...Literary genius of the 16th century Shakespeare's style of writing Who was Shakespeare ? What made him “the greatest writer in the English language ? Why Shakespeare's work has stood the test of time ? To understand Shakespeare's great gift for writing or rather try to we have to learn more about his style of writing. Shakespeare had a very moving writing. He was an emotional and passionate man. He has the ability to write human feelings as eloquently as nobody can. In Sonnets and Hamlet : examples : "Doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love". Hamlet Quote (Act II, Sc. II). "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs." Hamlet Quote ( Act I, Sc. I). Shakespeare used over 25,000 different words in his writings. He is the magician of words. He made many play-words, quotes and expressions still used nowadays. (Beginning of his career in 1592 Robert Greene : Elisabethan playwright called WS “upstart cow”) Shakespeare wrote mainly tragedies. His work contain thousands of quotes from the Gevena Bible (Matthew) There is many changes in his style of writing. His first plays were acknowledged by the public : The Comedy of Errors, and Taming of the Shrew He wrote tragedies as well as comedies. From 1580 to 1613 : he wrote 37 plays! He had the ability to represent human nature. He saw life as a theater and theater as life. He gave the public what he want. He was a formidable storyteller. He told every...
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...I do think that by doing so it looses a lot of its original meaning. I believe that literature can be interpreted in to many different meanings and ways that other people don't see. To one person Shakespeare can be a legendary writer and to anot her person he can be some idiot that wrote a lot of garbage. After reading this section, I find it interesting that Shakespeare can be interpreted in several various ways. I have seen a few different productions of Shakespeare plays and I can understand the different ways that people have perceived the various plays. Personally, I believe that the difference between a “more faithful” versus a “more free” adaptation of a Shakespearean play is that a show that is “more faithful” tends to follow the time frame and setting that the play was placed in, whereas a “more free” adaptation can change to different time frames and have different surroundings than the play was actually placed in. With a more “faithful” adaptation of Shakespeare we learn more about the history behind the play and what it truly is about. Unfortunately, with a more “freer” adaptation we can lose the history behind the play because the context of the play can change based on the decisions of how the play was interpreted. In a faithful version of a play, the language, setting, costumes, and all other major aspects remain as the author originally wrote them; a free adaptation may change one or more of these elements. A more faithful adaptation has the advantage of...
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...Term Paper Outline: “To be or not to be….” For most it leaves no question as to who wrote these infamous words. William Shakespeare is regarded by some as the greatest author within all of the English language. Regardless of one’s true opinion of Shakespeare’s writings, they continue to cycle their way from one generation to the next. His works still hold significant value within all levels of academic teachings. Shakespeare’s literatures range from poems and plays to sonnets. Once he gathered the notion of how the style of blank verse operated, he began to cultivate it into something unique and one he could call his very own. His latest works was that of sonnets, in which were found to be the last of his non-dramatic works to be printed. It is not certain whether any of the themes within his sonnets have a direct correlation to real life individuals, but one could see the underlying humanistic nature that lies within the lines. In William Shakespeare’s works Sonnet 20, Sonnet 62, and Sonnet 12 he thoroughly develops each of the following; motifs, dictions, and internal rhythms. Within the sub sequential paragraphs one will uncover the explanations, analyzation, and evaluations of each of the three selected sonnets. In Sonnet 20, Shakespeare takes on the concept of homosexuality as the central motif found throughout this particular sonnet. In the beginning, the reader is drawn in by these concrete diction characteristics of a charming and beautiful woman, “with nature’s...
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...Sonnet 18 Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject of the poet's verse is the theme. SUMMARY The poet starts the praise of the beloved without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of his friend into that of a perfect being. The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison the beloved is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the start of the third quatrain (9), she is summer, and thus, she is metamorphosed into the standard by which true beauty can and should be judged. The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die as poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be forever in human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final couplet reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will live on, and ensure the immortality of his muse. Commentary On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to...
