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ENGLISH 111 Lecture 24

Conclusion and Shakespeare Sonnets (coda)

narrative and lyric• narrative powerful as mode of thought

but can also constrain and limit• in sonnets WS avoids narrative and

explores freedom of thought without it– e.g. comparison, analogy, abstraction,

argument– challenges pressure of time in narrative

• through craftsmanship that endures and invites rereading

• through explicit claims for immortality of his verse

lyric: non-narrative pattern• words, images, sounds, structures• emotions and moods• comparison, analogy, abstraction, argument• natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal and life

cycles• repetition, variation, continuity, comparison,

contrast, reversal, contradiction, negation, reaffirmation, reconciliation, conjunction, incorporation, exclusion, complication, simplification, intensification, relaxation– in any combination

sonnets as lyrics, not narrative

• in narrative patterns converge– succession and causality dominate

• in lyric, patterns need not converge– and detecting patterns can become

hide-and-seek game– encourages us to reread

• for perfection of patterns already seen• and discovery of new

sonnets as lyrics, not narrative

• sonnets as kaleidoscope:– unpredictable relations without narrative:

e.g.:• 129 and 130 as mostly intense contrast

– 129 (intense, disenchanted),130 (relaxed, playing with disenchantment)

• 29 and 30 as mostly intense parallel– parallel: sudden effect of remembering friend on

poet’s despair– but subtle variation: different cause for sorrow,

different pace of relief

29 30

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless 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’d, Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least:

[volta where expected, if present]Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply 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;

For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thoughtI summon up remembrance of things past,I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,And moan the expense of many a vanished sight;

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,And heavily from woe to woe tell o’erThe sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,Which I new pay as if not paid before.

[volta at last possible moment] But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

effect of two-part structure

• 1-126: if about or addressed to someone specific, to the fair Young Man (of “friend”)

• 127-54: if about or addressed to someone specific, to the dark Mistress

• but many unspecified: what if we come across them in isolation?

text and context

• texts need contexts: – but which contexts matter most, and

how, for this text?– sonnet by itself (within history of

sonnets) or sonnet in its place in sequence?

doubleness• sonnet may be read in isolation (in

anthology, in class, etc)– and assumed to be the male poet

addressing a woman– e.g. Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to

a summer’s day”• one of great sunny love poems, and in

isolation assumed to be man to woman• read in context, belongs to poet to Fair Youth• neither reading excludes the other: and what

does that ambivalence do?

WS’s contrastive mind

• Shakespeare habitually flips any idea or element around (character, word, theme, feeling . . . ):

• like the disenchantment of passing lust in 129 (“The expense of spirit . . . ”)

• versus the enchantment of enduring love in 116 (“Let me not . . . ”)

• 116, like 129, impersonal• does it affirm love as real, or as an

ideal we can only strive for?

116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediment. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove.Oh no, it is an ever fixèd markThat looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering barque,Whose worth’s unknown although his height be taken.Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle’s compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

exam structure• answer 3 Qs• 1, 2 and any 1 other• each designed to test different skills

and knowledge• exam format designed to reduce stress

and uncertainty– same as 2008-9 pattern– and akin to 2005-7 pattern

• except only 2 hours and no 4th question

preparation: Q1• ideas and topics relevant to much or all

literature• ideas focused on repeatedly in course• range of reading: at least 6-7 authors• rationale:

– versus compartmentalization– connecting works and ideas

preparation: Q1

• preparing for ideas and topics:– read lecture notes

• look for recurring topics• use Website top tabs

– read Glossary at back of course-book or on Website• explains terms, ideas• offers examples

preparation: Q1:some possible topics

• attention • author intention and

audience response• authorial personae• authorial self-

consciousness• belief and deception• character contrast • childhood• context

• cooperation and competition• death• emotion• friendship• human nature• humour / laughter / play• imagery• imagination • individuality

preparation: Q1:some possible topics

• the medium in literature (including film and comics)• pattern• satire• similarity and difference• society and solitude• Theory of Mind, false belief and deception• the visual imagination

• inference• irony• language• literature and the arts in general • loss• love• male and female• meaning

preparation: Q1• check all these topics against works

you’ve engaged with– as refresher, overview, stimulus, search cue– which topics, and which works, seem most

inviting to you?

preparation: Q1• choose 6 authors (more on this later)• test out ideas to connect them• if not sufficient examples, add 2 more

authors (prepared in less detail? short works?)

• in answering, try to connect authors, not write 6 parallel answers

• show sense of historical time if appropriate

preparation: Q2• close reading

– skill that increases pleasure in reading• helps in looking from author’s point of view

– skill invaluable in working world• sense, nuances, implications

• do Close Reading Exercises for all the authors you might write about

• all the passages are from course texts• but only some authors represented

– just over half

preparation: Q2• prepare by selecting two possible authors

– esp with rich style or strong appeal to you• passages from longer works need knowledge of whole

texts– to specify contexts– to avoid wrong assumptions

• practice with each author:– select passages of <10 lines– compare and contrast the two authors’ styles and techniques

(if both prose or both poets), otherwise choose another writer in same form

– practice on at least 3 passages, to see common features, and range of differences

• remember that ideas, characters and characterization, tone and point of view all parts of close reading

preparation: Q3• compare/contrast: choice of authors and angles

open– except neither of authors you have tackled in compare

& contrast for Assignment 2• may be similar or different periods and/or forms • perhaps: How do A’s choices rule out things B

can do, and vice versa?• or differences between periods, or forms

• another answer that can be prepared thoroughly– but in outline, not full text

preparation: Qs 4-5• two additional “theoretical” options on single

author (or perhaps more than one)• less easy to prepare for (Q1 preparation may

cover same ground)• for those who like to think on feet?

how many texts?• choose the two or three Q2 options first?• choose the two Q 3-5 authors first?

– therefore 3-5 main authors• plus at least two more (in less detail? shorter

texts?) more for Q1– or perhaps 3 more if you find it hard to answer the

sample Q1 topics

in exam• answer 3 Qs; do not repeat authors in Qs 2-5

(you will earn no mark for a second answer on same author)

• plan carefully– don’t leave best material to last– create strong impression immediately

• move on to next Q after 40 mins• use details, esp details you have noticed

(rather than teachers)• avoid plot summaries (except to show character

psychology, story structure, audience response etc

• avoid biographical details unless relevant

in exam• don’t repeat lecture material if possible• choose details not mentioned in lectures• look for features not mentioned in class• show you have understood ideas raised in class

– but apply to new examples– extend in new directions– challenge ideas if they need challenge

• whenever you make claims, think what in the text might counter this claim?

• if you find counter-evidence, what new or revised claim will be able to accommodate this evidence?

queries

b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz