Teacher to Teacher: Which of Shakespeare's Sonnets Do You Teach to Your Students?
Author(s): Chris Bower, Walter H. Johnson, Lewis Cobbs, Jessica K. S. Wang, Deborah L.
Beezley and Patricia M. Gantt
Source: The English Journal , Sep., 2002, Vol. 92, No. 1, Shakespeare for a New Age
(Sep., 2002), pp. 18-21
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
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Teacher to Teacher
Which of Shakespeare's Sonnets Do You
Teach to Your Students?
Chris Bower alize that the courtly tradition lives even today. We
Montoursville Area High School still worship first at the shrine of beauty. We still base
Montoursville, Pennsylvania
our seductions on the same carpe diem themes. We
[email protected] 2.pa.us
still grow old and wish for love to last. We still
I teach all of Shakespeare's sonnets. That is, I teach promise the world and all that is in it to our lovers.
the ones my students choose to explain to their We still celebrate the differences between physical
classmates. Several years ago I started making my passion and platonic love. We still have regrets.
students more and more responsible for their own If my students do not choose my favorites, I
learning. The sonnet sequence made this an easy insert myself into their order and teach. I would not
job. I make several collections of the sonnets avail- miss "The expense of spirit in a waste of shame is
able within the classroom and tell them to find the lust in action" (Sonnet 129). William Shakespeare is
Web sites themselves, which they are very adept at a great teacher, and he does not fail to teach the
doing. Their assignment then is to choose one of the problems of love and lust, as well as the beauty.
sonnets and explicate it, as I have already modeled
Walter H. Johnson
with Wyatt, Spenser, and Sidney. Essentially, they
Cumberland County College
are to explain their sonnet's thesis and the literary
Vineland, New Jersey
vehicles Shakespeare uses to make his point.
[email protected] This has been an awakening experience for
both my students and me. Our AP class has already My college builds its second semester composition
dealt with the difficulties of Oedipus and the fa- course around the literary genres, and when writing
bliaux of Chaucer's pilgrims. The students have responses to literature, especially poetry, our stu-
seen the connubial and romantic aspects of love in dents generally need a good deal of help. For this
these works, in the sonnets of those already men- reason I choose sonnets as the verse forms they can
tioned, and in many of the other works leading up respond to with most confidence. The very struc-
to Shakespeare. ture of the sonnet gives them something to grasp,
I have found no better way to define the son- so I explain and illustrate the two forms: Petrarchan
net convention and connect it to the courtly tradi- and Shakespearean. With the latter I have two key
tion than by letting the master show us how. After sonnets to clarify my purpose.
the students have chosen, I arrange their presenta- Even if the textbook doesn't include it, I
tions in Shakespeare's numerical order. Although we begin with Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, "My mistress'
cannot trace the "perfect" development of a loving eyes are nothing like the sun; .. ." Here is as down-
relationship, it is fun to watch the students realize to-earth a sonnet as they are likely to encounter, so
the message that can be found in all of these sonnets. the meaning becomes immediately clear. I then re-
In the five years I have been doing this, I have found view the rhyme scheme, stress the fact that three
that it doesn't matter which ones are chosen. We can quatrains emerge (so that they can "tackle" sonnets
still see a developing love and a changing focus of with more difficult content by separating them into
love. Another benefit is that most of my students re- these smaller segments), and then show how the
m sePTemBer 2002
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final couplet concludes the poem by tying together
and pointing the previous twelve lines in a unified
direction. I compare this to the Petrarchan format,
wherein the division comes after the octave, and the
sestet is devoted to what the poet concludes or
whatever examples the poet wants to provide.
Next comes Shakespeare's Sonnet 29: "'When
in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,.. ." Note-
worthy about this poem's structure is that the divi-
sion of thought, like Petrarch's, comes after the
eighth line. This puts my students on guard for other
sonnets that might combine both approaches. But
this sonnet's content has all the lofty ideas and Eliz-
abethan wording that tend to "turn off" or confuse
the untutored mind; therefore, the fact that it can be
approached in small segments shows timid students
that the sonnet just might be the vehicle to choose
when on their own to write a critical analysis.
