Poetry Packet - Shakespear, Mullen, and Berrigan

In Wednesday's class, we focused the lecture on sonnets, particularly love sonnets. After reading a handful of sonnets, I gained a better understanding of the many ways a sonnet can vary. Both the structure and content of the sonnets were all somewhat different. Yet all very fascinating / intriguing. 

I liked comparing my ideas of what a sonnet is with the other members of the class. Before the discussion, when thinking of a sonnet  I thought of 'love, poetic, short, rhyme scheme, etc'. After hearing the other classmates' opinions, I began to stray away from the stereotype I have given sonnets. Which is good, I love broadening my perspective to other people's. The idea that I had in my mind was that sonnets must always rhyme and must follow a particular structure (Shakespearean Sonnets). Further into the lecture, we began to list words such as 'song like, painting a picture, passionate, compare/contrast specific things, etc' Then we began to analyze the different styles and contents each writer exhibited in their poems.

        Language and text was a significant element in our discussion. After reading the handful of Shakespeare's work, I saw a certain trend in the language he used. I started to notice it containing very romantic, passionate, well written language. He kept the same rhyme scheme in most of his sonnets, and he included couplets at the end while using iambic pentameter. The sonnet that gained most of my attention was Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. I really loved how he used a sense of sarcasm in his language. He strayed away from the cliché expressions of love that we usually see in poetry and is old news by now. The typical love poems I have read before this class focused on looks and physical attraction, which makes up the ideal beauty. Shakespeare expresses his love for a mistress (which had a different meaning at the time he wrote this), yet he describes her as being not so attractive. For example, he writes about her breath being horrible in the morning, basically describing a 'real' and 'natural' woman. In the 7^th line of Sonnet 130, Shakespeare says, “and in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that is from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak-yet I well know that music hath a far more pleasing sound'. This creates a more realistic expression of love, which contradicts the typical style that is much more superficial I enjoyed how Shakespeare was realistic with this expression of love, it's far beyond looks or beauty to the eye, it's what a person has within them. That's real beauty. And I love Shakespeare's realness in this particular sonnet.  

    Harryette Mullen's 'Dim Lady' was quite similar to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, as we discussed. The content was related to Sonnet 130 in the sense that it contradicts the stereotypical focus on an 'ideal' beauty, and focuses more on realistic love. Her work basically makes fun of the cliché beauty, saying it is fake. This contemporary work differs from Shakespeare's style and structure. She wrote the sonnet in a paragraph form. The language also has a different style because Mullen uses funny words and slang that you would not find in Shakespeare's work. More relate-able and contemporary work for sure. My favorite line in this was 'my scrumptious Twinkie has as much sex appeal for me as any lanky model or platinum movie idol who's hyped beyond belief'. This extremely amusing and it was real. I love how Mullen basically describes this 'ideal' beauty as being a joke and that no one is really like that. It seems she was looking at Shakespeare's work yet making it her own and up to date work. Really fantastic work! 

I'm excited to write my own sonnets for class this week, my goal is to avoid using the cliché poem words and begin to broaden my vocabulary. I have learned that sonnets aren't always written in the traditional Shakespeare way, and I am excited to break away from that and explore new styles of writing a sonnet - paint my own picture for the world to see!!!