CobblerRob's Guide to Shakespeare's Sonnets! Revision 1 This document is a 14K document, and is formatted at 60 characters per line, so set your viewers appropriately. Contents: Introduction Overview Sonnet Summaries Bibliography Claimers and Disclaimers About the Author and How to Contribute Introduction My name is Robert McMahon, and what you're looking at right now is a little report I whipped up for a class, and then posted on the internet so other people doing reports on the sonnets would have a resource. Now, if you are doing a report on the sonnets, you shouldn't use this as your _only_ resource, because chances are that I'm wrong about a lot of this stuff. (More about that in the disclaimers.) Instead, you should use this as a guide as you read the sonnets, so you can make sense out of all those fun metaphors and such. Anyhoo, without any further ado, here's my stuff: Overview From the spring of 1592 to March in 1605, William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, or short, songlike poems. These sonnets are probably the only published work of Shakespeare's that had any personal meaning to him. They are written from Shakespeare's perspective, and are sort of like letters from the bard to a friend of his, Sir Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. The major topics of the sonnets were Shakespeare's urging the Earl to get married and have a son, other poets seeking the Earl's patronage, the Earl stealing Shakespeare's mistress, the Plague, the Earl's involvement with Atheism, Queen Elizabeth's death, some mysterious "dark lady" who appeared in the last 20 or 30 sonnets, and the usual array of sadness, death, and anger that seemed to fill Shakespeare's life as well as his poetry. Since my Cliff's Notes didn't seem to arrive on time, and the books I found on the time period that Shakespeare wrote the sonnets in are even more confusing than the sonnets themselves, I have whipped up a listing of what the sonnets mean, at least what I think they mean. Keep in mind that the sonnets are all from Shakespeare to the Earl. Sonnet Summaries: I. Quit beating yourself up. II. When you're old, you'll wonder what happened to you. III. If you don't change your opinion of yourself, you'll let your parents down. IV. You're a handsome guy, take advantage of it! V. If you wait to get a woman, you'll just wind up old, ugly, and alone. VI. Go out and have some kids, that way you'll live on. VII. Get married and make yourself an heir before you die of loneliness. VIII. Man was not meant to be alone. IX. You've got to get married and have an heir, or otherwise your life now is pointless! X. If you don't get married and have children, you'll just hate yourself more. XI. A child will grow as fast as you whither away, get one. XII. Have children, so you can face death (the hideous night) bravely! XIII. You're already changing for the worse, get married! XIV. You're a good-looking guy, when you lie to yourself and say you're not, your looks ebb away, along with your soul. XV. I can preserve you with my poetry, but... XVI. ...poetry about you will be no more memorable than a portrait of you. XVII. Besides, my poetry won't show the whole you to future generations. XVIII. If you do keep your legacy going through children, death can't harm you. XIX. In any case, I've already written enough about you so that you'll live forever though my words. XX. Besides, you're the best-looking guy I know, and I know you'll do great with the ladies. XXI. Now, what's up with this other guy writing about you? XXII. (Shakespeare lectures on love and trust) XXIII. I know, I don't flatter you as shamelessly as this other guy does, but we're friends! XXIV. (Shakespeare lectures on writing for a while) XXV. The arrangement we've got now works well enough, let's stick with that. XXVI. I respect your decision, though, and I'll honor it, whatever it is. XXVII. Well, today was hard, so I'm going to bed now. XXVIII. (Shakespeare rambles for a bit about how his travels are leaving him restless.) XXIX. The memories of the good times we've had together relax me, though. XXX. (Shakespeare reflects on all of the people that he knows who have died.) XXXI. ...but all those who have died are living on in you? XXXII. If I die, read my stuff, because we're friends. XXXIII. (Shakespeare describes a sunrise.) XXXIV. Why did you steal my sunrise (mistress) away from me? XXXV. Oh well, don't worry about it. What's done is done. XXXVI. Let's keep it quiet, anyway. You're a big public figure, if word of this gets out, it will be embarrassing for you. XXXVII. We should keep the friendship between us quiet, too; it