English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
Sonnet 73
Hamlet's Dresser by Bob Smith. In his moving and inspiring account of running Shakespeare workshops for senior citizens in New York, Bob Smith describes, how as a child he sat amid ancient deformed apple trees and realized that he 'felt close and safe with old things, old ideas, old people'
Poetry Handbook by Babette Deutsch: The English or Shakespearian sonnet allows for a break between octave and sestet but is composed of three quatrains, each with different pairs of rhymes, and a final couplet, independently rhymed which makes an effective climax: a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west; Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed, whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
 |
| Please click to listen |