By William Shakespeare

INTRODUCTION ◊ Shakespeare is known as 'the Bard', which means 'poet'. This is because much of the language in his plays is poetic and because he also wrote poems. You are going to read two of the 154 sonnets that have come down to us. These two, like many others, give unusual perspectives on the theme of love.

LEAD IN

Have you ever felt that nothing is going right in your life? Have you ever wished that you were better-looking or richer or more intelligent? Have you ever wished that you had more friends? If you have, then you will find it easy to understand Shakespeare, who, in this poem, thinks about those times when he can see nothing good in his life. Read the poem and find how he lifts himself out of depression.

Sonnet 29

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep¹ my outcast state²,
And trouble³ deaf Heaven with my bootless⁴ cries,
And look upon myself, and curse⁵ my fate,

Wishing me like to⁶ one more rich in hope,
Featured⁷ like him, like him with friends possess'd⁸,
Desiring this man's art⁹ and that man's scope¹⁰,
With what I most enjoy contented least¹¹;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising¹²,
Haply¹³1 think on thee, - and then my state
(Like to a lark¹⁴ at break of day arising
From sullen¹⁵ earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate¹⁶;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings¹⁷,
That then I scorn¹⁸ to change my fate with kings.

GLOSSARY

1. beweep: cry over

2. outcast state: condition of being exiled, separated

3. trouble: disturb

4. bootless: useless

5. curse: complain angrily about

6. Wishing me like to: desiring to be

7. Featured: looking

8. with friends possess'd: having friends

9. art: skill

10. scope: knowledge

11. With... least: not even enjoying the things I most like doing

12. despising: hating

13. Haply: perhaps

14. lark: very small song bird

15. sullen: dark, sad

16. heaven's gate: doors of paradise

17. thy sweet love... brings: the remembrance of your love brings such richness

18. scorn: refuse

COMPREHENTION

1. Why does the poet weep? (Line 2)

2. What does he envy in other men?

3. What changes the poet's mood?

4. Who does the poet feel superior to, according to line 14?

ANALYSIS

1. Focus on line 2. How does the poet suggest that he feels lonely and unloved?

Can you find any other evidence in the poem that the poet feels lonely?

2. What is heaven commonly believed to listen to? Why does the poet feel that heaven is deaf? (Line 3)

3. Focus on lines 5-8. Does the poet envy other men their material possessions? What do these lines suggest about how the poet feels about himself?

4. Consider line 8. Does this line suggest that the poet is happy or sad? In this line there is the juxtaposition of two opposites. What are they?

5. The only image that the poem contains occurs in line 1 "I, where the poet compares himself to a lark ascending in the sky. Would you agree that the image is more striking because it is alone? What graphic feature attracts our attention to the image?

6. Explain how line 12 contrasts with line 3.

7. The table below illustrates the poet's view of his 'state' at the beginning and at the end of the poem.

Beginning of the poem	End of the poem
Heaven Kings Other men The poet	Heaven The poet Kings Other men

In what sense does the poet, like the lark, 'ascend' in the course of the poem?

8. Work out the rhyming scheme of thesonnet. Where does the rhyming scheme change? Would you agree that the last two lines of the sonnet summarise its content?

The poem is written iniambic pentameter - five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables. Break line 1 into its syllables and then mark the stressed syllables.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP

Smile ◊ A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison between two distinctly different things is indicated by the word 'like' or 'as'. Like a metaphor, a simile is made up of three elements:

the tenor, i.e. the subject under discussion;

the vehicle, i.e. what the subject is compared to;

the ground, i.e. what the poet believes the tenor and the vehicle have in common.

Task

Consider the simile in lines 11-12.

What is the subject under discussion? The tenor is................................................

What is the subject compared to? The vehicle is....................................................

What do the two have in common? The ground is..................................................

Over to you ◊ Try writing a simile for an emotional state such as happiness, sadness, fear. Examples:

I was as happy as a lottery winner who had just been handed his cheque for a million pounds.

My heart was like a stone that sank to the bottom of a well.

OUT

I How do you pull yourself out of a state of depression or unhappiness? Make a list of the things you do that help to cheer you up.

LEAD IN

Can someone love us if we are not very good looking or even quite ugly? Are we condemned to a life of misery if we do not look like a film star? Read what Shakespeare thinks in the following poem.

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 dun¹:

If hairs be wires², black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask'd³, red and white, 5

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight⁴

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks⁵.

I love to hear her speak, - yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound: 10

I grant⁶1 never saw a goddess go⁷, -

My mistress, when she walks, treads⁸ on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare⁹.

GLOSSARY

1. dun: dark

2. wires: long, thin pieces of metal. In Elizabethan poetry the word 'wire' was used to refer to golden, shiny hair

3. damask'd: light red or pink

4. delight: pleasure

5. reeks: has an unpleasant smell

6. grant: admit

7. go: walk

8. treads: walks with a heavy step

9. As any... compare: as any woman who was mistakenly praised for being more beautiful than her

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