For Friday: Sonnets 19-32

For Friday, you have two options in your reading:

The "Go-Getter" Option: Read Sonnets 19 to 32 in their entirety and see how each one advances the narrative one by one, and of course how many of them echo one another and build on each other.

The "Express" Option: Read Sonnets 20, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, which are the ones I chiefly want to focus on for Friday. We will discuss some (but not all) of these in class.

You can always go back and read others when you have time, of course; however, the advantage of reading the entire set is that a poem we don't discuss could be used as a 'theory' to read and decipher one of the more prominent ones. 

Some ideas to consider with Sonnets 20, 22, 23, 25, 29 and 30:

* Consider how Shakespeare increasingly uses metaphors from the theater. Clearly as a playwright this makes sense, but how does it also make sense considering he is writing to a "Renaissance gentleman" who follows the rules of "nonchalance" in all things?

* Look for strange syntax and consider why Shakespeare might make a line deliberately difficult. For example, in Sonnet 20: "A man in hue all hues in his controlling," or Sonnet 23, "More than that tongue that more hath more expressed."

* Besides the theatrical metaphors, how does the poet/narrative reveal some of his personal background? What class is he? What relationship does he seem to have with the gentleman of the Sonnets? What is his age? What are his fears?

* Has the poet given up with the "give thyself an heir" argument, or is he simply trying another angle? Is it possible that he never meant to seriously urge him to procreate at all, and these slightly later sonnets can help us read the earlier ones in a different light? 

* How do some of these poems remind you of Cavafy's work, especially poems about old age and memory?