would be bad if it's found out that you were hanging out with a lowly poet like myself. XXXVIII. In the mean time, I'll just sit back and watch your fame grow. XXXIX. Just take the girl; don't worry about it. XL. Since you're my patron, nothing that's "mine" is really mine anyway. XLI. I'm just surprised more women didn't do what my mistress did. XLII. Well, I'm glad that's settled... (A lull begins in the sonnets here.) (From sonnets 43 through 49, Shakespeare describes how he's working long days on the road, writing plays and acting. It all basically comes down to sort of a set of "wish you were here" sonnets.) (Sonnets 50 and 51 describe a journey Shakespeare is taking on horseback.) LII. I hope you're doing well. (Sonnets 53 through 55 consist of Shakespeare praising the Earl for no apparent reason.) LVI. It will be good to see you again. LVII. I'm bored, but I don't have any free time. LVIII. Hey! How come you're spending all your time out there having fun instead of hanging out with me? LIX. Now I'm bored, busy, and lonely. LX. I don't think I'm going to be around much longer. LXI. Where are you? LXII. Sorry, I got a little too obsessed with myself there. LXIII. Besides, you'll be the one living forever through these verses, not me. LXIV. (Shakespeare ponders whether time decays love as well as everything else.) LXV. (Shakespeare ponders how time will affect the Earl's beauty.) (Sonnet 66 is very complex, but major themes include civil war, the plague's affect on the theatres, and more people competing with Shakespeare for the Earl's patronage.) LXVII. (The Earl is in the midst of being investigated for religious impiety or something to that effect, and Shakespeare is advising caution.) LXVIII. Hang in there. LXIX. (In 69, Shakespeare is irritated that the Earl is considering patronizing another bard.) LXX. You're being criticized, but that's just because you're getting a lot of attention; don't let it get to you. LXXI. Don't worry about me; if I die, just forget me. LXXII. When I'm dead, at least I won't bring you any more shame. LXXIII. You're seeing the death of your youth in me; don't worry about getting old. LXXIV. Even when I'm dead, these lines will remain to honor you. LXXV. (Again, "Wish you were here.") LXXVI. I miss you, and I'm running out of ways to say it. LXXVII. (The Earl has presented Shakespeare with a gift of a notebook.) LXXVIII. I've written all this stuff about you and had all this stuff inspired by you. Why are you patronizing these other poets? LXXIX. There's only one poet who is competing with me, and his flattery of you bugs me. LXXX. All this guy does is suck up to you! LXXXI. My verses are making you immortal! LXXXII. This guy's just using you to get ahead, but we're friends. LXXXIII. I didn't suck up to you like he did because I figured that since I was so indebted to you, words would just make me look like a fake. LXXXIV. Why restate the obvious? LXXXV. I don't say everything that's on my mind anyway. LXXXVI. What is so great about this guy's work? LXXXVII. Well, if I'm not good enough for you, then I may as well just leave. LXXXVIII. You'll be better off if you don't patronize me. LXXXIX. Do what you want to me now, because I don't care anymore. XC. Go ahead! Make fun of the worthless poet! XCI. Okay, maybe I don't want to leave. XCII. I want your friendship back. XCIII. But, no matter what you decide, you'll always be my friend. XCIV. Maybe you don't see what's so great about yourself, but everyone around you does. XCV. Still, other people can't come close to writing about you as well as I can. XCVI. (Shakespeare explains that your biggest virtues might also be your biggest faults.) (Apparently, at this point, Shakespeare left the Earl's patronage.) XCVII. (Shakespeare explains how his winter went.) XCVIII. (Shakespeare explains how his spring went.) XCIX. (Shakespeare wonders if the Earl lost some of his looks when he left.) C. What happened to the guy you began patronizing? CI. How come he never writes anything good about you? CII. (Shakespeare talks about how his love for the Earl has only grown.) CIII. I don't know what else to use as inspiration besides you. CIV. I won't ever be able to see how time has changed you. CV. All of my works praise you in some way or another. CVI. All of history has been praising you! (Obviously, Shakespeare is doing some brown-nosing of his own at this point.) (Now, a long period of time has passed, and the Earl has just been released from one of England's infamous Towers for some reason or another.) CVII. Lots of stuff happening now. Why don't you take advantage of it? CVIII. You look