Sonnet #147

Last Sonnet! :) Okay, I actually liked doing these sonnets. But I am just a loser with no life so that's fine. I won't count those words in my 100. In this sonnet I think the speaker is expressing that the person they're writing about has been sickened and betrayed by love. In the couplet it's saying that they thought the person to be beautiful, but actually they are "black as hell, as dark as night." So they loved and were left because they were following instructions, and ended up seeing the reality in who they thought they were in love with. Love is also described as a fever that prolongs the disease known as love. Reasoning was the doctor, but it was discovered that the desire for love can kill. I think the speaker is also saying that this sickness has made the person restless, incapable of being cured, and uncaring. I found this last sonnet to be very depressing, and the complete opposite from the beginning sonnets where the goodness of love was a main theme.

Sonnet #146

This sonnet is extremely interesting as well. I think the speaker is questioning why we spend so much time concerned with our outer appearance, and not what makes up our insides, or soul. We spend our whole lives trying to look good, when we're only alive for a short time. But our souls still live on, so we must feed them. The speaker is saying to let the soul consume the riches, and leave the body poor because we will soon enough be leaving the body to rot. The couplet is saying that a person should feed on death with feeds on men, so if we beat death then there will be no more dying. I think the speaker is saying that this can be achieved by standing by inner morals and not allowing oneself to be consumed by outward appearances.

Sonnet #138

I found this sonnet to be strange. The relationship the speaker talks about between the man and the woman is questionable. It seems that it's dishonest all around, but the man seems to disregard all the woman's lies, according to the speaker. The man comes off as a foolish person, and the woman kind of a liar. As pointed out in the lesson today, there's a double meaning to the word "lies," which evokes the meaning of the woman sleeping around. Yet, the man still carries on a relationship with her, although it may just be a casual thing. The second last line in the last quatrain are intiguing because they're saying that "love's best face is in the idea of trust." But how can you maintain any type of trust in a relationship when you're aware of the other party's lies and deceit?

Sonnet #130

I think sonnet 130 definitely marked the beginning of a shift in the sonnets we're going over as a class. Throughout the prior ones, the theme was love and bearing children to keep beauty alive. This one is about a woman, and she's not put in a beautified light like most writers of the time would do. In fact, it appears to be mocking. The speaker is trying to make the woman seem normal instead of goddess-like. For example, in quatrain two the speaker is saying the woman doesn't have a rosy red to her cheeks, and in the words of Olivia Gosdeck, "he's implying that she has halitosis!" So he's insulting the smell of her breath. But as a thought, where did this woman randomly come from? Or does this sonnet just bring women into a real light instead of one adorned with the thoughts and glamourization goddesses?

Sonnet #116

Sonnet number 116 is my personal favorite thus far. The speaker is saying in the first two lines that they don't want to acknowledge any reason as to why two people who truly love each other shouldn't be together. Because love doesn't falter; it doesn't change by the hour. If it's true, than it's stable and everlasting. The speaker also personifies Time again. They say love is not dependent on Time, but Time has the power to diminish youth and good looks. In the couplet I think the speaker is saying that if they're wrong then "they have never wrote, and no man has ever loved." This is saying that they think it would be absurd and turn the tables if their predictions regarding love turned out false. It seems like the sonnet is written in clarification of what the speaker thinks of love, but fears that this may be proven wrong. They are not unsure of themselves though as this was written.

Sonnet #73

I found this sonnet to be particularly sad since we went over it in class with Sara and Emma. The couplet is what intrigued me specifically. "This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love grow more strong, to love that well which thou must leave ere long." The speaker is saying that all these things make love stronger, and you love even more what you'll lose eventually. I think those lines are so true. Our lives are all extinguished at one point or another. Knowing this should make us appreciate the things we have, and the things we love even more. In lines 9-12 the speaker is using fire as a symbol of life, and ashes as death. And even though the speaker's describing a person as old and dying, there's still the fire of youth visible inside. This sonnet is so meaningful in that aspect that the fire of youth is never truly gone until a person literally is.

Sonnet #55

The speaker is telling about how a person will live on through this poem that they are being written about. It says that the the person being written about lives on past princes, stones that crumble with time (lines three and four), wars, and fires. Nothing can destroy this person as long as the poem keeps them alive. Despite death, they will live on through words. It says this when the speaker rights, "The living record of your memory. 'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity." The speaker is saying in the couplet that the person will live on in poetry and through the lovers who read this. I think the words "monuments" and "contents" in lines one and three are examples of sight rhyme.

Sonnet #30

Sonnet number thirty appears to be a reflection on past regrets, mistakes, or losses. It's really a depressing sonnet until the very end. The speaker says "then can I drown an eye (unused to flow) for precious friends hid in death's dateless nights." This means the speaker is lamenting (or crying, which they don't usually do) over dead friends, but at the end it says "but if the while I think on thee (dear friend) all losses are restored, and sorrows end." This is saying that when the speaker thinks of this one specific person all his past troubles disappear. So I think the speaker is saying in times of desperation when they're wallowing in past misery and things that were long lost or let go, they turn to this person to make things feel right again.

Sonnet #12

The speaker is discussing the effects of Time, which is personified throughout the sonnet. Some examples used of passing time are violets wilting, black hair turning white, and summer's crops being cut down when the seasons change. These are all entwined with the last portion which states it's true that beauty cannot stay because Time will take control of it. There is no way to fend off "Time's scythe," which is a reference to death or the grim reaper, except to have children. This way their beauty can live on even as their parents are taken by Time. As discussed in class, the sonnet is also written to it sounds almost like a "tick-tock" as it's being read. This of course, would be symbolic of Time, which the sonnet is written about the effects of it.

Sonnet #2

In this sonnet, the speaker is saying that a person's beauty, or good looks, won't last forever. Eventually they will grow old and their looks will be hidden beneath their old age. But, if they procreate then their looks can live on through their beautiful children. The speaker can use the child as an excuse for their absence of beauty. They could say that they spent all their time raising the child which wore away at their looks, but in all fairness the child will be beautiful, therefore it's okay. This sonnet is a succession of the previous one, almost like a story being told. The speaker keeps urging the person being written about to have children because they are good looking. It's a wonder who exactly is being written about.

Sonnet #87

I think the sonnet is saying that the speaker is stating that the girl is too good for him and it's justifiable for her to leave him because he's supposedly not worthy. He has an extremely low self-esteem. The last line states "In sleep a king, but waking no such matter." This is symbolic that love gave the speaker a sense that he was in a dream, but when their love left them, they awoke from the dream to face reality. The speaker also questions how they ever deserved the love they thought they had. The person being written about is compared to riches, which is what the speaker sees them as. Because in reality the speaker isn't a king, he doesn't deserve the riches that were once his.

Sonnet #1

Sonnet number one seemed to be about the author encouraging a man to create offspring because he is good looking, so he should reproduce attractive children as well. This should occur whether he has a spouse or not. The first two lines are saying that attractive creatures, or beings, should procreate so thereby beauty's rose might never die, or their looks will never cease to exist because they'll be carried on through their offspring. Where it says "Feed'st they light's flame with self-substantial fuel," I think it's being said that a person can keep themselves alive through the life of another when they're gone. For example, a child is often a reflection of his or her parents in numerous aspects of their lives.

My First AP Blog

OHHHHH this is so exciting. Today Sarah Rung said I look like a hippie. Cool.