Categories: just-life
Date: 15 February 2005 15:31:57
Yet again have gotten through St Val's day, and yet again finish thinking "that wasn't too bad...." of course, the rather damaged pink paper heart might have something to do with that........ *whistle*
But while on the topic I was sitting here wondering about Shakespeare's sonnets...... A very popular one, at this time, is Sonnet 18;
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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,
however, Sonnets 1-126 are written to, or about a young man..... (as the next line suggests) and so I wonder if the intention that the poet writes the poem should effect how we use it??
Now, while I'd admit that I wouldn't be as cheesy to use such a commonly used sonnet, but there are those that aren't used as much. Sonnet 145, for instance;
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'
which for some reason I quite like......
Now I should point out that I hate poetry..... I hate it almost as much as I hate the 'self-service' checklouts in Tesco, but for GCSE's I was so poor at poetry that I had to have a tutor to get me through (I got my C) which means that I do have a fairly good understanding of it. Not my fault that I don't like it as much!!
If I was honest, I would have to add that I was torn between the above sonnet and that of 137;
Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes,
That they behold, and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is take the worst to be.
it's a tough choice, but someone has to make it!!!
And while looking at Shakespeare, it follows that we think about language a bit.... I mean, Dr Johnson's dictionary didn't come out for over 100 years after the Sonnets had been published. I was looking at some of the definitions in my Chambers Dictionary. I'll share a few of them with you tomorrow (as an example that possibly they had too much time on their hands......)