Sonnets 13-17

262.

we are back to sonnets today! yes, we are still on the same theme: you are so beautiful, you must have babies so your beauty can live on. today, however, i was able to appreciate these poems in a way i wasn't able to with the previous sets. perhaps the change came from the fact that i have different expectations. i kind of know what to expect now. whatever the case, i enjoyed them a lot more this time. that being said, i am pleased that, according to the introduction in my book, we will be transitioning out of this theme with the next set of poems. wahoo. let me give a quick overview before we continue.


13- prepare against the death of your beauty. who would let 'so fair a house' fall to ruin without preparing for it?
14- i dont derive my knowledge from the stars, but from your eyes. and from your eyes i know that truth and beauty will live forever if you pass them on to a child.
15- life is so short. as time and decay take you away, i make you new by writing about you.
16- but why dont you renew yourself in a way that is stronger than my little poem? you must have a child to live.
17- who will believe my poems? no one will. but if you have children, the evidence of your beauty will live in them and in my writing.


i loved sonnet 17. for me, it made everything so much more clear. it also felt like it was driven from a place of love and respect, whereas some of the others just feel really creepy to me. check this one out. it's lovely.

this theme feels like a very strange one. i realize that that is probably because in our time it's not common. sure, we talk about children all the time, but not quite like this. how many times have you read or seen something where the main theme was a man urging another man to get married and have children so that his beauty will live forever? for me, the answer is never. but was this a little more common then? how was this perceived?

quote of the day:
'then the conceit of this inconstant stay
sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
where wasteful Time debateth with Decay
to change your day of youth to sullied night;
and, all in war with Time for love of you,
as he takes from you i engraft you new.'
-sonnet 15

for tomorrow: intro info for 2 Gentlemen of Verona!

7 plays, 4 poems, 17 sonnets down. 31 plays, 1 poem, 137 sonnets to go! it's almost time to kick things into summer mode, which is to say, reading a lot more! ah!

-Rebecca may