by Bill Shakespeare
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Comment: A wonderful "autumn" sonnet I found on the Poetry Foundation's website. Autumn is so funny in Texas. It reminds me very little of autumn back east. The leaves change and the temperature finally relents a little bit, but it lacks the chill and crisp cool air of East Coast autumns. It's actually still warm and even a little bit humid here. I miss the crispness of falls back East, and of course, the color of the fall foliage.
I'm reading a recent biography of William Shakespeare called "Will in the World". Has anyone else read it? I'm really enjoying it. I'm learning all sorts of things about Shakespeare and Elizabethan England I should have learned ages ago. One fact that keeps popping up in my head is that paper was so expensive and scarce in England at the time, Shakespeare would not have been able to write his poems on paper as a boy. Can you imagine? The most gifted and brilliant writer of all time could not just jot a quickie down in a notepad when he was 14. And K and I use sheets and sheets of paper to stamp our hands on!!! It's really so wrong when you think about it. I have journals and journals of me whining about getting a bad grade or liking a boy and Shakespeare had to keep it all stored in his magnificent cranium.
Comment: A wonderful "autumn" sonnet I found on the Poetry Foundation's website. Autumn is so funny in Texas. It reminds me very little of autumn back east. The leaves change and the temperature finally relents a little bit, but it lacks the chill and crisp cool air of East Coast autumns. It's actually still warm and even a little bit humid here. I miss the crispness of falls back East, and of course, the color of the fall foliage.
I'm reading a recent biography of William Shakespeare called "Will in the World". Has anyone else read it? I'm really enjoying it. I'm learning all sorts of things about Shakespeare and Elizabethan England I should have learned ages ago. One fact that keeps popping up in my head is that paper was so expensive and scarce in England at the time, Shakespeare would not have been able to write his poems on paper as a boy. Can you imagine? The most gifted and brilliant writer of all time could not just jot a quickie down in a notepad when he was 14. And K and I use sheets and sheets of paper to stamp our hands on!!! It's really so wrong when you think about it. I have journals and journals of me whining about getting a bad grade or liking a boy and Shakespeare had to keep it all stored in his magnificent cranium.
Stephanie writes:
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Casey!! Did Stephen Greenblatt write "Will in the World"? I wrote my senior seminar paper on the Sonnets arguing the the dark lady of the sonnet series was actually the boy youth defiled by the act of sodomy! I needed Greenblatt to be my reader. Everyone told me he was an arrogant prick. So I was so scared. But when he saw how shaky scared I was I think he was disarmed and he was so nice and encouraging! AND he is one of the only males on earth I've been strangely attracted too!! How weird is that?
Anyways, I'd love to read that book! Interesting fact! Do tell more!
This poem is lovely and I agree with you about the crispness of fall back east. It's my FAVORITE time of year. The feeling in the air is like no other season. I love the lighting outside too. It's beautiful on all fronts.
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou are blowing my MIND. I can't believe Stephen Greenblatt read your thesis. That is AMAZING. That's like having Evel Knievel teach you how to ride a bike. I'm so glad he ended up being nice. If indeed he is a pompous ass, he's justified, no? If I could get Stephen Greenblatt a present it would be a t-shirt that said, "I'm kind of a big deal around here."
I'm such an idiot, I don't know about the dark lady in the sonnets. Can you explain? I've only read Shakespeare's sonnets here and there. I've never read all of them. I love though how there is so much mystery surrounding them. Who is he writing to? Who is the subject of the sonnets? Why did he even write them? If you know more, please expound.
Here's another factoid from the book. John Shakespeare, Bill's dad, was a glover. That's why, Greenblatt posits, there are so many learned references to gloves and leather in Shakespeare's writing.