Sonnet XVIII - Shakespeare
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 owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
On my first Sonne by Ben Jonson
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy
Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I loose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage,
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
Hour by Carol
Ann Duffy
We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers
Or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch.
like treasure on the ground; the Midas light
turning your limbs to gold. Time slows, for here
we are millionaires, backhanding the night
no jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit
hung from the blade of grass at your ear,
no chandelier or spotlight see you better lit
but love spins gold, gold, gold from straw.
Devouring
Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
Sonnet XIX is seems to have been carried on from Sonnet XVIII because they both contain the idea of time and nature to portray love and eternity.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of love in this sonnet is also very different from Sonnet XVIII which has more of a sterioptyical approach to love, with 'summers day' having alot of positive connotations of sunshine and hope, and having long days can be a reflection of how their love will last long (eternal).
I think that Sonnet XVIII could have been written at the begginning of the couples relationship were everything is fine and the pair are deeply in love, whereas Sonnet XIX may have been written later on and focuses on the reality of love and potential threats their relationship could have, with both having rhyming couplets at the end and containing the word 'love' may be a symbolism of hope for their relationship.
I agree completely- I think Mr Shakespeare may have been disappointed to find that Death does in fact brag that his love wanders in Death's shade and is ageing his muse. Nevertheless he remains confident in his conclusion in both Sonnets that his "love in [his] verse shall ever live young". Sonnet XVIII similarly ends with the idea that so long as humanity lives on, his love will forever stay immortal in his verse.
DeleteThere's also a very definite change in tone between the two sonnets. Sonnet 18 has a more relaxed tone of voice as if Shakespeare had all the time in the world with the one he loves; this then drastically changes with the raging beginning of Sonnet 19 "Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws".
Sonnet 19 and Hour link strongly through their view of time, in both poems time is seen as powerful over love - in Hour love is the 'beggar' and in Sonnet 19 every adjective describing time is harsh and plosive, this is also reiterated with the semantic field of strong, fierce animals (lions, tigers etc).
ReplyDeleteI think that although this aspect of the poems are similar, their views of what love is about are different. Sonnet 19 describes how he will continue to love his partner despite the disappearing beauty as time passes. Where as Hour makes continuous references to physical appearances like the hair being "treasure on the ground" and "turning limbs to gold" - and the link to Midas who was materialistic and centred around becoming rich. Then on the other hand, I think the line "Time slows, for here we are millionaires, backhanding the night" could completely change the meaning of these previous statements....?
Hour and Sonnet XVIII all touch on the idea of gold and money within their poems, it is as though money has no importance within love and relationships and all that matters is the other person:
ReplyDelete- Sonnnet XIX - 'Bright as a dropped coin, makes love rich' - this could be the moment of falling in love with someone - 'dropped coin' implicates the idea of falling for a person as 'bright' is the happiness that goes with it. 'makes love rich' shows how much love and compassion is given to the other when they fall in love. This line is also refering to the suddeness that follows falling in love and how quickly it can happen, very simialr to Hero and Claudio in 'Much Ado About Nothing' - they fell in love instantaniously and were on their way to being married.
Sonnet XVIII - 'Gold complexion' suggests happiness within the lovers face, however, at the same time it is comparing his face to a sign of money, as though within his eyes he is smug and money consuming as well as being a cheery person - this double entendre could suggest a bitterness to the poem.
There is also a predominant reference through the poems to mythological creatures or beings, such as 'Midas' within Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Hour' - she refers to the 'Midas light' this suggests that the sun is bright, which refers to summer, this could also mean that gold is refered to through the use of vivid imagery and the idea of gold being a non-physical entitiy, as though it doesn't exsist and people can't touch or posess gold, as though it is unreachable and what we believe to be gold, actually isn't.
ReplyDeleteSonnet XIX refers to the 'long-lived phoenix' which is a mythoological bird that is on fire, this could implty that love is constant and everlasting, due to the bird being constantly burning. However, this is juxtaposed with the word 'burn', which could imply a catalyst in trying to kill the bird and time trying to speed up the death of it. Duffy also describes 'spinning gold... from straw', this is refering to Ruplestiltskin, who helped a young girl to spin straw from gold, 'gold' could be love, and this line is suggesting that love is being made from nothing, as though love comes from nowhere. It also suggests the importance of love through the suggestion of 'gold' as gold is an important and rich material, which is very hard to attain, this implies that love is rich and important, it makes someone strong and feel good, without the need for a materialistic good.
On My First Sonne doesn't speak about a mythoological character, however the poet Ben Johnson writes about God and Jesus through the line 'child of my right hand' - on God's right hand was Jesus, this could be refering to his importance and how much he cares about his son, if he is very close to him. Jesus also died for his people, and this poem implies that his son died at a young age, as the form appears to be a Euolgy, prasing his sons' life and saying goodbye to him 'rest in soft peace'.
I find that the use of rhyming couplets in every poem was rather interesting becuase each of them leave the reader with a long lasting 'mood' or impression that makes you think about what it really means.
ReplyDelete'So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.'- Sonnet XVlll
'Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.'- Sonnet XIX
The two couplets stood out to me most becuase I found them the most romantic in the sense that the contant reference of comparing love to sometihng philisophically bigger such as death, life and time. All these elements are mentioned to emphasise the extreamities love would go to hence the use of hyperbole (exaggeration) and it is something reccurent in both poems. The repitition of the phrase 'so long' reminds me of the literary technique enumerism (I think that is what it's called- might be wrong) where the diction 'and' is repeated line after line. It highlights how continous his love is and he compares it to natural intincts like breathing which is typically romantic and slightly stereotypical. However the second couplet from sonnet XIX Shakespeare is almost taunting and provoking Time to destroy his ever lasting love so there is a hint of negativity present. Again the immortality of love is emphasised as his love shall 'ever live long'. This statement oozes confidence which might come across as a hint of potential arrogance? but overall it does have a sweet, melodic sound to it as does the first poem.
