W4 - Shakespeare 2

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 4

What do you remember about
William Shakespeare

We know him from his plays but that's not how Shakespeare thought he would be famous. 

Plays weren't printed in that time. First Folio 1623 (after his death in 1616). 

He thought that sonnets would make him famous and that sonnets were the way to 'immortality'. 

We call him THE bard - the best bard/poet that has ever lived. 

Take a guess: A Shakespearean sonnet (poem) has how many lines?

1. 8
2. 14
3. 18
4. 24

Take a guess: Shakespeare wrote how many sonnets?

1. 49
2. 82
3. 137
4. 154

Shakespearean Sonnets

- A sonnet = 14-line poem

- Iambic Pentametre = emphasis on 2nd syllable
                                             & every line has 10 syllables (or 5 feet)

   "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"

- Sonnet originally comes from Italy (Petrarch)

- 1609: Shakespeare's Sonnets were published

- contained 154 poems

First folio 1623

Common themes in Shakespeare's sonnets

Romantic Love (Dark Lady, fair youth)

Dangers of Lust and Love

Real Beauty versus Cliched beauty

Responsibility of Being Beautiful

Romantic Love 

• Addressing sonnets to a young man was unique in Elizabethan England. 
• Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the dark lady and the speaker. In his sequence, the speaker expresses passionate concern for the young man, praises his beauty, and articulates what we would now call homosexual desire. (Sonnets 1-126)
• The woman of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the so-called dark lady, is earthy, sexual, and faithless—characteristics in direct opposition to lovers described in other sonnet sequences, including Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who were praised for their angelic demeanor, virginity, and steadfastness. (sonnets 127–154)

Dangers of Lust and Love

Many sonnets warn readers about the dangers of lust and love. According to some poems, lust causes us to mistake sexual desire for true love, and love itself causes us to lose our powers of perception.

Real beauty versus Cliched beauty

Real love, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they are not. Other sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make himself or herself more attractive, no one is really beautiful anymore. Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling someone beautiful is no longer much of a compliment.

Responsibilty of being beautiful

Shakespeare urges the young man to procreate as he is so beautiful that beauty needs to be preserved.

In other words, the young man’s beauty allows him to get away with bad behavior, but this bad behavior will eventually distort his beauty, much like a rotten spot eventually spreads. Nature gave the young man a beautiful face, but it is the young man’s responsibility to make sure that his soul is worthy of such a visage.

Sonnet 18

- Compares the author's
   lover to a summer's day 

- While summer is lovely...

- ... his lover is more beautiful
   and kind

- A summer's day will end,
   his love for her will not

Sonnet 130

- Joke on the way the contemporary
 poets praised their lovers.

- Doesn't praise his lover: 
      - not white as snow
      - no beautiful red lips
      - no golden hair

- Love doesn't need to be extreme
   to be real, against unrealistic ideals

Homework

Dive into Shakespeare's poetry. 

Do the questions on page 69-71 (use the internet if you don't know a question) and do the video assignment on Poetic Metre (Meter in American English)

00:47

You can look up the stress of a word in a dictionary. Find a dictionary (online or paper) and find out what symbol is used to indicate the stress of a word (only fill in the symbol otherwise it will be wrong).

03:37

Find a sentence in Iambic pentametre and proof that it's in iambic pentametre (you can upload a photo if that's easier).

03:46

Look up or tell me: What does the speaker mean by 'regular prose'?

05:04

Answer in your own words: Why did Shakespeare choose Iambic Pentametre?

03:37

Explain IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
what is Iambic Pentametre?

00:47

Where's the stress in: "Beautiful"

1. beau
2. ti
3. ful

00:47

Where's the stress in: "Reptile"

1. Rep
2. Tile