Dec 9, 2010

Shakespeare's "That Time of Year"





We might get six inches of snow late Saturday and into Sunday. So, although I'm a little tardy, I want to post this paean to late November before I forget for another year. I'm not quite at the point described in the sonnet, but that's a quibble. I've been an old soul since I was fourteen; and for an entire teaching career, I've identified with the concluding couplet's "to love that well/ which thou must leave ere long." It's a poem for all teachers and all students as well as those at a certain stage of life.

As I write that, dusk turns to dark, on cue, at 5:30 in Michigan.


Sonnet LXXIII: That Time of Year thou mayst in me Behold by William Shakespeare : The Poetry Foundation [poem] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry.

And at the risk of beating dead horses, what would Picasso say about this poem?

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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 10, 2010 at 11:42 AM

    Now that's a stare I wouldn't be able to resist.

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  2. Jean SpitzerDecember 10, 2010 at 2:39 PM

    I'm glad you got these posted before you forgot about them.

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  3. Brenda's ArizonaDecember 10, 2010 at 9:37 PM

    Did Picasso ever live where it snowed? I recall learning he lived in Paris and he often burned his paintings to stay warm... but snow and old soul/love aren't how I picture Picasso. Do you?

    Do old souls ever live in sunshine? Just asking...

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  4. Pasadena AdjacentDecember 11, 2010 at 7:06 AM

    if Shakespeare had asked my help in editing I would have reduced the sonnet to.......


    "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."


    the back-lit edges of the cattails are beautifully glowy

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  5. Banjo52December 11, 2010 at 8:10 AM

    Thanks, SoCal and Texas. PA, I've never heard Shakespeare accused of undue conciseness or minimalism--unless it's by comparison to his contemporaries and predecessors. Without TV and the internet, they might have indulged in an extra word or two.

    Also, this poem really maximizes the prescribed three quatrains and a couplet in the English sonnet. And even though I try not to like didacticism, I've always found the final couplet irresistible.

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  6. AnonymousDecember 11, 2010 at 10:41 AM

    Thank god he didn't ask pa for any help.

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  7. Pasadena AdjacentDecember 11, 2010 at 3:11 PM

    Thank God indeed! next stop, the Bible: snip snip

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  8. Banjo52December 11, 2010 at 10:23 PM

    I hope you two are standing in mud and wearing wet T-shirts . . .

    ReplyDelete