Response to Sonnet 87

The summarization of Sonnet 87 can be said to be as simple as “you are too good for me, and because of this, I do not deserve you.” This in coalition of the numerous examples of financial terminology can be assumed to say that wealth separates the two parties being spoken of in the sonnet. The desperate voice of the poem makes it seem like there is a pity party going on where the speaker is fishing for compliments, which contrasts from Sonnet 55 where the speaker displayed a great egotism. This poem also comes right after the “rival poet” sequence, so the competition may have hurt the speaker’s self-esteem, if they were the same speaker. This sonnet also ends most of the lines with a verbs, I am not sure if this was intentional, but if it was, it could signify that the sonnet is an active being that with many verbs in the gerund form, is ongoing presently, meaning possibly that the issues in this poem have been ongoing.

Response to Sonnet 55

This sonnet uses man made descriptors like monuments, war and masonry mixed with a reference to the Roman god Mars and a personification of “Judgement” in the biblical sense to persuade that this poem will make the subject live on longer than any other medium. The egotism presented in this poem is odd compared to the other poems that I have responded to thus far. They all were about making the subject feel wonderful, but this poem seems to say that only poetry is able to make the memory live on of the subject. This may be because Mr. W.H.’s parents finally gave up forcing him to procreate or the speaker of the sonnet was trying to say that without children to carry on his memory. It would not matter what monument is constructed because the subject will only live on in the sonnet read by lovers because Time would go over everything else like an unkempt housemaid and bury it up with dirt and grime over the years.

Response to Sonnet 30

Sonnet 2 uses the seasons as a metaphor of the process of aging. The forty winters is a time marker of the average forty years that a person during that time had to live. The word “besiege” in the first line makes the idea of aging as a negative process, and thus setting the stage for the rest of the sonnet. The words relating to war and the words relating to nature intermix throughout the sonnet. In line two, the words trenches can play a double meaning in both nature and war, even though trench warfare was not very popular, to say the least, in the Middle Ages, but looking at it now in modern way, the word “trenches” can have two placements. This sonnet also uses dialogue which is rare in Shakespeare’s sonnets. This sonnet also directly addresses the audience as thou, which I believe is odd because the sonnet before it was very indirectly addressing anybody at all.

Response to Sonnet 18

Sonnet 2 uses the seasons as a metaphor of the process of aging. The forty winters is a time marker of the average forty years that a person during that time had to live. The word “besiege” in the first line makes the idea of aging as a negative process, and thus setting the stage for the rest of the sonnet. The words relating to war and the words relating to nature intermix throughout the sonnet. In line two, the words trenches can play a double meaning in both nature and war, even though trench warfare was not very popular, to say the least, in the Middle Ages, but looking at it now in modern way, the word “trenches” can have two placements. This sonnet also uses dialogue which is rare in Shakespeare’s sonnets. This sonnet also directly addresses the audience as thou, which I believe is odd because the sonnet before it was very indirectly addressing anybody at all.

Response to Sonnet 12

Sonnet 2 uses the seasons as a metaphor of the process of aging. The forty winters is a time marker of the average forty years that a person during that time had to live. The word “besiege” in the first line makes the idea of aging as a negative process, and thus setting the stage for the rest of the sonnet. The words relating to war and the words relating to nature intermix throughout the sonnet. In line two, the words trenches can play a double meaning in both nature and war, even though trench warfare was not very popular, to say the least, in the Middle Ages, but looking at it now in modern way, the word “trenches” can have two placements. This sonnet also uses dialogue which is rare in Shakespeare’s sonnets. This sonnet also directly addresses the audience as thou, which I believe is odd because the sonnet before it was very indirectly addressing anybody at all.

Reflection of Sonnet 2

Sonnet 2 uses the seasons as a metaphor of the process of aging. The forty winters is a time marker of the average forty years that a person during that time had to live. The word “besiege” in the first line makes the idea of aging as a negative process, and thus setting the stage for the rest of the sonnet. The words relating to war and the words relating to nature intermix throughout the sonnet. In line two, the words trenches can play a double meaning in both nature and war, even though trench warfare was not very popular, to say the least, in the Middle Ages, but looking at it now in modern way, the word “trenches” can have two placements. This sonnet also uses dialogue which is rare in Shakespeare’s sonnets. This sonnet also directly addresses the audience as thou, which I believe is odd because the sonnet before it was very indirectly addressing anybody at all.

Reflection of Sonnet 1

This sonnet is quite formal, as sonnets go. It addresses the audience in a round-about way. Assuming this poem is to Mr. W.H., and was commissioned by his parents, is seems like it is trying only to plant the seeds of an idea, not try to force them. It is outright suggesting to procreate, to make beauty live on, because it is human nature to want more of what is beautiful. It threatens negative qualities of selfishness and gluttony and promotes procreation. The oxymoron in line eight can be said to make the point that in one person, there is good, but the potential for evil as well. The speaker seems to use many comparisons and metaphors to make the point understood. In the third line, however, the speaker is quite blunt reading “His tender heir might bear his memory.” This is a very direct way of persuading the audience in knowing the direction that the speaker is taking because the first lines that were more open to interpretation.