older, and yet, you don't seem to have changed any. (After receiving sonnets 107 and 108, the Earl accused Shakespeare of various things. Shakespeare reacts:) CIX. Yes, I left for a while, but I never forgot everything you did for me! CX. I left for a while, but now I'm back, and I'm here for you! CXI. I had to go, so I could make money and keep from going bankrupt and starving! CXII. It doesn't matter to me what you say about me. (In the next two sonnets, 113 and 114, Shakespeare goes on to say that his work has suffered because he left the Earl's patronage.) CXV. My love for you still grows. CXVI. Time doesn't have any power over love! CXVII. But I admit I did leave you hanging there for a while. CXVIII. I realize how much of a mistake that was now. CXIX. What was I thinking? CXX. Still, you were kind of at fault too. Remember the time you stole my girlfriend from me? ^---(Sonnets 34 and 35) CXXI. You screwed up too, so I think we're even. CXXII. Oh yeah, I gave away that notebook you gave me. CXXIII. I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of knowing that I changed because of this. (Sonnets 124 and 125 contain Shakespeare's reflections on several things happening at once, including the Earl's arrest, his being sent to the tower, and his release the next day.) The remaining sonnets, from 127 to 154, are the "dark lady" sonnets. None of these appear to have anything to do with the Earl, but instead are Shakespeare's praise of some unidentified woman who he seemed to be very much in love with. As the series of sonnets moves on, their point seems to be that Shakespeare is trying to win over some woman from another man. These sonnets don't follow the chronological order of the first 126, because they were reportedly written in 1593 and 1594, when the 60s and 70s were written. Additionally, they all seem to have the same basic theme to them, so I won't bother summarizing them. Therefore, with all of the sonnets covered, I'll end my report. Bibliography I only had one major source besides the text of the sonnets, and that was The Background of Shakespeare's Sonnets by RJC Wait. (1972, 221 pages, Schocken Books, New York). I also had one minor source that I read for no apparent reason, but would like to credit anyway: Readings on the Sonnets, edited by Clarice Swisher. (1997, 175 pages, Greenhaven Press, San Diego, ISBN 1-56510-572-9) Claimers and Disclaimers: First, the Claimers. At the current time, this file is an original work by myself, Robert McMahon, and so you CANNOT MODIFY IT! You can post it on any newsgroup or webpage, though, as long as it is not modified in any way, shape, or form and is not credited to anyone else. However, if you do post it, I would appreciate an e-mail saying where you posted it so I can send you future, updated revisions, or just say thanks. In any case, that's all the Claimers. (Oh yeah, if you do want to change something you think is wrong, don't! Send me an e-mail and make me do it. More on that later, though.) Now, the Disclaimers. All I have to say disclaimingly is this: I could be, and probably am, wrong about a lot of this. That's why I said that this should not be your only resource if you're looking to do a report on the sonnets. I'm human, and more than that, I'm American. I'm wrong about a lot of things in life, so a few misinterpretations have probably slipped into this document. So, what can you do about it? Well, this takes me into my next segment: About the Author and How to Contribute The author, being myself, is Robert McMahon, a high school student in his sophomore year. Woah, I bet you didn't think a high school student wrote this, right? Well, I did. Anyway, here's the raw data: This document is at: http://www2.crosswinds.net/rapid-city/~cobblerrob/refdesk/ under the filename "sonnets.txt". My homepage is at the same address, just without the "/refdesk/" at the end. My e-mail addresses are: cobblerrob@rapid-city.crosswinds.net and the permanent back-up, robmcmahon@juno.com I also have most of the major internet pagers, if you feel like bugging me with one of them. In any case, I welcome any contributions you might have to this file, because there's a good chance that you'll know more about sonnets than me! Send in whatever you can contribute, and I'll include it in the next revision, give you co-authoring credit, put your name in a "Contributor" section, and be permanently indebted. Anything you can pitch in will help the people who read this document after you understand the fine piece of literature that is the Shakespearean sonnets. Anyway, that's all for now, I'm going to sign off. Hope this was helpful!