POETRY Radio Broadcast 30 Sept 18:00 19:00 Analysis of Poems Part 1: Sonnets What is a Sonnet? A sonnet is a form of a poem that originated in Europe. The term "sonnet" derives only from the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound. Sonnets have a particular structure and contain 14 lines and follow a strict rhyme scheme. One of the best-known sonnet writers is William Shakespeare, who wrote 154 of them. A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a- b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet. LET S LOOK AT A SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET: Let me not to the marriage of true minds. By William Shakespeare SONNET 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. 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 bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: PARAPHRASE Let me not declare any reasons why two True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances, Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful: Oh no! it is a lighthouse That sees storms but it never shaken; Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship, Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured. Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty Comes within the compass of his sickle.
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. Love does not alter with hours and weeks, But, rather, it endures until the last day of life. If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved. ANALYSIS Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It is praising the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds." The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "everfix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes. The details of Sonnet 116 are best described by Tucker Brooke in his acclaimed edition of Shakespeare's poems: [In Sonnet 116] the chief pause in sense is after the twelfth line. Seventy-five per cent of the words are monosyllables; only three contain more syllables than two; none belong in any degree to the vocabulary of 'poetic' diction. There is nothing recondite, exotic, or metaphysical in the thought. There are three run-on lines, one pair of double-endings. There is nothing to remark about the rhyming except the happy blending of open and closed vowels, and of liquids, nasals, and stops; nothing to say about the harmony except to point out how the fluttering accents in the quatrains give place in the couplet to the emphatic march of the almost unrelieved iambic feet. In short, the poet has employed one hundred and ten of the simplest words in the language and the two simplest rhyme-schemes to produce a poem which has about it no strangeness whatever except the strangeness of perfection.
William Shakespeare (Reference: Wikipedia) William Shakespeare (1564 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He is often called England's national poet. His surviving writing, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Modern Poetry In comparison to the very structured format of a sonnet, modern poets have not followed strict rules of rhyme. Poetry of Sylvia Plath Background (Reference: Wikipedia) Sylvia Plath (1932 1963) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the United States and then England, having two children together: Frieda and Nicholas. After suffering from depression from the age of 20 and a marital separation, Plath committed suicide in 1963. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections: The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel. In 1982, she became the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize awarded after her death.
Mushrooms Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us! We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible, Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot's in the door. Sylvia Plath
Questions for Discussion 1. Refer to the poem as a whole and discuss what is being personified. (2) 2. Refer to lines: 'Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us' Using your own words briefly explain the meaning of these lines. (2) 3. Explain why the poet repeats: So many of us! So many of us! (2) 4. Refer to lines: 'Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning/inherit the earth./our foot's in the door.'do you think the poet is making reference to mushrooms in these lines? Explain. (3) 5. What type of rhyme scheme has been used in the poem? (1) Study Notes on Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath's strong feministic views can be found in many of her works; "Mushrooms" seems to be overlooked as a manifestation of this, possibly due to the subtlety in her use of metaphors. Persistent struggle is a central theme overall in this poem but Plath's word choices clearly narrow the minority down to women. Written in 1960, "Mushrooms" is a striking social commentary on the struggles of women to overcome the restraints of the housewife image. Plath parallels a mushroom's growth, determination, and population expansion with women's fight for notability, independence, and as she sees it, inevitable control of the majority. There is also a reference to the Bible in Beatitudes where the meek will inherit the earth. It says, 'Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth'. So in a way, there is irony as it comes across as a blessing on one level, but the fact they are inheriting the earth presents a threat on another level. The fact the poem contains enjambment could show that the 'mushrooms' cannot be contained, though they may go unnoticed, there is nothing to stop them again this poses a potential threat. As the mushrooms are 'Earless and eyeless, /Perfectly voiceless' this on one hand may seem to mean they are of little significance, but the mere fact they can survive entirely independently poses another threat. The build up of adverbs in the first stanza suggests a threat, where the 'mushrooms' are slowly building up and planning towards this subtle invasion to 'inherit the earth'. Mushrooms could be a metaphor for the people in general, but it could also be to do with the liberation of women as the poem was written just after WW2. Due to the time in which this poem was written, it is possible interpret the poem to be about the rise of women in social standing, hence providing them with power. For example, the
phrase "Our toes, our noses" refers to parts of the human anatomy which are traditionally delicate and women were, at the time, seen to be delicate. It is said that the mushrooms "Take hold on the loam". Loam is a type of fertile earth and as women are the fertile gender, it could be said that Plath is referring to women here. Consequently, it can be seen that mushrooms is an extended metaphor for women and the growing of the mushrooms refers to the uprising of women in society. There are many, many more examples which link mushrooms to women throughout the poem, such as domestic imagery, "We are shelves, we are Tables", and references to certain qualities which women were expected to have in the 1950's, e.g.: "meek''.