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Monet Edmundson's Blog - Posts Tagged "sonnet-116"
The Indecisive Poem
Welcome to Day Four of Shakespeare Week! I’ve seen plenty of hilarious parodies online marking the celebration, ranging from the Bard in Lego form, to Shakespearean quotes being used in Gnomeo and Juliet memes. I’ll never forget the day I walked into my local Barnes and Nobles and saw a book of Shakespeare plays rewritten as text messages. That was a great laugh. Needless to say, if you Google #ShakespeareWeek, you see some amusing pictures.
This Thursday I’ll be chatting about what I believe to be the most complex work ever created by Shakespeare. This “Favorite Poem” is a sonnet where characteristics of love are debated. The characteristics are debated throughout the entire poem, long enough for the reader to conclude that the narrator is either extremely fickle, senseless, or a genius. This poem is Sonnet 116, also called “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds.” To demonstrate my loyalty to this poem, I have two copies of it organized in front of me while I write this post. They are from the books A Treasury of Poems and Pocket Book of Poetry, in case anyone is looking for excellent poetry collections.
It could be needless to have two copies of the same poem, but I’m a writer who does their research, even when typing up a casual blog post. Disclaimer: When I read poetry on my own time, I don’t mull over the rhyme schemes, meter, or literary devices. I read it for unaffected fun, because no one ever interprets a poem the same way.
The first time I was exposed to “Minds,” I heard the poem quoted in a movie. I only heard a couple lines, but I was inspired to find this poem in its entirety. To me, the narrator begins the poem reciting the control of love and its immovability. Yet I don’t think this is what the poem is all about. The narrator admits that while love can be steadfast, every version of love is different for each person. It takes diverse forms and falls under no one’s authority. Throughout history, love has been present and will be until the end. In the last couple lines, the narrator seems to reflect on his/her own opinions presented thus far, admitting that they could be wrong, but then love would have been non-existent in the first place. The most important piece I took away from “Minds” is that everyone experiences sentiments differently, so the reader shouldn’t be quick to categorize feelings.
Hopefully I didn’t go too deep with today’s post, I actually couldn’t figure out how to organize my thoughts on Shakespeare’s poetry. As he’s such a celebrated writer, I find that people feel intimidated when giving their opinion on his works. Either that, or we all need to read his text message books to understand half of what he’s saying. :) Tomorrow I’ll be discussing some more modern Shakespeare references with plenty of popular culture allusions.
In the meantime, here are the links for all my previous posts for Shakespeare week.
April 18th post all about heroines:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
April 19th post with Macbeth manipulations:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
April 20th post where fairies and donkeys take over a forest:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
This Thursday I’ll be chatting about what I believe to be the most complex work ever created by Shakespeare. This “Favorite Poem” is a sonnet where characteristics of love are debated. The characteristics are debated throughout the entire poem, long enough for the reader to conclude that the narrator is either extremely fickle, senseless, or a genius. This poem is Sonnet 116, also called “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds.” To demonstrate my loyalty to this poem, I have two copies of it organized in front of me while I write this post. They are from the books A Treasury of Poems and Pocket Book of Poetry, in case anyone is looking for excellent poetry collections.
It could be needless to have two copies of the same poem, but I’m a writer who does their research, even when typing up a casual blog post. Disclaimer: When I read poetry on my own time, I don’t mull over the rhyme schemes, meter, or literary devices. I read it for unaffected fun, because no one ever interprets a poem the same way.
The first time I was exposed to “Minds,” I heard the poem quoted in a movie. I only heard a couple lines, but I was inspired to find this poem in its entirety. To me, the narrator begins the poem reciting the control of love and its immovability. Yet I don’t think this is what the poem is all about. The narrator admits that while love can be steadfast, every version of love is different for each person. It takes diverse forms and falls under no one’s authority. Throughout history, love has been present and will be until the end. In the last couple lines, the narrator seems to reflect on his/her own opinions presented thus far, admitting that they could be wrong, but then love would have been non-existent in the first place. The most important piece I took away from “Minds” is that everyone experiences sentiments differently, so the reader shouldn’t be quick to categorize feelings.
Hopefully I didn’t go too deep with today’s post, I actually couldn’t figure out how to organize my thoughts on Shakespeare’s poetry. As he’s such a celebrated writer, I find that people feel intimidated when giving their opinion on his works. Either that, or we all need to read his text message books to understand half of what he’s saying. :) Tomorrow I’ll be discussing some more modern Shakespeare references with plenty of popular culture allusions.
In the meantime, here are the links for all my previous posts for Shakespeare week.
April 18th post all about heroines:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
April 19th post with Macbeth manipulations:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
April 20th post where fairies and donkeys take over a forest:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