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...1. Who used the term 'Old English' for the first time ? 2. What is the name of Bede's history book ? 3. What is the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon word 'scop" ? 4. What is the meaning of Anglo-Saxon word 'Wyrd' ? 5. What is the name of the only Anglo-Saxon historian ? 6. Name the Germanic tribes which formed the Anglo-Saxon race ? 7. Name the manuscripts in which Old English poems are found ? 8. Who is the author of Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ? 9. Who is the author of Lives of the Saints ? 10. Name two Anglo Saxon Christian poets ? 11. Name the 'earliest extant' Anglo-Saxon poem ? 12. When was Beowulf written ? 13. Mention one Christian element in Beowulf ? 14. Refer to one Pagan element in Beowulf ? 15. What is the name of the pleasure hall in Beowulf ? 16. What is the name of Hrothgar's wife ?(the queen) 17. Name the sword of Beowulf with which he killed Grendel ? 18. Which Anglo-Saxon poem records the fight between the English and Danes ? 19. When did the Battle of Maldon take place ? 20. Who is the author of Death Song ? 21. Who is the author of the poem Brut ? how many lines are there in this poem ? 22. Name two battles referred to in the Anglo-Saxon poems ? 23. What is the name of the monster Beowulf killed ? 24. What is the name of Beowulf's father ? 25. What is the name of the king Beowulf helped ? 26. Name two Anglo-Saxon Elegies ? 27. Name the Anglo-Saxon poem written in dream vision ? 28. Who is the author of Beowulf ? 29. When was Thomas...
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...Name:Darrion Duhart Date:2/7/16 Graded Assignment Research Paper First Draft Type your name and the date at the top of this page. Type or paste your draft into this document. Be sure that your draft is double-spaced and in 12 point, Times New Roman font. Save the file as: ENG402A_S1_5.1_Research Paper First Draft_FirstInitial_LastName.docx Example: ENG402A_S1_5.1_Research Paper First Draft_M_Smith.docx Total score: ____ of 200 points (Score for Question 1: ___ of 200 points) Answer: In his poem, 'Scorn not the Sonnet' (Poetical Works, 1827), Wordsworth famously said that the sonnets were the 'key' with which 'Shakespeare unlocked his heart' and whilst this can certainly be seen to be the case, the sonnets do much more than that. Writing of various forms of love, and indeed of love itself, using the contemporary sonnet form, Shakespeare develops the aspects of love which the sonnets reflect into an all-encompassing discussion on the major themes of life itself that continue to inform and direct the human condition, a fact which is perhaps partly responsible for their continuing popularity with both public and critics alike. This dissertation sets out to discover, through close reading of carefully selected representative sonnets and critical context, the way Shakespeare accomplishes this. The sonnet form as Shakespeare, whose 154 sonnets were first published in 1609, and his contemporaries used it was introduced into England in the sixteenth century by Sir Thomas Wyatt who...
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...1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. Al that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. Smith, Peter. The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Vol. I. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. Gloucester: The Moulton Publishing Company, 1959. 447. Talks about how Shakespeare as a child apprenticed his father as a butcher in the family trade. It describes how later on Shakespeare broke away from the family and relocated to London with his wife, Ann Hathaway, to write and perform plays. I am skeptical as to the level that Shakespeare actually disliked his family’s trade, as described here. He always gave prolix orations before slaughtering a calf, which makes me think he was not entirely opposed to being a butcher. Bradley, A. C. . "Shakespeare the Man." Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909): 330-334. Bradley argues an interesting parallel between Shakespeare’s intense feeling expressed in his works and the “high-flown language of the time” (333). It is suggested that Shakespeare may not have in fact truly felt any of what he was writing, and that his sonnets too were directed toward no one, and contained no feeling. The implications of this source seem a little improbable, thereby eliminating...
