SHAKESPEARE SONNET 130 PARODY

For a freshmen english class, students had to write a script on Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. This is the result of one groups effort.

George Meredith "Sonnet to your eyes" Poem animation

Heres a virtual movie of the English poet and novelist George Meredith reading his sonnet "Lady, this my sonnet to your eyes" (" Modern Love XXX: What Are We First") from his 50-poem sequence of 16-line sonnets called "Modern Love". Iwhich has also been called "a novelette in sonnet form". George Meredith, OM (February 12, 1828 May 18, 1909) was an English novelist and poet during the Victorian era. George Meredith, English author and poet, is known for his romantic comedy writings. He is famous for The Egoist, considered his masterpiece. Notable for his brilliant prose, Oscar Wilde described him as 'a prose Browning.' His critical essay On Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit (1897) is a highly regarded comedy in literature. Early Life of George Meredith George Meredith was born on February 12, 1828, in Portsmouth, southern England. He was the son of a tailor and claimed to be descended from Welsh princes. His mother's family had set aside money to pay for his education. Part of his education was at a school in Germany run by the Moravian Church at Neuwied, a Protestant group. Early Works and Marital Life At the age of 17, he began his career as an apprentice to a lawyer but more interested in writing, he soon gave up law to write poems and articles in magazines. At 21, he married the widowed daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, Mary Ellen Nicholls. He first published the short work prose, The Shaving of Shagpat, when he was 27 years old. It is a fantastic tale in ...

Love is Not Love - In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, Anyway

Sonnets 18 and 116 are two of Shakespeare's most quotable love poems. If you're a fan of weddings, rose-petal-filled baths, or Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility, you'll probably recognize the lines "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and "Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds." The problem with quotes, however, is that they lack context. Let's do a quick line-by-line overview of Sonnets 116 and 18. You might be surprised to find that one of these so-called "love" poems is very much not like the other.

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.

This is Shakespeare's equivalent of saying "Mum's the word" to the ol' "Speak now or forever hold your peace" bit of the marriage ceremony. In fact, Shakespeare won't even admit the word "impediments" to the line that talks about marriage. Love: 1; Impediments: 0.

...Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:

In other words, he's not one for pulling any of this "you've changed" crap.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

Psh, tempests.

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

The star to every wand'ring bark? That'd have to be the North Star, which never appears to move from its place in the Northern Hemisphere. The reason its "worth's unknown" is because Europeans didn't know a whole heck of a lot about stars back in Shakespeare's day, what with still being bitter about the Earth's roundness and all.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love: 2; Rosy Lips and Cheeks: 0. On a side note, remember that this is Shakespeare, meaning that anything a 12-year old could possibly construe as dirty probably is. Feel free to laugh, therefore, at the image of Old Father Time's "bending" sickle.

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

Love: 3; Edge of Doom: big ol' goose egg. If love could speak, it'd be saying "booya" right about now.

If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Did Shakespeare just take an oath upon his own poetry? Them's fightin' words. If you're not sure why, it'll all make sense when we get to Sonnet 18.

Like Sonnet 116, Sonnet 18 is ranked high up there on Sappy Poetry lists... usually by people who go for explicit rather than implicit meaning. If you've ever considered including a reading of Sonnet 18 at your anniversary party, the last three or so lines will probably change your mind. (If you're a really careful reader, the first two will do the trick.) Let's start from the top.

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Aww, how sweet! We think... To be sure, let's read it again - aloud. Remember to stress every second syllable, like so:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Ah hah! Notice how "I" is emphasized but "thee" and "thou" aren't? Sneaky. Let's continue.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Can't argue with that.

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;

Yeah yeah, we get it - everything in nature fades. Go back to that "thou" person already.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Woohoo! And the "thy" is emphasized! We knew Shakespeare would come around eventually!

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

We like where this is going.

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

Good, good. Keep it coming!

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;

Uh oh, we've got ourselves a conditional. So let's get this straight: all that not fading, getting ugly, or dying business depends on growing in some eternal lines to time? What does that even mean? And please don't tell us it has anything to do with the fact that Sonnets 1-17 are also known as the "procreation sonnets." If Shakespeare's saying that the best way to bottle up all them good looks is by creating genetic blood lines, we're going to go ahead and turn down that second date.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

Another conditional?!? Okay, okay: "so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see" is actually a decent amount of time, so we'll let it slide.

