Sonnet 18

By William Shakespeare
Pre-reading 1. Vocabulary a. Change the meaning of the words by adding a prefix. Prefix perfection changing permanence mortality relaxed Prefix certainty typical transient constant

Learning check In pairs: student A reads out the words without prefix and student B, without looking at the task, has to add prefixes to the words.

b. Match words that mean (almost) the same. unchanging change constant c. Turn the following words into nouns. Noun immortal eternal perfect permanent constant alter Noun fleeting enduring alter eternal transient

Learning check b. and c. In pairs: student B reads out the words in the left columns, and student A, without looking at the tasks, has to come up with the corresponding synonyms and nouns.

Gyldendal, 2012

Post-reading
LEARNING CHECK

No study aids. What do you remember? a) With what does the speaker compare the lover? _________________________________ b) How is the lover going to live eternally? ______________________________________

Text-related assignment 1. Written assignment: Write YOUR OWN sonnet. You may either compose it independently or use one of the templates below. You must write in iambic pentameter. There must be a systematic rhyme scheme. Take advantage of the possibilities given by the structure (quatrains/octave, tercets/sestet, couplet) when you develop your ideas through the poem. You must NOT use the word love in the text, but love may be the theme.
Shall I compare You are And Sometimes, And often And every By But Nor Nor When So long So long a b a b c d c d e f e f g g Let me not Admit impediments a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

O no, It is

If this I

Wider contexts 1. Critical context: agreement with James Boyd-White. Not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem. The British critic James Boyd-White, for example, argues that the poem is in fact not a love poem at all as we hear nothing about the beloved. He sees the poem as a self-glorification of the poet: What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloveds form or height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really.

Gyldendal, 2012

This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is in this view one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. James Boyd-White; The Desire for Meaning in Law and Literature in Current Legal Problems 2000, vol. 53, p. 142 Do you agree with this view of the poem? Why/why not? 2. Literary Context: other work by the same author: Sonnet 73 Compare sonnet 18 and sonnet 73 with special reference to what each of these sonnets has to say about love and age.

SONNET 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Glossary
behold se bough gren ruined choirs dele af kirke, som ligger i ruiner expire udd consume fortre, be nourished: blive nret perceive sanse, erkende ere before

Gyldendal, 2012