M8 Discussion Activity, The Sonnet
Graded Discussion
Introduction
By now you should have listened to and taken notes on the two slideshow presentations on reading sonnets. If not, please do so before you continue with this discussion activity.
Instructions
Offer insight into the sonnet assigned to you by the first letter of your last name:
N-Z “Death be not proud”
After the sonnet, you will find a helpful list of things to look for as you offer your interpretation. Your contributions to the discussion can be at the “macro” level (stating in a sentence or two the overall meaning of the sonnet: see #1 below) or at the “micro” level (commenting on specific lines, words, or images in the poem: see #2 below). And, as always, feel free to engage other students’ perceptions.
When in disgrace with Fortune* and men’s eyes, *fate or destiny (does NOT mean wealth)
I all alone beweep* my outcast state, *cry about
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless* cries, *futile
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply* I think on thee, and then my state, *Fortunately
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d* town to another due, *besieged
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy* in me, me should defend, *commander
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,* *gladly
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures* be, *images
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better then thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
1. Read the sonnet carefully and slowly a few times until you feel confident reading it aloud, with some sense of its rhythm and grammar. Write in a sentence or two what you think the general idea or message of the sonnet is.
2. Look for formal, grammatical, and symbolic features that support and develop your main statement of the poem’s meaning.
how does the form (rhyme scheme: English or Italian) help organize the message of the poem? Remember the “turn” is very significant: where is it in this poem and why does it matter?
do any cluster of rhyming end words bear meaning for your hypothesis?
can you find any dominant symbols, similes, or metaphors that help reveal the writer’s attitude toward the subject? Any conceits?
listen, especially as you read aloud, for any significant pattern of sounds: do any patterns of alliteration (repeated initial consonant) or assonance (repeated vowel sounds) help create or reinforce meaning?
are there any strong breaks or stops in the meter that convey the writer’s state of mind or something of significance about the subject? (normally we expect a line to pause at its end, certainly at the end of a section like a quatrain–do you see any unexpected breaks or shifts?)
diction: do you see any unusual word choices that matter? (use a good dictionary, hopefully the Oxford English Dictionary, to get the meaning)
grammar: do certain parts of speech, such as repeated verbs or adjectives, dominate a section or verse sentence? why might the writer have chosen these?
3. Don’t be surprised to find that as you work with the specific elements (listed under #2 above) that your understanding of the general meaning of the sonnet (#1) might change.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|