Sequencing the Sonnets
Gary Kosinsky
in the sonnets, if there is one, seems to be presented in a
series of scenarios from a relationship.
Here is a tentative listing of the sonnets read so
far and how they I think they should be grouped:
Get married, young man: 1 - 17.
You are so beautiful: 18 - 22.
I am unworthy: 23; 25 - 26; 32; 36 - 37;
Can't stop thinkin' 'bout you: 27 - 30.
You done me wrong: 33 - 35.
You're my soul and inspiration: 38.
? - 24; 31.
- Gary Kosinsky
Roundtable
So, why is "You're my soul and inspiration" AFTER "you
done me wrong"? Wouldn't that be second before "You are so
beautiful" or just after it?
After being disillusioned by someone, one doesn't, as a rule,
go on gushing about how "inspirational" they are, it's more
like "don't come around here no more".
But of course sonnet 35 is forgiving: "No more be grieved
at that which thou hast done - roses have thorns, and silver
fountains mud".
But the sonnets were not meant for one single person, were they?
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Roundtable
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Gary Kosinsky
<lancelo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>So, why is "You're my soul and inspiration" AFTER "you
>done me wrong"? Wouldn't that be second before "You are so
>beautiful" or just after it?
>
>After being disillusioned by someone, one doesn't, as a rule,
>go on gushing about how "inspirational" they are, it's more
>like "don't come around here no more".
>
>But of course sonnet 35 is forgiving: "No more be grieved
>at that which thou hast done - roses have thorns, and silver
>fountains mud".
Assuming the poems are in a chronologically correct
order, that would seem to be the most likely explanation.
The speaker has completely forgiven the addressee for
whatever it was that wronged the speaker, and he is back to
his wide-eyed enthusiasm about the addressee.
But to assume that the poems are in order is a big
assumption, and it's one to keep an eye on as we move
forward.
>But the sonnets were not meant for one single person, were they?
I'm assuming that the first 38, at least, were.
Aren't you?
>PS: It's finally snowing in Luzern and I'm feeling like a kid!
It's continuing to rain in Vancouver, and I'm
feeling wet!
- Gary Kosinsky
BCD
> On 24 Jan 2005 13:36:51 -0800, "Roundtable"
> <lancelo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >So, why is "You're my soul and inspiration" AFTER "you
> >done me wrong"? Wouldn't that be second before "You are so
> >beautiful" or just after it?
> >
> >After being disillusioned by someone, one doesn't, as a rule,
> >go on gushing about how "inspirational" they are, it's more
> >like "don't come around here no more".
> >
> >But of course sonnet 35 is forgiving: "No more be grieved
> >at that which thou hast done - roses have thorns, and silver
> >fountains mud".
>
> Assuming the poems are in a chronologically correct
> order, that would seem to be the most likely explanation.
> The speaker has completely forgiven the addressee for
> whatever it was that wronged the speaker, and he is back to
> his wide-eyed enthusiasm about the addressee.
***Put onto the trail by Montaigne's essay on friendship, I'm
seeing--and perhaps it's a mirage--an additional dynamic running here.
Let's construct a scenario. Let's say that our impressionable poet Mr.
W. Shakespeare, in perusing Montaigne, was on a very deep level much
taken with Montaigne's "romantic friendship" relationship with La
Boetie. "Sigh," thinks Will, "what a wonderful thing that must have
been! Could such a profound friendship ever happen to me? Sigh..."
Months, years, maybe only minutes, pass, and the relationship we see
unfolding in the Sonnets begins to, um, unfold. Now, read them with an
eye towards the situation that the poet is--after the "have kids"
set--trying perhaps unconsciously to inhabit this concept of the
relationship between Montaigne and La Boetie, idealizing and forming
his feelings and perceptions of his own relationship to accord with
those he extrapolated from Montaigne's essay. Things are ducky at
first; but then there are bumps in the road. I see underlying the
poems a struggle between the emotional poet trying willy-nilly to make
his relationship conform with the Montaigne model and his own good
sense seeing reality and telling him to wake up and smell the skunk.
The happiness which the poet expresses feels increasingly artificial to
me--our poet is becoming Hoffmann over the course of the Sonnets,
finally taking refuge in a loving muse rather than in a cruel and
perhaps bizarre reality. OK, I am not prepared to demonstrate this
yet; these remarks are more in the way of mentioning "a work in
progress" (and not very much progress at that) . . .
Best Wishes,
--BCD
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