Lewis Cobbs
Randolph School
Huntsville, Alabama
[email protected]
Both accessible and complex, Sonnet 29 ("When
in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, .. .") opens
J. C. Hook, Othello's Description of Desdemona, c. 1852. From
Shakespeare's art-and, more broadly, the craft of the exhibition, As Imagination Bodies Forth: Paintings from the
poetry-to inexperienced and sophisticated read- Folger Shakespeare Library.
ers alike.
With a first reading aimed at identifying sonification of "fortune" reflects the speaker's hy-
speaker, audience, and situation, the poem readily persensitive self-consciousness; the double meaning
yields to paraphrase: Though he lacks luck, looks, of "fortune" (which students can establish by locat-
and lucre, the speaker possesses the knowledge of ing other words in the poem having to do with fate
a beloved one's affection, and the memory of love and money, respectively) sets up terms central to the
transforms the speaker's view of himself. speaker's feeling of inadequacy. The synecdoche
A closer scrutiny can then focus on subtleties "men's eyes" not only intensifies the speaker's para-
of content and form. As students consider the poem noid mental and emotional state, but also introduces
line by line, they discover that its richness lies in its a concern for physical appearance and a pattern of
representation of a multileveled human conscious- visual imagery developed through the remainder of
ness. The sonnet's diction and figurative language the sonnet. In addition, the pun on plural "eyes" and
create a plausible mind-a voice capable not only singular "I" (line 2) distinguishes the alienated ego
of self-pity, but of awareness of its own self-pity. The from all others (apart and judging) as it isolates the
speaker judges himself in relation to others, then agency for expression of self-pity ("beweep").
judges his judgment of himself ("in these thoughts Consideration of the sonnet's characteristic
myself almost despising"). two-part structure will reveal that each idea and fig-
Systematic attention to structure, imagery, ure of the octave is paralleled and transformed in
and wordplay illuminates the nature and power of the sestet. For example, as the speaker revises his
poetic language-the technical resources that writ- sense of his own luck, "in disgrace with fortune" be-
ers tap and the means by which artistic management comes "haply" (line 10). Similarly, "trouble deaf
of those devices generates what we call "meaning" heaven with my bootless cries" (line 3) becomes
in literature. In line 1 alone, for instance, the per- "sings hymns at heaven's gate" (line 12).
EN1GLISH journaL
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Sonnet 29 also rewards attentive listening; describing unrealistic beauty. He exaggerates to
attuned students can hear how music mimics mean- make a point.
ing in great poems. Asked to chart sounds when they Then I tried something new on the spot. My
hear lines read aloud, students will recognize that students brainstormed realistic characteristics of
in lines 11-12, for instance, Shakespeare makes a beautiful people-women and men. They began
melody appropriate to the inner harmony the with crooked smiles and flat noses, but soon found
speaker now feels in place of the dissonance ex- themselves talking about intelligence, friendliness,
pressed in lines 3-4. To imitate the idea of concord, and a sense of humor. For homework, I asked them
Shakespeare creates an overarching assonance in to write a more realistic Sonnet 130. I now incor-
line 11: the long i's of "like" and "arising," the short porate this assignment every time I teach the son-
a's (and consonant r's) of "lark" and "arising," the net in order to reinforce my instruction on sonnet
long a's of "break" and "day." Phonetic intensives- form, to encourage a closer reading of Shakespeare's
the soothing nasals and sibilants that dominate line words, and to connect Elizabethan concerns to
12-deepen the reader's physical experience of res- those of the twenty-first century.
olution as the poem reaches its culmination.
Deborah L. Beezley
Jessica K. S. Wang Lindbergh High School
Samford University St. Louis, Missouri
[email protected]
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun .. ." The
"This is Shakespeare?" startling opening line of William Shakespeare's Son-
Jonathan, a very fidgety, usually uninterested net 130 always piques the interest of my students.
