S o n n e t 116

Introduction

~of Sonnet ________________________________Cathy

~of Shakespeare____________________________Jamie

Paraphrase___________________________________Fransca

Vocabulary___________________________________Cathy

Main Idea____________________________________Glory

Structure_____________________________________Glory

Metaphor____________________________________Baris

Conclusion__________________________________Fransca

Reflection____________________________________Jamie

~ of Sonnets

Original Italian Sonnets are rhymed poems consisting of fourteen lines, the first eight making up the octet and the last six lines being the sestet. The Shakespearean Sonnet (which differs slightly from the Italian (or Petrarchian) Sonnet and the Spenserian Sonnet) end with a rhymed couplet and follows the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. Thus, the octet/sestet structure can be alternatively divided into three quatrains (sets of four lines) with alternating rhymes concluding in a rhymed couplet. Shakespearean Sonnets which consists of 154 sonnets falls into two groups:

A. 1-126 : addressed to a beloved friend. B. 127-154: addressed to a malignant but fascinating “Dark Lady”, who

m the poet loves in spite of himself.

~ of Sonnets

When the sonnet was imported into England from the Italy, early in the sixteenth century, it was understood to comprise a set of formal conventions (fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, a fixed rhyme scheme) and, of equal importance, a set of thematic and rhetorical conventions. Sonnets came in groups, or sequences. They told a story; or rather, they refused to tell a story outright but were built around a story that took place in the space between individual lyrics. (Cited from http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/soundings/shakespeare.htm)

~ of Background of Sonnet 116

The story was of love -- love unrequited, love requited but unfulfilled, love so fleetingly fulfilled as merely to make suffering keener, love thwarted by the beloved's absence, or aloofness, or prior possession by another. Impediment was as central to the sonnet as was love. Impediment produced the lyric voice. Without impediment, the lover would have no need to resort to poetry; he would have something better to do.

~of Shakespeare•1564 :Shakespeare Born •1565-1581 :1567(?) Richard Burbage, the greatest tragedian of the age, who would eventually portray Hamlet, Lear, Othello and all Shakespeare's great parts born •1582 :Shakespeare Married •1583 :Birth of daughter SusannaThe Queen's Company is formed in London •1585 :Birth of twins, Judith and Hamnet •1587(?)-1592 :Departure from StratfordEstablishment in London as an actor/playwright (The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew,Henry VI, 1,2,3Richard III )1593 :Preferment sought through aristocratic connections - dedicates Venus and Lucrece to Henry Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton - possibly the youth of the Sonnets (1593 Venus and Adonis,Begins writing the Sonnets, probably completed by c.1597 or earlier, Two Gentlemen of Verona,Love's Labour's Lost )

~of Shakespeare1594 :Founding member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (1594 The Rape of Lucrece )1594-1596 :The Lyrical masterpieces Prosperity and recognition as the leading London playwright(Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard IIMerchant of Venice )1597-1599 :Artistic Maturity Purchases New Place, Stratford with other significant investments(Henry IV,1,2, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Julius Caesar )1600-1608 :The Period of the Great Tragedies & Problem Plays (Twelfth Night,,Hamlet,,Troilus & Cressida, Alls Well That Ends WellMeasure for Measure,Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and ClepatraCoriolanus, Timon of Athens )

~of Shakespeare

1609-1611 :Period of the Romances1609 Publication of the Sonnets (Pericles Prince of TyreCymbelineThe Winter's TaleThe Tempest )1612-1616 :Shakespeare probably retires from London life to StratfordWorks on collaborations with John Fletcher. March 1616 Shakespeare apparently ill revises his willApril 23, 1616 Shakespeare dies and is burried at Holy trinity Church, Stratford(Henry VIIIThe Two Noble KinsmenCardenio )

Cited from: http://www.mddesignworks.com/html/sonnetdt.html

Do not let me accept any difficulties in true love. Love (which changes when it finds an alteration in circumstances) is not love. Love (that bends to forces which intends to remove it) is not true love. Oh no! true love is a fixed mark (that sees storms but is never shaken by the storm0;It [love] is the guiding star to every lost ship—the value of the star may not be calculated, but its height can be used to find directions. Love is not at the mercy of Time (love cannot be fooled by time), though people’s youth and beauty (rosy lips and cheeks) come within the influence of time (that our youth and beauty are harvest by [Time's] sickle) . Love does not alter with hours and weeks. But, rather, it endures until the end of the world. If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love, then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [really] loved.

1.Words about difficulty--impediment: hindrance, obstruction, lisp or stammer Ex. There are many impediments that we can’t pass through the narrow street.--bends: yields, changes direction, is untrue and inconstant towards a loved one. Ex. He didn’t bend any objection of the discussion--tempests: big storm with heavy raining. (That looks on tempests---because of their height, the sea-marks would appear to be looking down on the world below, and almost riding above the tempests. Because of their solidity storms had no effect on them.) Ex. The tempest destroyed all the property of the town last night.     .