I agree with this, however, Shakepeare tended to use a voltre at the end of his sonnets in order to juxtapose what he had previously written, in a way they are made to stand out, and draw the readers' attention to how important those lines are, and, yes, leave a lasting impression on the reader as tho the deeper and further meaning of the poem.
DeleteI found it very interesting how different our interpretation of 'On My First Sonne' was to others; we really didn't take it literally, we assumed he was quite distant from his son, as he says he was 'lent' to him, and we didn't make the link with the Bible of the 'child of my right hand' part, we thought that this made him seem even more distant, as we said that the right hand was further away from the heart on the left of his body etc. Maybe we just got the wrong end of the stick :)
ReplyDeleteI also think that all of the poems show that the poets fear time, none of them seem to accept ageing, but instead fear it. Maybe this links to context,especially in Shakespeare and Johnson's poems as in their time, people died a lot younger because of the lack of hygiene etc. so maybe this just emphasises how they wanted to savour each moment and live as much as possible. This could also emphasise the importance of writing and recording their feelings in poetry, as said in Sonnet XIX, 'My love shall in my verse ever live young.' Therefore by writing they could be remembered as young and the way they are described in their work, and live on much longer than they did physically. This could be why Time is such a prominent theme in all of the poems.
There’s a recurring message in these poems: life is too short, time is too fast and beauty is fleeting.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to love, I think all four poems carry the message that we have way more love in us than our lifetime allows. Take, for example, Shakespeare’s sonnets XVIII and XIX: there is a definite emphasis on his love standing the test of time when he says “thy eternal summer shall not fade” (XVIII) and “My love shall in my verse ever live young.” (XIX) – and the fact that it is in sonnet structure, meaning it is ‘limited’ to fourteen lines and a certain number of syllables per line, is also parallel to this idea that the narrator has so much love to give but he is ‘limited’ by his mortality. But another way I see these sonnets is that the narrator can only love this person for as long as they are “fair” and beautiful. In XVIII he says “Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest” and in XIX he begs time: “O! carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,” but we all know, as realistic readers, that this person WILL “lose possession of that fair” and time WILL carve lines on his love’s brow, so what then? Will this narrator stop loving his lover? Let’s not forget that during his time (and to this day, of course) looks and first impressions are very important, and if you want an example of that, have a look at Claudio and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. I think that the alternating rhymes and that closing couplet in both sonnets show that everything is fine and lovely until the end, when age kicks in and things begin to deteriorate physically and mentally (depressing, I know), this change is highlighted by the volte at the end.
On my first Sonne has the same message, but in this poem it’s in a different situation: he loses his son after only having 7 years to live life with him. It’s only after reading this by myself, in complete silence, that I realised how sad and meaningful this poem is. The word that stood out the most to me is “lent” – he’s saying that even from the very beginning his son was not his to keep. This whole line: “Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.” makes him sound like a poor man in debt rather than a father, but I think that makes him sound all the more like he is grieving – as though those seven years had been so short that he hasn’t had enough time to see him as his son yet. The difference between this poem and the rest is that death has already claimed the one he loved, and you can see in his diction that there is a sense of hopelessness and that it is too late, see these words: “Farewell”, “lent”, “fate”, “lament”, “miserie” and “age” – they all highlight the suddenness and permanence of death. By reading the other poems, you’d think that life ends at death which they seem to say is still far away because they are young and beautiful, but by reading this poem, you realise that your life is not in your hands and you don’t decide when you die.
DeleteHour is my favourite poem from these four. It’s all about positivity and living for the present, the time to enjoy life and the time to love is “Now.” This concept contrasts with the others because the sonnets seem to always look at the distant future, at old age and death and what waits for us after it. The words used throughout the poem are often short and clipped, which creates this urgent rhythm and you really get a sense that these people are really fighting against time to “find an hour together”, but at the same time many of the lines have caesuras (strong pauses in the middle of the lines) showing that although this couple seemingly only has an hour together, they still know how to pause, breathe and enjoy each other’s company. The theme unique to this poem is money and wealth, which is not seen in any of the four other poems. In the sonnets there is nature and beauty and in Jonson’s poem there’s death and grief. The semantic field is comprised of words like “coin”, “rich”, “wine”, “treasure”, “Midas”, “gold”, “millionaires”, “jewel” and “chandelier”, which gives an impression of the luxury and decadence of their love. But Duffy’s message isn’t really about money playing a role in love, but love replacing the importance of money in people’s hearts, she also places importance on time over money when she says “backhanding the night so nothing will end our shining hour,” but this could also mean that one needs money to buy time.
DeleteI found some information about On my first sonne that i thought was quite interesting. ''of my right hand: a pun on the meaning of his name: Benjamin in Hebrew means “son of the right hand”, something brought out in the Bible (Genesis 35: 18: “his father [Jacob] called him Benjamin, (that is, the son of the right hand)”. It suggests that he was his father’s help and support, someone essential to him.''
ReplyDeleteAlso, i found that ''Seven yeeres … me: i.e. you were lent to me by God for seven years. Benjamin died on his seventh birthday of the plague.''
I got this info from this webiste http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/english/schools/poetry-bank/sonne which also has detailed explanations of some aspects of the sonnet.
http://www.shmoop.com/on-my-first-son/
ReplyDeleteThis is also a good website on Jonson's sonne(t) :p
-Rose
I was going to create a new post but I don't know how to so I'll just add it here and hopefully you guys will see it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/cavalier
This is a good starting point when researching Cavalier poets.
-Rose :)