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...In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 33,” he used “sovereign eye” (Line 2) to prove that he had the ability to verify what true beauty was when he described the morning and landscape. Basically, in the beginning of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 33”, he uses a lot of metaphor to describe the landscape that he sees. Another example is when he said “gliding pale streams” (4) and “heavenly alchemy” (4). In these metaphors, he describes the streams in the landscape to be “heavenly” as if it came from Mount Olympus itself. Shakespeare also compares the sky to have a “celestial face” (6) which expresses that the morning sky was extremely bright like a star in the sky. In the beginning of the “Sonnet 144”, Shakespeare uses metaphor to describe two different types of spirits that are always around him. In “Sonnet 144”, Shakespeare talks about a “spirit” being a “worser spirit.” (Line 4) So, this explains that one of the spirits that is around him is a devious “spirit.” He also describes it in another specific detail by stating its color to be “coloured ill.” (4) The “evil” spirit that Shakespeare talks about it mentioned many times in this Sonnet since he thinks says it is overruling the other. He talks about it again by calling it his “female evil.” (5) Shakespeare also tells us how the spirit tries to transform the other spirit into a dreadful one by persuading it with its “foul pride.” (8) “Shakespeare’s...
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...1: A time of year. a. When the last leaf falls. b. Winter comes and the warmth is gone. II. Quatrain 2: Sunset. a. The day begins to end. b. Night comes. III. Quatrain 3: The fire. a. Resting on a bed of ashes. b. The flame is consumed. IV. Couplet: The lesson “To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” Conclusion: Shakespeare presents the problem of diminishing youth, and likens it to the end of the year, then to the end of a day, and finally to a fire smoldering out. Each quatrain adds perspective in light of the other to bring about the right emotional response needed for Shakespeare to present his theme. Shakespeare’s Metaphorical Comparison of Fading Youth in “That Time of Year” William Shakespeare in “That Time of Year” metaphorically compares his fading youth with the time of year when there are a few leaves left on the tree, when the sunsets and vanishes away, and finally as a fire that has consumed all that has fed its flame. He resolves the sonnet with a lesson in the end “To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” (14) In the first quatrain, Shakespeare compares the fading of his youth to a particular time of year when there are a few leaves left on the tree. Metaphorically he is representing how life is like the seasons of a year. At birth,...
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...Seitalieva Alina, 143-1 William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 65” Shakespeare's Sonnets samples belong to the lyric poetry of the Renaissance. The poets of that time, and especially Shakespeare, very acutely aware of the contradictions of life. They saw them in the outside world and in the human soul. "Sonnets" reveal to us the dialectic of emotional experiences associated with the feeling of love, which is not only the source of the highest joys, but also cause grave suffering. The main theme of the “sonnet 65”- the fact that many things are strong, but there is nothing in this universe is forever, especially not a fleeting emotion, such as love. The general idea - the fact that many things are strong, but there is nothing in this universe is forever, especially not a fleeting emotion, such as love. Mortality governs the universe and everything in this world is perishable, so it is only through the infinite art of writing, that the emotion and beauty can be saved. If you remember the main theme of sonnet 64, it is possible to find similarities, because it is continuing the theme of ”ravages of time”. In addition, we can find words such as main, rage, love, that send us back to Sonnet 64. So, we proceed to the analysis of the poem: First quatrain: The beginning of sonnet: "brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea" can escape the ravages of time. In this line, the author used such stylistic devise as gradation: “brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea”, it is a...
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...Eternal Beauty In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”, the narrator employs an extended metaphor when comparing the addressee to a “summer’s day”. The metaphor is emphasized by the tone shift in line nine, and the comparison is finalized by a couplet that expands on the theme of immortality. The sonnet makes it clear that the individual’s beauty and vigor cannot be compared to commonplace nature and that the individual is something more than human. Sonnet 18 is part of the group of sonnets that is written to address men. In this particular one, Shakespeare compares the man’s beauty to that of nature, particularly a day in the summer. The first quatrain begins the extended metaphor by implying that the man being addressed has all the qualities of a summer’s day. This immediately associates the man with the sun and all of its qualities: he is strong, bright, and full of energy. However, by writing: “Though art more lovely and more temperate,” in line two, Shakespeare illustrates the fact that although the best thing nature has to offer, a summer’s day is far from perfect. The first shift happens in line three; the narrator stops talking about the man and begins pointing out the imperfections of summer. He employs vivid imagery to argue that summer’s beauty is hurt by “rough winds” and its “lease hath all too short a date,” (4). Shakespeare also adds that summer may sometimes be too hot, and other times its “gold complexion [is] dimm’d,” (5). This emphasizes the qualities of the man; he...