ninth-grader, smiled and squinted up at me through The sonnet goes on to present an unvarnished por-
his glasses. We had spent the previous two days wad- trait of the poet's love, a woman whose hair of "black
ing through a number of Shakespeare's sonnets, and wires" and "breath ... that ... reeks" contrast sharply
we were capping the experience with Sonnet 130, with the idealized standards of beauty touted by
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;..." Shakespeare's contemporary sonneteers. I have often
The rest of the class shared in Jonathan's de- used this sonnet before teaching The Tragedy of
light. They relished the unexpected imagery- Romeo and Juliet to introduce students to Shake-
reeking breath, black wires growing on her head. spearean language and syntax. Since the sonnet is
They were relieved finally to understand a sonnet simpler than many of Shakespeare's other sonnets,
with minimal explanation on my part. And they ap- working with this poem builds students' confidence
preciated the sonnet's challenge of conventional in tackling Shakespearean language. In addition,
ideas about beauty. Male and female students alike students find the sonnet's declaration of love and
spoke out against societal pressures and unrealistic implied criticism of society's false standards of
expectations. The discussion took us everywhere beauty relevant to their own lives.
from fashion magazines to music videos. I begin by telling students that they are going
Then someone asked why Shakespeare to read a poem describing Shakespeare's "girl-
chose to protest such ideals with such a repulsive friend." Working in small groups armed with dic-
image. Why not counter the ideals with descriptions tionaries, students read the sonnet multiple times
of an average-looking woman-why not praise real and then sketch a detailed picture of Shakespeare's
beauty, instead of implying that it doesn't exist? mistress as they go line by line through the poem,
Other students nodded in agreement. I got an idea. discussing language, sentence structure, and mean-
First, I wrapped up my lesson plans by sug- ing. Students are to be as accurate and thorough as
gesting that the sonnet was not only a backlash possible in creating their pictures, forcing a close
against such ideals, but also a backlash against reading and discussion of the text within the groups.
sappy, unimaginative love poems of Shakespeare's Next, we compare the groups' drawings. Stu-
contemporaries. His sonnet is as different as possi- dents defend the accuracy of their pictures by con-
ble from theirs; his method of describing unrealis- tinually referring to the text. We also analyze the
tic repulsiveness highlights their method of process of creating the drawings. I ask the students
s ePTeMlBer 2002
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to describe what was difficult about working with ate relevance when presented as an exploration of
Shakespeare's language and what patterns they no- endings. Taught this way, Sonnet 73 has a profound
ticed in language and sonnet structure. This is an effect on seniors because they live in a world of
excellent time to give students guidance about deal- "lasts." Throughout the senior year, they observe a
ing with Shakespeare's sometimes confusing lan- constant litany of them: last homecoming, last bas-
guage and syntax. ketball game, last class play, last prom. Like the
The use of Sonnet 130 as an introduction to speaker in Shakespeare's sonnet, they stand in a lim-
Shakespeare helps students realize that Shake- inal place between joys that are ending and uncer-
speare isn't so difficult or outdated after all. tainties that lie ahead. They, too, simultaneously
celebrate the most precious aspects of their lives
Patricia M. Gantt and mourn their certain loss, or, as Shakespeare
Utah State University says, "love that well which [they] must leave ere
Logan, Utah long." This poem cuts through the distances be-
[email protected] tween the Renaissance and the class of 2003, ex-
pressing a bittersweetness that speaks to seniors'
I have repeatedly found Shakespeare's Sonnet 73
lives and makes each one feel that Shakespeare
successful for teaching the form and function of wrote for her or him alone.
sonnet structure. It neatly exemplifies the English
sonnet's usual twelve-line exploration of theme, fol-
lowed by a couplet that succinctly comments on it,
all expressed in a progression of ideas accessible to Let me -not to the mTrriXge of true ms-,as
a range of students. The key metaphors in lines Admit impediments. SONNETr 16
/ U
1-12-a tree in late autumn, a day as the sun's last
rays are fading, and a cozy fire in its final stages-
are ones students have often experienced and, there-
fore, can easily grasp for their symbolic value. Each
of these three "sub-sets" of the poem, too, relies on
/
images that work well here (e.g., yellow leaves, night
as "Death's second self," and the embers of a fading
fire) and has counterparts in Shakespeare's drama,
including Macbeth, the tragedy often taught in ZEE
high school.
What makes this sonnet an especially appro-
priate fit for seniors, however, is the substance of the
poem-its refrain of impending loss. Generally in-
terpreted as a meditation about oncoming death-
ARtN\N
a theme that does not particularly resonate with
seventeen-year-olds-the poem takes on immedi-
EInGLISH journaL
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