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New Sonnets.Indd About This Volume ______________________________________________________________________ Although Shakespeare is considered a leading dramatist and poet. It then introduces Shakespeare as the author of in the English language—perhaps in any language— the Sonnets and ends with an essay that focuses on the his poetry, particularly his sonnets, has gotten just as sonnets’ lasting allure. Here Rafeeq McGiveron brings much scrutiny in academia as his famous plays. What the reader into the twenty-¿ rst century and explains why is it about those one-hundred-¿ fty-four sonnets from our fascination with the sonnets continues and is likely the collection originally published in 1609 that makes to continue. them emotionally demanding even to contemporary Historical and Literary Contexts consists of four es- readers with so much literary criticism at their disposal? says that provide the context students need to fully grasp How can Shakespeare’s sonnets still provide so much the time in which Shakespeare lived and created, includ- wisdom and remain so elusive at the same time? How ing those years immediately preceding the original pub- many more generations of scholars, one wonders, will lication in 1609. Although not focused on Shakespeare attempt to unravel their mysteries until we reach a point exclusively, the opening essay, “English Poetry in the at which another book on the sonnets would indeed be Sixteenth Century,” provides an overview of a “consis- unnecessary? tently poetic” century in which poets “were constantly The amount of scholarship focused on Shakespeare’s aware of themselves as poetic craftsmen.” Indeed, the Sonnets is truly considerable, spanning centuries, and poetry of the latter part of the century—commonly the number of scholars attempting to shed new light on referred to as the Elizabethan poetry—is said to have the sonnets continues to grow well into the twenty-¿ rst. heavily inÀ uenced the Bard. The essay that follows al- There is also renewed interested in the sonnets across most stands in opposition and challenges us to question high school programs and community colleges, brought how much of this history is truly necessary when inter- on in recent years by the Common Core initiative, which preting works of art. Just how much importance does encourages close readings of shorter literary texts, in- historical context play when we are attempting to read cluding poetry. So a volume that serves as a one-stop a life, asks Andrew Had¿ eld in “Does Shakespeare’s resource on Shakespeare’s sonnets for students encoun- Life Matter?,” concluding: “We cannot always know tering the form for the ¿ rst time as well as those study- the lives of the poets and, even if we do, reading liter- ing it in more depth seems both timely and necessary in ary works in terms of what we know is problematic and 2014. This book serves that dual purpose: to provide the fraught with dif¿ culties....” In the end, however, Shake- context for the beginner as well as to broaden literary speare’s life does matter, but Had¿ eld warns the reader horizons with new critical analysis for more advanced that it may not mean quite what we think, or perhaps not students. as much as we think because writers have always been The volume is divided into six distinct sections: The able to manipulate the ways in which they were read, Author and His Work, Historical and Literary Con- even in Elizabethan England. texts, Close Readings of 25 Sonnets, Critical Readings “Sins of the Sonnets” is an overview of the various 1 (Form and Technique), Critical Readings 2 (Main editions of the Sonnets that have been published over Themes), and Resources. Taken together, the essays in the years (and there have been countless versions in the these sections provide a sweeping overview of the son- last one hundred years alone; see Resources section for nets, the time in which they were written, key biographi- a full listing). It is an attempt to analyze how previous cal details that may help explain some of the obvious scholars have interpreted the sonnets. William Logan, and less obvious themes, the way in which they were who hardly needs an introduction in the world of lit- written, the historical events that may have inÀ uenced erary criticism, leaves no stone unturned—even at the Shakespeare’s fascination with love, pain, and aging, expense of appearing confrontational—and doesn’t shy among other topics, and the literary inÀ uences that may away from challenging even the most revered critics and explain their peculiar form. their widely-accepted theories. Logan’s essay provides The Author and His Work eases the reader into Wil- the necessary literary context to help us understand how liam Shakespeare’s life and his work both as a dramatist we’ve come to collectively perceive the sonnets, but it vii also serves as a reminder of just how controversial and