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...all literary figures. And his works were indeed created for the popular entertainment of his day with little thought to their immortality. Shakespeare did not take any steps to preserve his writings past their immediate use. (Fortunately his friends did.) With all the academic study of Shakespeare and the trappings of fine culture that have been wrapped around productions of his dramas over the centuries, we often forget what a rollicking, bawdy and entertaining spectacle his plays presented to their original audience — and still can to a modern audience, in the right hands. The timelessness of Shakespeare's themes continue to keep his plays fresh. He dramatized basic issues: love, marriage, familial relationships, gender roles, race, age, class, humor, illness, deception, betrayal, evil, revenge, murder, and death. The essential question that Shakespeare explored in his plays is, "what does it mean to be a human being?" The genius of Shakespeare is that he manged to show us ourselves in every conceivable light. It really doesn't matter when the plays were written since they are about the human condition which is timeless. Shakespeare was an incredible observer of his fellow human beings. We, as human beings, may dress differently or have more technology than people in Shakespeare's day but we are still motivated by the same desires and have the same feelings. The themes of his plays are as universal as his characters. For example, in his history plays, he explores the...
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...INSTRUCTIONS * Read the notes on sonnets. * Read the sonnets and answer the questions that follow each. * Complete the writing assignment Shakespeare’s Sonnets: The Mysteries of Love Shakespeare. The name calls to mind the great plays whose characters have come to life on stages around the world: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello. Yet had Shakespeare written no plays at all, his reputation as a poet, as the author of the Sonnets (1609), would still have been immense. There are 154 sonnets altogether; their speaker is male, and their chief subject is love. Beyond those three points, however, there is little agreement, only questions: • Is the sonnets’ speaker a dramatic character invented by Shakespeare, like Romeo, Macbeth, or Hamlet, or is he the poet himself? • If the sonnets are about the real man Shakespeare, then who are the real people behind the characters the sonnets mention? • Is the order in which the sonnets were originally published (probably without Shakespeare’s consent) the correct or the intended sequence? Could they be arranged to tell a more coherent story? Should they be so arranged? These and dozens of other questions about the sonnets have been asked and answered over and over again—but never to everybody’s satisfaction. We have hundreds of conflicting theories but no absolutely convincing answers. About the individual sonnets, though, if not the whole sequence, agreement is perfect: They are among the supreme utterances in English...
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...the subject matter as well as the poet immortality. In this paper I will demonstrate how poets reinforce my claim through their poems. Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser as well as sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare "eternal lines" (l.9) employs the theme of immortality. The poet tries to achieve immortality for his lover. In the sonnets, both personas state that their lover will be immortal" So long lives this, and this gives life to thee" (l.14). Both sonnets convey a message that even though the poet writes the sonnet the subject matter immortality is in the hands of external force; the readers/ auditors "so long as men can breath or eyes can see"(l.13). Both personas in the sonnets argue that the poet's creative ability comes amounts to writing the sonnet but unable to make the sonnet immortal. By reading the sonnet and therefore...
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...beauty are at times speechless when it comes to expressing their true feelings he has for a special girl. Also the idea to have make love with beautiful women, to create more beautiful people in this world is one is expressed in Shakespeare ‘s sonnet. This famous man had a way to do it and did it in such a way; it should be considered an art form. Shakespeare’s ability to pour out emotions and his use of word play has transcended through the years. Many of his works can still be seen in modern day media. The sonnets that I have found fascinating are Sonnets 18 and Sonnet 130. What made me want to analyze these sonnets is because many people associate Shakespeare with romance. After reading these pieces of literature one can see this in these two sonnets exemplify such qualities. A major theme in sonnet 18 that can be felt is a love, lust, and endearment. These sonnets may have similar themes where a woman is central point, he is able to contrast and contradict his own work. In Sonnet 18 Shakespeare compares a woman to a summer’s day, which is full of life and enjoyment. Although this is true, it can be said that Shakespeare is writing the poem about himself. In sonnet 130 Shakespeare changes the dynamic of how sonnets are written. Usually sonnets put women on a pedestal, but in 130 he approach is different. I believe he does this as a joke and to be different from conventional sonnets. Shakespeare ability to speak the truth and portray it eloquently has allowed people to express...
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