Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

Pre-reading

1. Vocabulary a. Change the meaning of the words by adding a prefix.

Prefix Prefix perfection certainty changing typical permanence transient mortality constant relaxed

Learning check In pairs: student A reads out the words without prefix and student B, without looking at the task, has to add prefixes to the words.

b. Match words that mean (almost) the same.

unchanging fleeting enduring alter

change eternal constant transient d. Turn the following words into nouns.

Noun Noun immortal permanent eternal constant perfect alter

Learning check b. and c. In pairs: student B reads out the words in the left columns, and student A, without looking at the tasks, has to come up with the corresponding synonyms and nouns.

Post-reading LEARNING CHECK

No study aids. What do you remember? a) With what does the speaker compare the lover? ______b) How is the lover going to live eternally? ______

Text-related assignment

1. Written assignment: Write YOUR OWN sonnet. You may either compose it independently or use one of the templates below.  You must write in iambic pentameter.  There must be a systematic rhyme scheme.  Take advantage of the possibilities given by the structure (quatrains/octave, tercets/sestet, couplet) when you develop your ideas through the poem.  You must NOT use the word love in the text, but love may be the theme.

Shall I compare a Let me not a You are b Admit impediments b a a And b b Sometimes, c O no, c And often d It is d And every c c By d d But e I e Nor f f Nor e e When f f So long g If this g So long g I g

Wider contexts 1. Critical context: agreement with James Boyd-White.

Not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem. The British critic James Boyd-White, for example, argues that the poem is in fact not a love poem at all as we hear nothing about the beloved. He sees the poem as a self-glorification of the poet:

“What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloved’s form or height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really. This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is in this view one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine.” (James Boyd-White; “The Desire for Meaning in Law and Literature” in Current Legal Problems 2000, vol. 53, p. 142)

Do you agree with this view of the poem? Why/why not?

2. Literary Context: other work by the same author: “Sonnet 73” Compare sonnet 18 and sonnet 73 with special reference to what each of these sonnets has to say about love and age.

SONNET 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Glossary Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. behold se In me thou seest the twilight of such day bough gren As after sunset fadeth in the west, ruined choirs dele af kirke, som ligger i ruiner Which by and by black night doth take away, expire uddø Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. consume fortære, be In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire nourished: blive næret That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, perceive sanse, erkende As the death-bed whereon it must expire ere before Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.