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

At last! - an emphasized "thee"! But hold the phone: what's giving thee life? Some unnamed "this"?? Is Shakespeare referring back to those eternal lines? To give him a little credit, he probably knows enough about grammar to use the pronoun "these" when talking about something plural. Dare we ask... if "this" is the sonnet itself? Might Shakespeare be suggesting that being featured in his work immortalizes you? Are those eternal lines the lines of the sonnet itself? Is the final thee only emphasized because it's the end result of Shakespeare's awesome, immortalizing poetry skills?

Probably. After all, being Shakespeare is like being an Elizabethan rockstar: you can bully the roadies, sleep with the groupies, trash the hotel rooms, and still be the world's darling. And let's face it: if you went down in history as The Bard, you'd probably swear by your own poetry too.

The Great Tamil Poet - Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiar

'Bharathiyar' is the name that reminds Indians of nationalism, patriotism and Tamil prose and poetry. Born in 1882 he was conferred the title of 'Bharati' for his poetic talent at a tender age. Bharati emerged as a prolific poet earning the name of 'Mahakavi', meaning a Great Poet. He died at the age of 39 but in his short span of life he had made immeasurable contribution to his country and language.

Life of a patriot

He lived in the eventful years of our country's freedom struggle. He had met his contemporaries who influenced his political thinking like Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak, Sister Nivedita, Aurobindo Gosh, VVS Iyer and Lajpat Roy. The Tamil poet and writer's life itself is a shining example of upholding the spirit of freedom, equality, justice and love despite poverty and against the oppressive British rule. He was the assistant editor of 'Swadesamithran' a Tamil daily from 1904 to 1907. He launched 'India' the Tamil weekly of which he was the editor and later edited a newspaper 'Bala Bharatam' in English. He had a turbulent life laced with living in exile, arrest, being jailed amidst abject poverty. He resumed as editor of Swadesamithran a year before his death in 1921.

Social reformist

His lofty dreams about our society and the country came out brilliantly in his songs and prose. He had the uncanny ability of using his literary skills to the best to kindle the patriotic feelings of the masses and about the evils of the society which caused all their problems.
Patriot

He proudly proclaims that the there is no other country in the world can equal the greatness of India which has the Himalyan mountains, the sacred river Ganges and the Upanishads in his song "Mannum Imaya malai' and 'paarukkule nalla naadu'. He is equally proud about the Richness and sweetness of the Tamil language in his lines 'yamarindha mozhiugalile'. He proclaims with equal pride the richness and uniqueness of the Tamil language.

Advocating Freedom and Casteless society

He fearlessly wrote about freedom for individuals as wells as nations being influenced by 'Vande Mataram' the patriotic song by Bankim Chandra. These meetings have injected fearlessness into his writing. Considering this to be a divine inspiration he went on to write revolutionary compositions that were packed with national unity and the spirit of freedom His songs brought a spiritual dimension to the freedom movement. 'Swathesa Geethangal' and 'Janma Bhoomi' which he dedicated to sister Nivedita are examples of his patriotic songs and serving the underprivileged and emancipation of women. They were distributed to the people during the freedom movement of India. His dreams of a free India and a society that is educated, devoid of its social evils and living in harmony. We can see that many of his dreams have come true today. His writings when he was in exile in Puduchery were so powerful that the British even jailed him.

His songs for the children in 'Paappa Paattu' and 'Pudhiya Aathichoodi' evoked a sense of equality, love towards all living beings, casteless society and courage etc. His simple words convey the ethical and moral principles to the young minds effortlessly. His unique style was simple with a technique of weaving the spoken language and rhythm into beautiful prose and poetry.

The literary genius Bharati has made an indelible mark in the minds of crores of Tamil people through his writings that included novels, short stories, essays and poetry.

You can download Subramanya Bharatiyar's poems for free on Sangapalagai.com.

