Jan 22/25

EQ: How has Shakespeare influenced modern culture? What impact can a writer’s social environment have on their work? How can learning about a writer’s social and historical context influence our understanding and appreciation for their work?

Notes:
Seeing the "shift" in TP-CASTT (Volta!)
Things to watch for:

• key words (but, yet, however, although--notice these are contractions and transition words)
• punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis ...)
• stanza division
• changes in line or stanza length
• changes in sound
• changes in diction (word choice)

Then we got into groups and did a TPCASTT for Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"

Due at the end of the period.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Art = are
Shall = should
Thou/thee = you
Nor = does not
‘est/’ed/’st = past tense of verb; usually –ed
Seasons of life=spring-birth/summer-prime of life/fall-getting older/winter-death
Fair-light skin; blonde; above standard or perfection
Time is capitalized---personification-it’s given a name

My funny Valentine
Sweet, comic Valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
Yet you're my favorite work of art
Is your figure less than Greek
Is your mouth a little weak
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
But don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little, Valentine stay
Each day is Valentine’s Day

Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 stuck out to me in this set of poems because it instantly reminded me of Frank Sinatra’s song, My  Funny Valentine.  It seems that Sinatra’s song is a modern version of Sonnet 130.  “Your looks are laughable/ Unphotographable/ Yet you’re my favorite work of art,” states Sinatra’s song.  Shakespeare’s genius in this sonnet comes from the roundabout way of giving a comment to his lady by pointing out all her faults.  This is both amusing and musical.  In his sonnet, Shakespeare compares his woman to nature in a way not often done.  Whereas we usually see a woman’s beauty as comparable to nature’s beauty or even exceeding it, Shakespeare, through his poetry, states that this woman’s beauty is far less then that of natures.  

Diction (word choice) lends meaning to the poem here.  “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” (3).  The word “dun” buts emphasis on the irregularity or ugliness of her breasts and end the line with a kind of slump.  Dun is a grey/brown color.  Remember, during this period, white skin and bright red cheeks and lips were the ideal look!  The contrasts in his diction, “white” and “dun,” “perfumes” and “reeks,” makes the words jump out at me.  “My mistress when she walks, treads on the ground” (12).  The word “treads” her is so perfect because it gives that cumbersome feeling to the line that is accompanied by the meter that we talked about in class that kind of trips over itself.  Shakespeare is very artful in this sonnet because he incorporates those staples of sonnet-writing; comparing woman’s beauty to nature, recognizing and praising her every feature, using “feminine” speech, but he does it in such a backwards way that I actually prefer this sonnet to a more traditional one like Sonnet 18.  Where it is unconventional in its message I find it conventional in it makeup.  The rhyme scheme is familiar and the last stanza that answers the first 12 lines and draws a conclusion is normal and comforting to me.  This is Sinatra’s refrain, stating, “But don’t you change one hair for me/ Not if you care for me/ Stay little valentine stay/ Each day is valentines day.”

So, did you notice the shifts in the two poems?  Look back at the notes.  How do you know that these shifts, or volta, occurs?

Homework: 

Write two short paragraphs about these two poems on a separate piece of paper--one on comparing the two and one on  contrasting the two. Each paragraph should have 5-8 sentences each. Be specific!!!


​Each sonnet must have: 
Choose a sonnet form
14 lines
10 syllables in each line (iambic pentameter)
metaphor
shift
Due at the beginning of the next class period...