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Unit 2 Three Sonnets of Shakespeare

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Unit 2 Three Sonnets of Shakespeare UNIT 2 THREE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 2.0 Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Introduction to Shakespearean Sonnets 2.3 Sonnet 18 "Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?" 2.3.1 Interpretations 2.3.2 Analysis 2.4 Sonnet 55 "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments" 2.4.1 Interpretations 2.5 Sonnet 65 "Since Brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea" 2.5.1 Interpretations ' 2.6 Poetic devices 2.7 Glossary . 2.8 Comprehension Exercises 2.9 Summing Up . 2.0 OBJECTIVES Shakespeare's works are far from easy to understand chiefly because of-changes in the meanings of particul'ar words. A Sonnet in the English form or Shakespearean form consists of three quatrains and a couplet. Hence a full understanding of a Shakespearean sonnet will involve : i) an awareness of the relationship between the quatrain and the couplet; ii) the pace of its movement; and P iii) a sense of the devtlopment of its imagery. Hence our aims in this unit are : 8 . to offer a commentary on the three sonnets of Shakespeare * to gloss all the words which might cause some difficulty to a reader who is unfamiliar with Elizabethan diction to give a sense of the development of the imagery in the poem to establish the ljnks between its different parts. 2.1 INTRODUCTION We begin this course on poetry with a study of three poems of Shakespeare. In our previous unit (Unit l), you learnt about the various forms of poetry. This unit deals with the Sonnet form. Study the introduction to Shakespearean sonnets in the following section (2.3) before you read the individual sonnets. This will help you to recognise the distinguishing feature of a Shakespearean sonnet. All the three sonnets in your course deal with the theme of the power . of art. n The Glossary at the end (2.8) gives you the meaning of words that have been marked in Qe text with an asterisk. camin &out the date$ of these compositions. But for the most part, they read like his early Three of Shakespeare wmk He mte154 sonnets of which the first 126 sonnets were addressed to a friend and the ,. other 28 following them were addressed to his mistress or the Dark Lady. Even though most of the sonnets are addressed either to the friend or to the mistress, sdme of the very powerful among them are impersonal pronouncements, which do not make any allusion to these two maim characters. The three sonnets in your course (Sonnets 18.55 and 65) have for their subject the power of art. They do qtgive us ;portrait of the young friend nor suggest his personal qualities. All that Shakespeb claims is that his verse will confer immortality on his friend. The 'I' in the poems (see Sonnet 18) ceases to be the centre of attention both for the speaker and for us, the readers. It will be naive to identify, the 'I' of the poems with Shakespeare himself. By doing so, we are in danger of losing contact with the poem and its meaning. , 2.3 SONNET 18 "SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY?'' Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more tempkrate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date : Sometimes the hot eye of the sun shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd, And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd: But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines tetime thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 14 2.3J Interpretations Since these three sonnets (Sonnets 18.55 and 65) are addressed to a friend, we find the speaker in the twin roles of a friend and a poet. The poet contemplates on their close friendship against the inevitable mutability through the eMux of time. The poet's task in these three sonnets is to halt the passage of time and to preserve in his art (poetry) the fleeting life of his friend, who is very dear to him. The poem holds equally well if we substitute mistress or beloved for friend. Sannet 18 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'is the first of the full scale immor~lisationsof art (poetry) and through art, the immortalisation of his friend or beloved. In this sonnet, the poet steps up the power of time and then introduces the power of his verse as a defence against time. (Line numbers are given in brackets.) Read lines (1) and (9). The poem suggests a comparison of>theyouth's beauty with that of summer (1) and then appears to reject it by claiming permanence for the youth as against the inevitable transience of summer's glory (9). Now turn to the couplet (13-14). Yeu will notice that the poem's focus is not on the apparent comparison and contrast between the order of youth and the order of nature, but it shifts through these last two lines to affirm the eternrty of time and Art. The subtle transition is effected by the phrase "eternal lines to time" (12). Time is eternal. It never comes to a stop. It rolls on through days, months and years , bringing in its cyclical motion the different seasons in organised succession. The eternal movement of Time through birthdeath and regeneration gives summer its immortality. In an similar manner, poetry (or Art) can encapsulate beauty, youth and love within its lines and thereby confer immortality on them. So long as life continues, neither Time nor Art shall cease to exist, whereby both the order of nature and the order of youth shall gain permanence. + The essential comparison is not between his ysung friend and the beautiful summer, but 17 ShakeSpeare and Milton between the immortality of Time and the immortality of Art which togethe? will bestow eternity on summer and his friend. 2.3.2 Analysis Lines' 1. "a summer's day" (i) a day in summer (ii) "day" in the Elizabethan usage mwt "season". This givei the meaning "summer time';. This meaning will make the progression of imagery in the next few lines logical. For in line 3, there is the description of rough winds. in line 4, there is a specific reference to the length of summer's tenure (4). in 5-6, to hot and cloudy weather (5-6)-all characteristic of . summer season. So summer's day also suggests summer season. 2. "lovely" - : (i) kind, gentle (ii) lovable 3. "temperate" : even-tempered, balanced, moderate in temperature (climate). The English summer is alternately hot and cold. The poet praises his friend that he is of equable temper. 4. "May*' : early part of summer in England. Note the skilful use of the word "buds" to characterise the early summer. 5. "Qte" : terminable period. Summer has a short yearly tenure in England. The poet says that just like summer, youthful beauty also has a short duration. Thus the first quatrain (1-4) introduces a comparison between youth and summer in terks of shortness of duration. Both do not last forever. The second quatrain (5-8) institutes a comparison in terns of mutability or change which is to be seen in the decline or in the transience of beauty. 6. " "gold complexion" : relates to the bright, hot weather in summer. 7. "fair,from fair ..... declines" : in contrast, refers to the change from bright sunrise to cloudy weather. : Stripped of its fairness. There is the inevitability of decline in beauty which is in keeping with the natural order of existence. All things, bright and beautiful , do not last forever. Youth and summer have to , surrender their beauty with the efflux of time. In the third quatrain, the comparison seems to end with the three lines (9-1 1). "But thy eternal summer shall not fade ..,in his shade." The poet makes the claim that the summer of his young friend will not fade nor will he lose his beauty nor decline and decay. How can he' alone escape Death which overpowers all mortal beings? The answer is given by the ptin the last line of this quatrain (12) : "When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st." The keywords are "eternal lines", where "lines" refer to lines of poetry. It is evident that the word "lines"suggests the power of poetry to encapsulate and immortalise his young friend > * within its lines. But when taken in conjunction with the preceding adjective "eternal", it also suggests the permanence of youth's summer if he grows parallel to time's movement through eternity. In ttie context of the linear movement of time, no mortal being can escape decline, decay md death. But viewed in the background of timelessness of Time which 18 operates through cycles of birthdeath and regeneration, the beauty of summer (order of nature) will last forever. Summer will regain its lost glory as ~imemoves in cyclieal Three Sonnets of Shakespeate progression through Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. This is the rationale behind the rise and decline and rise of natural order. Thus the apparent contrast between the summers of youth and natuie in the third quatrain yields to ari underlying similarity. Both nature and youth alike tend to lose their beauty aid brightness only to regain them when they &e framed within the confines of Eternal Time and Art.
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