Aims
This course aims to:
• introduce students to a great English classic
• encourage the practice and discipline of close reading
• demonstrate the value of critical reading and critical discussion
Content
The book called Shakespeare’s Sonnets was published in 1611. It includes a sequence of 154
14-line lyrics, plus a short narrative poem. (We will not discuss the long poem.)
The sonnets must have been written over quite a long period. There seem to have been at least two spells of concentrated sonnet writing in about 1598 and about 1604, but a few may date from earlier than those six years and some from later.
The sonnets themselves have long provided food for biographical controversy, which is mostly unprofitable, so the present course will largely ignore it. It must be admitted, however, that there
is something mysterious about them, which contributes to their power. As with certain of the plays (eg Hamlet), we feel that we aren’t being told all that we might, which adds to the fascination of the work. As is often the case with sonnet sequences, there is the ghost of a narrative implicit in the sequence. The first 126 appear to be concerned with a beautiful and talented young nobleman,
to whom most of them are addressed. Sonnets 127 – 152 are about a woman, ‘the dark lady of
the sonnets’, with whom the poet is erotically obsessed. There are also two sonnets about the
God of Love.
This course will be devoted to close reading and discussion of representative sonnets, its purposes being to encourage new readers to explore them as poems, looking at language, form and imagery, and to examine the challenging questions to which they give rise. If you join the class, you will be expected to participate in class discussion and, occasionally, to read aloud.
Presentation of the course
Shakespeare’s sonnets are, notoriously, both difficult and hugely rewarding. Accordingly, most of the time in class will be spent interpreting the texts and trying to understand how they should be read. Because we shall read them closely, there will not be time to study a large number, but the sonnets chosen will also be in some degree representative.
We shall read about four poems a day, though others will be mentioned and some reflections on the sequence as a whole and its place in history will be included. Discussion of a poem will always begin with a reading of that poem, sometimes by the Course Director and sometimes by a member of the class. The sound, texture and rhythm of a poem are as important to appreciation of it as the interpretable meaning is. So if you join this class, you must be prepared to read aloud. You must also be ready to engage in class discussion. The Course Director will occasionally give instruction, but the learning the class offers will emerge mainly from guided dialogue.
Course sessions
1. Introduction to the sonnet. The breeding sequence.
2. The young man
3. The young man
4. The dark lady
5. Conclusion
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• to develop a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s poetry
• to become familiar with the form and conventions of the English sonnet
• to acquire an enhanced appreciation of English poetry, particularly that of the early modern period
Required reading
* Duncan-Jones, Katherine, editor, Shakespeare’s Sonnets: revised edition (London: Bloomsbury, The Arden Shakespeare, 2010 3rd Series) ISBN: 1408017970 or 9781408017975
Supplementary reading
Dubrow, Heather, Captive Victors: Shakespeare’s Narrative Poems and Sonnets (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1987) ISBN: 9780801419751
Erne, Lukas, Shakespeare’s ‘Ever-fixed Mark’: Theological Implications in Sonnet 116, English Studies, Volume 81 (4), pages 293-304, 2010 (Available on the VLE) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/0013-838X%28200007%2981%3A4%...
Vendler, Helen, The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999) ASIN: B00TQPI552
