I'm with you
Leah "
S's speaker keeps hammering away at this theme/criticism/point of view from one sonnet to the next." Golly - I had no idea there were that many arguments to be made to convince someone their only worth on this earth was to bare children. Now this attitude, that still thrives among those from the Middle East ties it together making sense. I may not agree but then, I am lucky to be living in the west at this time in history when our worth is not measured only by our having children.
But to the poetry - Yes, good thought, Shakespeare does not seem as difficult as it was to us when we were younger - I wonder if part of that was not only our trying to measure up for a good grade as well as, not reading it for enjoyment or - I remember actors going on about how difficult and now I wonder if that was affectation - In other words an ego thing where they have to lay it on thick about the difficulty of doing Shakespeare which then kept the plays in the highest echelon of goal setting for an actor.
But then, fair is fair and my thought is that as we age we've read so many books and are aquatinted with more and more words so that we not only do not shy from new words but we can see the connections to other words and so we can dope it out. I also think it helps not to be reading poems without the sing song mannerism many of us used and was considered acceptable as we read poetry aloud. Well whatever the reason
Leah, I am glad you are finding it an easier read.
Yep, for sure
Bellemarie - to have that fresh new read so we can detect for ourselves what is being said and almost like walking through a garden in a park - we can stop and enjoy and question the names of flowers and other plants that catch our eye at our own pace. Sounds good that you are reading the Sonnets for your own enjoyment and understanding - great...!
Oh lordy
Karen the dreaded class essay - well you are with us so you pulled through. "bare ruined choirs" was it
we will have to remember when we get to Sonnet 77 that it was your school essay nemesis.
"In Sonnet IV there seems to be some expectation that beauty is to be used in some way other than pleasing oneself." Yes
Karen, and I have mixed attitudes - not feelings because feelings depend on which take is used.
In one breath it sounds like - baby making is all we are good for - our only value or worth - the only thing important in our life which was/is to use our beauty to pass on to the next generation because if we do not than we do not have any worth at all. No matter the gardens we tend and create, or the needlework we stitch or the joy we encourage in a household - none of that matters unless we have children.
Then in the other breath I think beauty is a gift and like finding a penny, it only brings luck when you pass it on, so that to pass on this gift seems noble and a loving thing to do.
I also like the line "
Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend," which yes, is like yesterday's Sonnet about the wrinkles of age taking over the beauty of youth but it says "
lend" which to me is special - thinking how often something you would like to borrow and there is no one that has it to lend - so I am back to Nature bequeathing a
gift of beauty even if it is for lend.
Also I wonder, the poor souls - the women who are barren - were they considered a waste - there was Henry the VIII, not only setting aside a loved first wife because she was barren but then, off came their heads if they did not produce a son. I cannot believe he was the only one on earth with this attitude or that it was reserved just for kings. No wonder the saying, "
keep them barefoot and pregnant" - the implications of that saying are monstrous when you realize barefoot was not much different than tying a pet dog up with a leach.
Reading this it is too easy for me to go off on a tangent. It takes me a minute or so to accept that is the way it was and so I may as well get on with it.
I do think this Sonnet was a smoother read - somehow it flowed and the words we no longer regularly use were not so foreign. I must say though, I was fine and thought it lovely till the phrase "Profitless usurer,". That was when my heckles rose from the back of my neck right into my head -
probably my blood pressure
shooting up - anyhow all fun aside - that was a low blow - calling a women and a pretty young thing at that a "
usurer" - grrrr.
And so like you
Leah, not only was there no romance it was down right insulting - and he wants to have babies with her?
Sheesh...! And then he tops it off with "
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?" I would give him an audit - send him packing with such a smile he would never know what hit him. No Romeo is he...!
Haha the poem brings inner fireworks on the 4th of July - oh oh oh life can really be funny at times.
