{"id":8042,"date":"2016-04-22T07:30:53","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T14:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/?p=8042"},"modified":"2016-03-30T08:57:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T15:57:23","slug":"celebrating-shakespeare-perspectives-on-sonnet-55-by-chelsea-bruen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/celebrating-shakespeare-perspectives-on-sonnet-55-by-chelsea-bruen\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Shakespeare: Perspectives on Sonnet 55 By Chelsea Bruen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-7999\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare.jpg\" alt=\"BIGCALLOUT_Shakespeare\" width=\"461\" height=\"215\" \/><\/a><em>In honor of William Shakespeare we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23, 2016. What better way to do this, than by highlighting the writing done by first-year students in Associate Professor of English John Wesley\u2019s first-year seminar, A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare? This first-year seminar in scholarly inquiry studies four remarkable plays Shakespeare wrote or saw into production in 1599, the same year he opened the Globe Theatre. In the first half of the course, students were introduced to the myriad ways in which Shakespeare\u2019s 1599 plays are shaped by and give shape to the political and cultural intrigues of that year. In the second half of the course, students turned to a play (and year) of their own choosing, the historicist analysis of which is the basis of an independent research project. As part of this project, students were asked to prepare a blog post that reflected on aspects of Shakespeare&#8217;s life, a specific work, or a resource or organization associated with Shakespeare, or to provide a personal interpretation of a play. During the month of April, we\u2019ll feature the posts from students that celebrate all things Shakespeare!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to our wonderful first-year writers. For additional online resources about Shakespeare, check out these sites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>British Library: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/\">http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Folger Shakespeare Library: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.folger.edu\/\">http:\/\/www.folger.edu\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Globe Theatre: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shakespearesglobe.com\">http:\/\/www.shakespearesglobe.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Internet Shakespeare Editions: <a href=\"http:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca\">http:\/\/internetshakespeare.uvic.ca<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Shakespeare 400:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shakespeare400.org\/\">http:\/\/www.shakespeare400.org\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Perspectives on Sonnet 55<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><em>By Chelsea Bruen<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Not marble nor the gilded monuments<br \/>\nOf princes shall outlive this pow\u2019rful rhyme,<br \/>\nBut you shall shine more bright in these contents<br \/>\nThan unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.<br \/>\nWhen wasteful war shall statues overturn,<br \/>\nAnd broils root out the work of masonry,<br \/>\nNor Mars his sword nor war\u2019s quick fire shall burn<br \/>\nThe living record of your memory.<br \/>\n\u2018Gainst death and all oblivious enmity<br \/>\nShall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room<br \/>\nEven in the eyes of all posterity<br \/>\nThat wear this world out to the ending doom.<br \/>\nSo, till the judgment that yourself arise,<br \/>\nYou live in this, and dwell in lovers\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n<p>-William Shakespeare<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSonnet 55,\u201d by William Shakespeare, is hard to pin down. Some say it\u2019s a love sonnet, because what sonnet wouldn\u2019t be about love? Some look a little closer and think it\u2019s about time. Some, such as myself, try to connect it to history.<\/p>\n<p>Philip McGuire looked a little closer and found the theme of time. In McGuire\u2019s article \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Non-Shakespearean Sonnets\u201d he speaks to the poem&#8217;s theme of time, referencing the unusual rhyme pattern as a way that this poem, \u201cwill endure, keeping his beloved alive, until, with final judgement, time itself ceases to be\u201d (McGuire 312). \u00a0I don\u2019t disagree that Shakespeare deviates from the typical sonnet rhyme pattern, but I think the theme of time runs a bit deeper than rhyme. Overall, I see a questioning of when time will run out and what will remain. Taking phrases such as \u201coutlive\u201d, \u201csluttish time\u201d, and \u201cliving record\u201d together provide an overall experience of moving through time till eventually it runs out (on judgement day), leaving behind only the record (this sonnet) of what occurred.