Shadow Dancer by John Henson

"Shadow Dancer" is the first book of John W. Henson. John is a very talented man. He writes poetry and prose. He sculpts, produces art by hand or digitally, sings in local bars, dives and fishes. He has traveled extensively and now resides in Turkey with his wife, their three cats, and two huskies.

This book has illustrations that he has drawn that are quite impressive. There are divided sections for categories such as Autobiographical, Horror, Animals, Comedy, Commemorative, Historical, Celebrity, Erotic, Fantasy, Friendship, Science Fiction, Literature, Romance, Sadness, War, Social Comment, and Prayers/Spiritual. He writes with metaphor use, good imagery, great emotion and story quality.

I felt him stretching to bring messages within his muse. I could feel all the emotions he felt as he wrote. His ability to write so many different categories shows that he is a good writer and is very able to express his views on various subjects through his verse.

His poetry has good descriptive qualities to it and also has good rhymes too. He actually paints a scene with his words for his reader to feel the impact of his words. He writes with good meter throughout and is consistent with good expression.

This collection is enjoyable with all the different scenes he puts before you with the flair of his poetic pen. His Fantasy poems were so unusual that I was in awe at the stories and names of places and characters. This section would be enjoyable by all ages.

The Biographical section helps you to better understand all he endured as a child and to better understand how he overcame it. It shows he has a strong character and had perseverance to succeed in many different jobs.

The Animal section honors his pets with lovely tributes to them. You feel the love he has with them in these poems.

The Romance section is a tribute to his wife, Jan. These poems are very beautiful as he pours out his love for her.

The Friendship section honors two poets that he has come to know. These poems are tributes to them.

The Prayers and Spiritual section show all, that he believes in God. I especially enjoyed a poem in that section called, "The Day the Angels Came." In this poem through his prayers he was relieved from the pit of despair. Towards the end of this poem his spirit had been lifted and God was seeing to his needs.

"When No One Cries" is another poem that really touched me. He speaks of a near death experience he had. I felt his faith in this one and many reading this can possible relate to this. I know I can.

This collection was really beautiful to read. I would highly recommend this book to any poetry lover. He is not a maybe poet; he is a genuine poet that will capture your heart with his words. Fantastic job John, you should take a bow for this. I hope your book sells well and your name becomes known throughout the globe! Kudos to you!

Sonnet 21 by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 21 by William Shakespeare O is it not with me as with that Muse Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse, Who heaven itself for ornament doth use And every fair with his fair doth rehearse; Making a couplement of proud compare With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems, With April's first-born flowers, and all things rare That heaven's airs in this huge rondure hems. O let me, true in love, but truly write, And then believe me, my love is as fair As any mother's child, though not so bright As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air: Let them say more that like of hearsay well; I will not praise that purpose not to sell.

Sonnets of Love, (Sonnets XVII i XVIII by Wiliam Shakespeare

Sonets XVII i XVIII de Sonnets of Love de Wlliam Shakespeare. (traducció catalana de Xisco Bernal dedicada al poeta Federico García Lorca) Sonnet XVII. Who will believe my verse in time to come, Quí creurá els meus versos en els temps veniders If it were fill'd with your most high deserts? Si de les teues més elevades virtuts foren plens Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb Tanmateix, el cel és testimoni, no són sinò la tomba Which hides your life and shows not half your parts. Que oculta ta vida i no mostra més que la meitat. If I could write the beauty of your eyes Si puguera descriure la bellesa dels teus ulls And in fresh numbers number all your graces, i en tendres números enumerar les teus gràcies The age to come would say 'This poet lies: L'edat venidera dirá : aquest poeta menteix Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.' Rasgos tan divins mai aplegaren als rostres humans So should my papers yellow'd with their age Seran,doncs, els meus papers engroguits per l'edat Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue, Menytingutscom homevell amb menys veritat que llengua And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage i les teues qualitats reals considerades com exageracions de poeta And stretched metre of an antique song. I correctes rimes d'antiga cançó. Sonnet XVIII Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Et podrè comparar amb un dia d'estiu? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Tu ets més amable i trempat Rough winds do shake the darling buds ...