeare is not the true author remains hotly debated. While it is obvious that Sonnet 145 is lacking unity and symmetry, we can see a connection to Sonnet 144 in the imagery of heaven and hell. It is plausible that Shakespeare simply felt uninspired during its composition. Amongst those who are convinced the sonnet belongs to Shakespeare, some argue that it was written for Anne Hathaway and not the dark lady. If we analyze the poem with this hypothesis in mind, we could claim that line 13 contains a pun on his wife's name: "hate away." 

                                            Paraphrase of sonnet 145

                                                                   Analysis of sonnet 75

The sonnet opens with a seemingly joyous and innocent tribute to the young friend who is vital to the poet's emotional well being. However, the poet quickly establishes the negative aspect of his dependence on his beloved, and the complimentary metaphor that the friend is food for his soul decays into ugly imagery of the poet alternating between starving and gorging himself on that food. The poet is disgusted and frightened by his dependence on the young friend. He is consumed by guilt over his passion. 

                                                                                  Paraphrase of  sonnet 147    

                                                                Analysis of sonnet 147

Shakespeare's scathing attack upon the morality of his mistress exemplifies their tumultuous and perplexing relationship. The poet yearns to understand why, in spite of the judgment of reason, he still is enslaved by her charms. Confused by his own inexplicable urges, the poet's whole being is at odds with his insatiable "sickly appetite"  for the dark lady. He deduces in the final quatrain that he surely must be insane, for he calls his mistress just and moral when she obviously is neither. 

                                                                 Paraphrase of sonnet 20

                                                                                         Analysis of sonnet 20

Sonnet 20 has caused much debate. Some scholars believe that this is a clear admission of Shakespeare's homosexuality. Despite the fact that male friendships in the Renaissance were openly affectionate, the powerful emotions the poet displays here are indicative of a deep and sensual love. The poet's lover is 'the master-mistress of [his] passion.' He has the grace and features of a woman but is devoid of the guile and pretense that comes with female lovers; those wily women with eyes 'false in rolling', who change their moods and affections like chameleons. 

Lines 9-14 are of particular interest to critics on both sides of the homosexual debate. Some argue these lines show that, despite his love for the young man, the poet does not want to 'have' him physically. The poet proclaims that he is content to let women enjoy the 'manly gifts' that God has given his friend. He is satisfied to love the young man in a spiritual way. But others contend that Shakespeare had to include this disclaimer, due to the homophobia of the time. "The meaning is conveyed not just by what is said but by the tone. The argument may serve to clear Shakespeare of the charge of a serious offense..."

                        Conclusion  

In conclusion, I would like to say to say that William Shakespeare - is the greatest dramaturgy whose works touch us with their sincerity, sensuality and penetration.  Shakespeare's works inspire people nowadays too. His works have been translated literally into all the languages of the world and each of them is very valuable for us.  That way Shakespeare's sonnets read people like an oath when marrying, the most famous works are shown in theaters. As for the work done by me, I hope it will greatly assist the students of various educational institutions when analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets, their writing style and themes. Also it could be interesting for people who are just interested in Shakespeare’s works.

                      Bibliography

1. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. A. L. Rowse. London: Macmillan & Co., 1964. 
   Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. Raymond Macdonald Alden. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. 
2. www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/sonnetintroduction.html 
3. www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-sonnets.htm 
4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare%27s_sonnets
5. poetry.eserver.org/sonnets/