For Monday, you can either (a) Read Sonnets 33-55 looking for the twists and turns of the narrative, or (b) just read Sonnets 33, 35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 43, 46, & 55. These are the sonnets I chiefly want to discuss in class.
Some ideas to consider:
* What complication seems to occur in Sonnets 33 & 35? Why do both sonnets open with comparisons to the natural world--suns, mountains, clouds, and moons? Why is this an apt metaphor for his relationship with the young man?
* Sonnets 35, 36, and 46 also employ a strange metaphor in a love sonnet: the courtroom. Why is the narrator both an "accessary" to the crime and the young man's "advocate"?
* How does Sonnet 38 seem to expand the theatrical metaphor, and tease us into seeing the young man as an actor?
* Sonnets 40, (41), and 42 introduce a strange new element into the sonnet sequence, particularly when he initially says, "Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all." What is the new conflict that these sonnets introduce, and how does the narrator try to reconcile it?
* Sonnet 43 has some of the most difficult syntax in all the sonnets we've read thus far; consider a line like "And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed." Why is this sonnet so dense and cryptic? What issue is he trying to hide or perhaps unwilling to confront directly?
* How does Sonnet 55 compare with the earlier Sonnet 18? Both seem to have the same general subject, but how does he approach it differently at a later stage in their relationship? Or, is he simply trying to recapture the beauty (or the plea) of earlier days with this "discursive practice"?
No comments:
Post a Comment