No Fear Shakespeare

I am already liking the idea of being in Shakespeare’s class with only 7 heads and 1 master! Is it a good thing? I hope. I’m literally stealing this idea of a post from Elvie. Sorry and thanks, LV. Haha. I’ve decided on Sonnet 12 for our first assignment. I’m cracking my head right now, but I think one of the underlying substance is its counter-reflection to the themes of death (of beauty) and immortality (of beauty) in the famous and highly anthologized Sonnet 18: Physical death and dying as opposed to immortalized beauty through the lines of literature. And “sweets and beauties” don’t last forever. But then again, I’m talkin’ crap.

Sonnet 12

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
. . . And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence
. . . Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

My personal summary of Sonnet 12 plus 18:
Time grows you old and ugly until eventually you’re dead, but not when I forever preserve you in a friggin’ sonnet, or you can just immortalize yourself by having babies.