posted
Before the summer holidays we each had to file in a paper about something to do with Jewry, Italy/Venice, or Shakespeare. Yours truly was favoured by a teacher and given the topic of Shakespeare's poetry (specifically the sonnets).
My paper got full marks, and - as my turn has arrived - I need to make a 10-minute presentation to the class on my topic; i.e., sonnets. In the past 4 years that my English teacher taught in the school, I can bet that every one of the students who did a presentation on the sonnets used "Shall I compare thee", which we got in a poetry test last year. I'd *hate* to reteach it to the class, as they probably resent it.
I'll have to give a sample sonnet, preferably in an Italian rhyme-scheme (to highlight the volta), and ideally with an English sestet (to highlight the closure), as a visualisation. I could use one of mine, but I doubt the class would like the idea; plus, I don't have any sonnets that would really strike the class, except for one which they'd have to have seen the Monty Python skit beforehand. I doubt I could write a good one by Thursday morning anyway.
Do any of you know a sonnet that would catch 16 y.o.s' eyes, with the exception of Leda and the Swan? I don't think my teacher wants the "white rush" to be the enticing bit (that's why we'll be getting lollies to toss to anyone participating). I will be talking about the history of sonnets, what makes them so special (complexity of themes, and brevity), a little on the cultural effect they have (referring to dA) and how Shakespeare used a few themes in the sonnets he wrote.
I'd love to use Wilfred Owen's one on the artillery, except it's a little morbid and Owen be fond of olde pronoun-en which he useth... Ozymandias is a little packed with images, and Wordsworth's meta-sonnet "Scorn not the sonnet, critic" would be foreign to those who don't know the sonneteers.
Any suggestions? Jonathan
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I remember when I had to do something similar in high school. I used Shakespeare's Sonnet #130, since that was where Sting got the title to his album "Nothing Like the Sun", and one of the lines from Sister Moon off that album. I've still got the sonnet memorized because of that presentation.
Of course, that was in the very early '90s, so referencing an album that came out in 1987 won't mean nearly as much to your audience as it did to mine. That's all the advice I've got, though, so there it is.
posted
130... Still a cliche, no? And 135 is very sophisticated.
Thanks for the offer, though. If I run out of something, I can always use 130, though it's still Shakey and old pronouns. I need something to get their mouths agape. Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, goodness! I'd never really read 135 before, although I think I had glanced at it. That is scandalous!!!
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe the sonnet when Romeo and Juliet meet? Act I, scene V.
quote:ROMEO [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
(It's followed by another quatrain, which you might or might not prefer to ignore to keep from complicating things.)
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
If I run out of something, I can always use 130, though it's still Shakey and old pronouns. I need something to get their mouths agape. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
