Week 2 Shakespeare ENGL210
The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
Ok, I'm about to exaggerate but I don't care...
I had my hand up for hours in that lecture wanting to say something on this poem and I didn't get the chance. Exaggeration over.
It's a good poem that created a lot of discussion so I'm not that cut about not getting to speak. The things people said added a great deal to my understanding of the poem, so thank you. I'd also like to thank Live Journal because with it's help I plan on speaking my piece anyway!
Stanza 3
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
Here is what I noticed. The only season not mentioned is summer. I'm aware I'm stretching things a little here, but stay with me. This stanza to me is a kind of an exposition of the seasons of love. Winter is the fading or dying flowers (flowers=love?). 'Fancy' Spring is synonymous with new birth and therefor perhaps new love (perhaps immature or untested). Autumn is the season of sorrow, the beginning of the end of love, one step away from winter and the end of love (a time of fading colours and falling leaves). Every season is mentioned except summer. Is it stretching it too far to say that this is because summer is the warmth and vitality of love. Love in it's maturity is found in the summer? Therefor if summer is the season of mature love it has no place in this poem.
I know it's a stretch and I'm aware that calling autumn 'fall' is terribly american but give me a break, I think it's still a good point. this is a poem saying that love (of the romantic sort) is temporary and by excluding a mention of summer the point I think is strengthen. Love based on roses, pretty lambs, gowns and frolicking in the fields does not last, It cannot! love is a choice!
If you 'fall' in and out of love every week you are just getting ready for "sorrow's fall".
I think that's part of what this poem is getting at.
There it is, I got my say, the internet serves me again. question is, do my words serve anyone else or have I stretched things too far?
Thanks for reading
John M.
This weeks comment can be found here: http://alexandrabr.livejournal.com/13312.html?view=6144#t6144
It's just a quick one on alexandra's journal.
P.S. Once again I know autumn as 'fall' is american and would not have been an accurate idea at the time the poem was written. How about we give me a break and say I'm 'contextualizing' the poem to our modern day language?
Ok, I'm about to exaggerate but I don't care...
I had my hand up for hours in that lecture wanting to say something on this poem and I didn't get the chance. Exaggeration over.
It's a good poem that created a lot of discussion so I'm not that cut about not getting to speak. The things people said added a great deal to my understanding of the poem, so thank you. I'd also like to thank Live Journal because with it's help I plan on speaking my piece anyway!
Stanza 3
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
Here is what I noticed. The only season not mentioned is summer. I'm aware I'm stretching things a little here, but stay with me. This stanza to me is a kind of an exposition of the seasons of love. Winter is the fading or dying flowers (flowers=love?). 'Fancy' Spring is synonymous with new birth and therefor perhaps new love (perhaps immature or untested). Autumn is the season of sorrow, the beginning of the end of love, one step away from winter and the end of love (a time of fading colours and falling leaves). Every season is mentioned except summer. Is it stretching it too far to say that this is because summer is the warmth and vitality of love. Love in it's maturity is found in the summer? Therefor if summer is the season of mature love it has no place in this poem.
I know it's a stretch and I'm aware that calling autumn 'fall' is terribly american but give me a break, I think it's still a good point. this is a poem saying that love (of the romantic sort) is temporary and by excluding a mention of summer the point I think is strengthen. Love based on roses, pretty lambs, gowns and frolicking in the fields does not last, It cannot! love is a choice!
If you 'fall' in and out of love every week you are just getting ready for "sorrow's fall".
I think that's part of what this poem is getting at.
There it is, I got my say, the internet serves me again. question is, do my words serve anyone else or have I stretched things too far?
Thanks for reading
John M.
This weeks comment can be found here: http://alexandrabr.livejournal.com/13312.html?view=6144#t6144
It's just a quick one on alexandra's journal.
P.S. Once again I know autumn as 'fall' is american and would not have been an accurate idea at the time the poem was written. How about we give me a break and say I'm 'contextualizing' the poem to our modern day language?