Before Renaissance, English
poetry was largely composed of national epics and ballads. In a
strict sense, the only poet that endows us with personal emotion
and interest of characters is Chaucer, as a contrast to the mere
record of incidents in medi romance. It was not until the time of
Renaissance that English poetry began to flourish and genius poets
sprouted, William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser,
etc., as a result of the rising interest in the thought of
Humanism. Although William Shakespeare is more renowned as a
dramatist, his contribution to English poetry finds no opponent.
The first published poem of Shakespeare is “Venus and Adonis”, a
narrative poem that arose immediate popularity. The poem bases its
story on the love affair between Venus, the goddess of beauty and
love, and a handsome young man Adonis. It is not hard to find
Shakespeare as a passionate young man in the poem for it is
overwhelmed with beautiful descripti
新浪博客
ons of love towards nature and life. Another narrative poem, “The
Rape of Lurece” displays a tragic story of a virtuous and beautiful
lady. In this poem, Shakespeare shows his talent as a poet by his
elaborate artistic skills.
Sonnets make up of majority of Shakespeare’s poetry work. Shakespeare did not originate the sonnet form. The basic structure of the sonnet arose in medi Italy, its most prominent exponent being the Early Renaissance poet Petrarch. The appearance of English sonnets, however, occurred when Shakespeare was an adolescent (around 1580). Both Edmund Spenser and Philip Sydney, among others, worked in this form a decade or so before Shakespeare took it up in the early 1590s, possibly seeking to exploit the ongoing popularity of the sonnet among literary patrons of the day. What we call Shakespearian sonnets today have different forms with the Italian sonnets in that the Shakespearean sonnets end with a rhymed couplet and follows the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. In 1609, “Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Never before Imprinted” was published, which collected 154 sonnets commonly thought to be written between 1593 and 1599. Concerning the content, these sonnets can roughly be categorized into three groups: sonnet 1—17 addressed a young man’s love of a lady; sonnet 18—126 describe the young man’s relationship with another young male poet; sonnet 127—154 portrait a mysterious dark-haired lady. Given this and the intimacy of the themes broached by Shakespeare in the sonnets, it is natural that scholars would entertain a search for autobiographical sources, and that this search would focus on three identity issues: (1) who is the young man to whom Sonnets 1-126 are addressed? (2) who is the Dark Lady of Sonnets 127-154? (3) who are the rival poets who intrude in the love triangles of Sonnets 78 through 86? Although piles of works are published in search of the answers to these questions (which may lead to ill suspicion of his personal life), Shakespeare never ceases to impress the reader with the beauty of his poetry.
Sonnet XXIX.
“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”
WHEN in disgrace with fortune1 and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless2 cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd3,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope4,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising5,
Haply6 I think on thee,-and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
“When to the sessions of sweet silent thought”
WHEN to the sessions1 of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes2 new wail my dear times' waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow3,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night3,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd4 woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er5
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan6,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Sonnet CXVI.
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
LET me not to the marriage1 of true minds
Admit impediments2. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark3,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken4.
Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come5;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom6.
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Sonnets make up of majority of Shakespeare’s poetry work. Shakespeare did not originate the sonnet form. The basic structure of the sonnet arose in medi Italy, its most prominent exponent being the Early Renaissance poet Petrarch. The appearance of English sonnets, however, occurred when Shakespeare was an adolescent (around 1580). Both Edmund Spenser and Philip Sydney, among others, worked in this form a decade or so before Shakespeare took it up in the early 1590s, possibly seeking to exploit the ongoing popularity of the sonnet among literary patrons of the day. What we call Shakespearian sonnets today have different forms with the Italian sonnets in that the Shakespearean sonnets end with a rhymed couplet and follows the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. In 1609, “Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Never before Imprinted” was published, which collected 154 sonnets commonly thought to be written between 1593 and 1599. Concerning the content, these sonnets can roughly be categorized into three groups: sonnet 1—17 addressed a young man’s love of a lady; sonnet 18—126 describe the young man’s relationship with another young male poet; sonnet 127—154 portrait a mysterious dark-haired lady. Given this and the intimacy of the themes broached by Shakespeare in the sonnets, it is natural that scholars would entertain a search for autobiographical sources, and that this search would focus on three identity issues: (1) who is the young man to whom Sonnets 1-126 are addressed? (2) who is the Dark Lady of Sonnets 127-154? (3) who are the rival poets who intrude in the love triangles of Sonnets 78 through 86? Although piles of works are published in search of the answers to these questions (which may lead to ill suspicion of his personal life), Shakespeare never ceases to impress the reader with the beauty of his poetry.
Sonnet XXIX.
“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”
WHEN in disgrace with fortune1 and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless2 cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd3,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope4,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising5,
Haply6 I think on thee,-and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
“When to the sessions of sweet silent thought”
WHEN to the sessions1 of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes2 new wail my dear times' waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow3,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night3,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd4 woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er5
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan6,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Sonnet CXVI.
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
LET me not to the marriage1 of true minds
Admit impediments2. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark3,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken4.
Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come5;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom6.
Notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.