--remover: to make oneself different in accordance with the changes in the other person. ( In this context, the word remove has a rather indefinite meaning, suggestive of moving something or someone out of the way, possibly even suggestive of subterfuge.) Ex. Tom is a remover who always change his ideas 2.Words about true love--ever-fixed mark: a sea mark, a prominent navigational feature, a beacon, for guidance of shipping. (permanent and unshakeable, a guide to the storm tossed mariner.) Ex. There are many ever-fixed marks on the sea in order to give attention to every navigator.--wandering bark: ship or boat that is wandering and possibly lost. (It can identify its position by reference to the Pole star.) Ex. People have wandering bark of fire on the ship

     3.Words about time--sickle: a tool which is for cutting grain, thing like this. ( It describes “Time”) Ex. Farmers use sickles to harvesting straws.--doom: the last day, the day of judgement, the day of death. (It means a person’s death, as it still does in the phrase, to meet one’s doom or can be applied to the day of the Last Judgement, or the judgement itself.) Ex. Tomorrow will be a doom that I need to hand in all the assignments which I haven’t finished yethis: Time’s. (all life is fleeting, and human life is measured by the brief hours and weeks of experience; compare with the eternity of love, any unit of time is short) Ex. We should value his (time’s)life. Cited from:http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/116comm.htm

Shakespeare's sonnets are concerned with love, beauty, poetry, and, perhaps most pervasively, on the force that the passage of time exerts upon all three. In this Sonnet, the narrator tells the “young man” addressed in this piece that “Love’s not time’s fool”. Although covering a broad range of topics and narrative situations, it is the human capacity to adapt to the force of time “brief hours and weeks”, of the seasons of human life “looks on tempests” / “the edge of doom”, that constituted the thematic core of the sonnets.

1. Love is constant and strong (The first quatrain)

2. Love will survive any crisis, love’s actual worth cannot be known.( The second quatrain)

3. Love is stable throughout any changes. ( The third quatrain)

4. The poet stands firmly of his judgment.( The final couplet )

The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds". The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. But this is not all the definitions of love, in lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known -- it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith.

1.   ever-fixed mark: permanent and unshakeable, always there as a guide to the storm tossed mariner. 2.    marriage of true minds: “true” means constant, faithful, unchanging, truthful and this suggests a union that is non-physical, Platonic and idealistic.  The language draws us to think about the marriage service and that is a ceremony designed specifically to marry two people, not two abstract Platonic ideals which have decided to be wed. 3.   compass: scope, the arc of the circle created by the sweep of the sickle. Referring to the previous lines, time, with his sickle, sweeps down the mortal lovers, the rosy lips and cheeks, as if they were blades of grass.    4.    his: all life is fleeting, and human life is measured by the brief hours and weeks of experience. In comparison with the eternity of love, any unit of time is short. 5.    rosy lips and cheeks: all mortal beauty but especially between lovers. They are cut down by Time’s sickle.

6.   Time’s fool, bending sickle’s compass, brief hours and weeks, the edge of doom: all of these words are related to the time. Time is the most frequently repeated concept and image in the Sonnets. This is the pervasive Renaissance theme of mutability, and the poet presents various ways to defy Time. --- Time’s fool: in terms of the fool employed in large establishments by the nobility, a favoured character whose writing enlivened many a dull day.  --- bending sickle: an agricultural implement consisting of a hook-shaped metal blade with a short handle fitted on a tang. “Bending” means 1) curved; 2) causing the grass that it cuts to bend and bow; 3) cutting a curved swathe in the grass.

In this sonnet, the bending sickle implies the “Time” is flying so fast similar to cutting the grass with the bending sickle. But only difference is that: time is “cutting” away people’s beauty and youth.

7. star: it lights in the high clear-dark sky. The star implies love can guide every lost ship and find the right direction, so they won’t get lost or separate from love.

This sonnet is mainly about love of true minds, which means true love. The poet first told us what true love is not, and then explained what true love is, after this he expressed his thoughts of the relationship between love and time. At the last couplet, he wrote, ”If this be error, and upon on me proved. I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d ” In fact, Shakespeare had many works, which means the poet stand firmly about his definitions. We could see how Shakespeare well used these 14 lines.

During working on the report, we read many passage in the website, some said this sonnet was written to a beloved young man, but we think if love is as what Shakespeare said, there should not be any sexual differences. Also, the Shakespeare language is hard to understand at first, but once you understand it, you’ll find it a very beautiful language. We most impressed by the last couplet, it is amazing how much persuasion he has and his position stand firmly and clearly that people don’t feel any uncomfortable.

http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/ashbour2.htm

THE END