references to popular culture, including ¿ lm franchises inconclusive Shakespeare scholarship has been. and music by teenage icons. Each essay provides a list- The last essay in this section plays on the title of Jan ing of keywords, an abstract, and a “for further reading” Kott’s famous book, Shakespeare Our Contemporary. listing. Here Robert C. Evans explores both the similarities Sections 4 and 5 delve deeper by providing more ad- and (especially) the differences between Shakespeare’s vanced treatments of the recurring themes and the son- sonnets and various more recent examples of the form. nets’ delicate structure. This part of the book demands The essay focuses on “Shakespearean” sonnets by E. some preliminary knowledge and is recommended for E. Cummings (the notorious experimental writer); on a the undergraduate student of literature looking to ex- work by the African American woman poet Gwendolyn pand his or her basic understanding. The essays here Brooks; on a sonnet by Eavan Boland, one of Ireland’s discuss both the form and technique of the sonnets most important modern authors; and on a ¿ nal Shake- (Critical Readings 1) as well as persistent themes (Criti- spearean sonnet by Carol Ann Duffy, the United King- cal Readings 2), including, among others, love, passion, dom’s current Poet Laureate. Together, these compari- sexuality, aging, and death. The essays that appear in sons of Shakespeare’s sonnets with those by more recent these two sections are reprinted from various journals authors help the contemporary reader understand how and books published in the past ¿ fteen years, and with the form of the sonnet has evolved since Elizabethan permission from copyright holders. We are grateful to England and what it’s morphed into in modern times. the various publishers and authors for giving us permis- Section 3 is a collection of twenty-¿ ve shorter essays sion to make their works part of this new collection. that provide new critical analysis of some of the most Finally, the last section of the book consists of vari- famous and beloved sonnets. Three scholars, including ous resources designed to enrich further research. These Robert C. Evans, Ashleigh Imus, and T. Fleischmann, include a detailed chronology of Shakespeare’s life, a provide close readings of select sonnets while pay- listing of the various editions of the Sonnets, a fully an- ing special attention to recurring themes and their key notated and up-to-date guide to free online resources meanings, place each in the context of the original col- that provide more information and analysis, another lection of the sonnets and, when appropriate, draw use- annotated guide to literary criticism, a general bibliog- ful thematic comparisons to other works of literature, raphy, and an index. The last section also reprints the both classic and contemporary. The three scholars also entire collection of one-hundred-¿ fty-four sonnets as it point to various examples of how the themes explored was originally published. by Shakespeare hundreds of years ago continue to be Mirela Roncevic explored in the twenty-¿ rst century, with unexpected viii Sonnet 1 ______________________________________________________________________ From fairest creatures we desire increase, proceeds through contrasts. In the ¿ rst quatrain, the That thereby beauty’s rose might never die, speaker praises the man’s beauty and claims that hu- But as the riper should by time decease, man desire for reproduction is intensi¿ ed in the face of His tender heir might bear his memory: the “fairest creatures” (line 1), whose beauty implies a But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, privileged evolutionary status but also a greater duty to Feed’st thy light’s À ame with self-substantial fuel, reproduce, so that “his tender heir might bear his mem- Making a famine where abundance lies, ory” (4). In the second and third quatrains, the speaker Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: shifts his tone to criticize the beloved for failing to act Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament, upon this reproductive imperative. The speaker accuses And only herald to the gaudy spring, his beloved of self-absorption, stating, “But thou, con- Within thine own bud buriest thy content, tracted to thine own bright eyes, / Feed’st thy light’s And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding: À ame with self-substantial fuel” (5-6). The beloved here Pity the world, or else this glutton be, is likened to a candle whose lifetime is waning and who To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee. is sel¿ shly consuming his own life essence. This im- age launches a series of contrasts; the outcome of his Abstract refusal to procreate is famine in the context of abun- Sonnet 1 introduces the conventional themes of beauty, dance, making him a cruel foe to his own sweet self.
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