<\/p>\n<p>Helen Vendler also sees the deeper meaning of time. In <em>The Art of Shakespeare\u2019s Sonnets<\/em>, Vendler describes the frequent use of the word \u201clive\u201d in sonnet 55, and uses it to draw out a central question from the poem, \u201cDoes the person [<em>you<\/em>] remain alive in the contents, or does only a record [<em>of your memory<\/em>] remain?\u201d (Vendler 268). Vendler\u2019s idea that Shakespeare is questioning which side is the truth is very intriguing; are we alive without a record or only remembered within it? I\u2019m not sure the poem gives an answer to the question she raises, perhaps Shakespeare was struggling with it himself.<\/p>\n<p>The theme of time is in the poem, and it doesn\u2019t include romance. Time is about record and memory and history, not infatuation. Time is something these authors and I agree on, but we do not agree on who Shakespeare is writing about. Vendler and McGuire interpret this person to be a young man, I think it is quite the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>I believe this sonnet is about Queen Elizabeth I. Throughout the poem there are subtle hints that the person he speaks of is someone of great importance, saying that \u201cNot marble nor the gilded monuments \/ Of princes shall outlive this pow\u2019rful rhyme\u201d (1-2). It can be taken that he means great statues \/ monuments of royalty will not outlive this rhyme, and also not outlive the memory of who he speaks of, meaning that they are important enough to not be easily forgotten. Elizabeth was a very important person in Shakespeare\u2019s time, you know being Queen and all, but that is not solid evidence that this is about her. These lines are better evidence, \u201cNor Mars his sword nor war\u2019s quick fire shall burn \/ The living record of your memory. \/ \u2018Gainst death and all oblivious enmity\u201d (7-9). Mary, Queen of Scots, was associated with Mars god of war (you can see her next to Mars in the painting below). Mary was rumored to be succeeding Elizabeth, and also may have been plotting against Elizabeth. That information fits very well into the lines. I read them to say: Mary can\u2019t destroy your (Elizabeth\u2019s) memory, nor can war, you will live on past this hostility. Bringing it back to the first two lines, Shakespeare may be saying here that Elizabeth\u2019s memory will live on, or Elizabeth herself will.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8044\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_PerspectivesSonnet55.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8044\" class=\" wp-image-8044\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/files\/2016\/03\/Shakespeare_PerspectivesSonnet55.jpg\" alt=\"Figure 1. Family of Henry VIII, an Allegory of the Tudor Succession (Wikimedia).\" width=\"365\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 1. Family of Henry VIII, an Allegory of the Tudor Succession (Wikimedia).<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Elizabeth did live on, well beyond the life expectancy of the times, bringing it back to the theme of time. I think this sonnet is questioning when Elizabeth\u2019s time will run out, and how she will be remembered through history.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, we will never know exactly what this sonnet meant from Shakespeare\u2019s perspective. Looking at the historical references I found in the sonnet anyone could make a case that it\u2019s about Elizabeth, but there are other valid arguments, except love. I see many things in this sonnet, but romance is not one of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>McGuire, Philip C. \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Non-Shakespearean Sonnets.\u201d <em>Shakespeare Quarterly<\/em> 38.3 (1987): 304-319. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro, James. <em>A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare<\/em>. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005. Print.<\/p>\n<p>Vendler, Helen. <em>The Art of Shakespeare\u2019s Sonnets<\/em>. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. Print.<\/p>\n<p>Wagner, John A. and Susan Walter Schmid. \u201cMary, Queen of Scots.\u201d <em>Encyclopedia of Tudor England<\/em>. 2011. Web.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamily of Henry VIII, an Allegory of the Tudor Succession.\u201d <em>Wikimedia Commons<\/em>. Wikimedia, 15 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of William Shakespeare we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23, 2016. What better way to do this, than by highlighting the writing done by first-year students in Associate Professor of English John Wesley\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/celebrating-shakespeare-perspectives-on-sonnet-55-by-chelsea-bruen\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[104,105],"class_list":["post-8042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrating-shakespeare","tag-celebrating-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8042"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8143,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions\/8143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/collinsunbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}