Sign in with Facebook
David's Reviews > Sonnets
Sonnets
by
by
SHAKESPEARE WANTS YOU TO BREED!!!!
The first 17 or so sonnets in the series left me taken aback. It's right there in the first line of Sonnet #1:
1. From fairest creatures we desire increase
That thereby beauty's Rose might never die
But as the riper should be time decease
His tender heir might bear his memory
There's this obsession with propagating the species. This concern about breeding dominates the first 17 sonnets in the series, something I had not been aware of before.
2. ...
How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use
If thou couldst answer, 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse'
3. Look in the glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time this face should form another
4. ....
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
6. ....
That's for thyself to breed another thee
7. .....
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon,
Unlooked on diest, unless thou get a son.
8. ...
mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
...
Sings this to thee, "Thou single will prove none".
9. ...
Ah if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
the world will wail thee, like a makeless wife
..
No love towards others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
10. ...
Make thee another self, for love of me,
that beauty still may live in thine or thee.
11. ...
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish.
...
She carv'd thee for her seal, and mean thereby
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
Actually, as a gay man, I find that "harsh, featureless, and rude" pretty offensive. It continues:
12. ...
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
13. ...
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
14. ...
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
17. ...
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it and in my rime.
Fortunately, #18 is the glorious "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", and from here on out it appears to be smooth sailing.
But that battery of breeder-boosting that opens this collection was a little off-putting, to say the least. It seems so dismissive of those of us who were put on earth to carry out some other purpose, somehow.
But this is neither here nor there. This book contains some of the most awesome language in the entire body of English literature. To assign it a rating seems entirely presumptuous; nothing but 5 stars seems even conceivable.
My favorite, if forced to choose, is a conventional one:
#29. When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
...
Haply I think on thee --- and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
Quite apart from the theme of the poem, how he changes mood with just that single line "like to the lark at break of day arising" astonishes me every time I read it.
The first 17 or so sonnets in the series left me taken aback. It's right there in the first line of Sonnet #1:
1. From fairest creatures we desire increase
That thereby beauty's Rose might never die
But as the riper should be time decease
His tender heir might bear his memory
There's this obsession with propagating the species. This concern about breeding dominates the first 17 sonnets in the series, something I had not been aware of before.
2. ...
How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use
If thou couldst answer, 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse'
3. Look in the glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time this face should form another
4. ....
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
6. ....
That's for thyself to breed another thee
7. .....
So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon,
Unlooked on diest, unless thou get a son.
8. ...
mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
...
Sings this to thee, "Thou single will prove none".
9. ...
Ah if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
the world will wail thee, like a makeless wife
..
No love towards others in that bosom sits
That on himself such murd'rous shame commits.
10. ...
Make thee another self, for love of me,
that beauty still may live in thine or thee.
11. ...
Let those whom nature hath not made for store,
Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish.
...
She carv'd thee for her seal, and mean thereby
Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.
Actually, as a gay man, I find that "harsh, featureless, and rude" pretty offensive. It continues:
12. ...
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
13. ...
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
14. ...
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
17. ...
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it and in my rime.
Fortunately, #18 is the glorious "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", and from here on out it appears to be smooth sailing.
But that battery of breeder-boosting that opens this collection was a little off-putting, to say the least. It seems so dismissive of those of us who were put on earth to carry out some other purpose, somehow.
But this is neither here nor there. This book contains some of the most awesome language in the entire body of English literature. To assign it a rating seems entirely presumptuous; nothing but 5 stars seems even conceivable.
My favorite, if forced to choose, is a conventional one:
#29. When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
...
Haply I think on thee --- and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
Quite apart from the theme of the poem, how he changes mood with just that single line "like to the lark at break of day arising" astonishes me every time I read it.
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
Sonnets.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Started Reading
November 16, 2009
– Shelved
November 16, 2009
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Trevor
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Nov 16, 2009 09:14AM
It must be close to the strangest thing a man has ever said to another man - effectively, "God, you really are good looking, I think you need to have kids." 129 is probably still my favourite.
reply
|
flag
I don't think I agree, Elizabeth - mostly he seems very explicitly concerned with the wisdom/desirability/necessity of having a child as a way to defy mortality. Maybe it was in response to his little boy dying, or something. Though I don't know if the dates fit - the concern is largely expressed in the first 16 or so sonnets, after which he moves on to different themes.
It would be hard for 129 to be more about sex, it is a remarkably confronting poem even today when we like to think we are much more open about these things. Homosexuality wasn't an acceptable topic at the time, but even then it would be hard to see how advising your lover to sleep with a woman and have children works. The homosexual desire in the sonnets, however, is obvious and has taken strenuous efforts over the centuries to ignore.
The word homosexual didn't even come up into usage until the 19th century. What was the description of of Wellington's Navy as one part buggery? Sexual mores were flexible, much more so than now. You had a better chance of staying out of trouble if you had a wife and some kids and not just a man.
These put me off too, and I still think one shouldn't start at the start. I believe they were almost 'on commission' to a near-stranger and weren't meant to evolve into a great love poem sequence, as Shakespeare's acquaintance with the wayward aristocrat in question wasn't meant to be grow rampant.
Yes, when I taught Sh I'd say this would be unneccessary to youth today. But of course, the first sonnets--probably twenty, including Shall I compare thee to a summer's day..." all address his male patron. (20: "A woman's face, by Nature's own hand painted,/ Hast thou...") They encourage a handsome self-regarding (gay-tending?) aristocrat to engender. Later sonnets emerge from different situations, including of course his rival poet ("Was it the full proud sail of his great verse...") and the dark lady sonnets. These latter were written to contravene the literary convention of the "fair" or light skinned beauty, as well as whatever life referents they do or do not hold.
I'm gonna have to reread the first 17, that isn't something I have ever noticed. Now I am curious to see if I can catch the feel.
Dj'ya notice the first 18 (including Summer's Day) are all to a male, his handsome patron, possibly gay (who else needs encouragement to have offspring?).
