Poetry, April 23

[jade_sabre]

Today is Shakespeare day!  All of his long poems are...long, and so yesterday Em and I used the Chatzy randomizer to pick two sonnets.  The second one is pretty famous, but I only vaguely recognized the first, and in any case they both have some sweet extended metaphors of which I highly approve.  So enjoy--

edit:  wow, you guys, I had no idea it was Shakespeare's birthday when I posted these.  I was actually going to post them yesterday, but it was Earth Day, so Wendell Berry won.  ...wow.  These coincidences rock my world.




48
How careful was I, when I took my way,
Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,
That to my use it might unused stay
From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!
But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,
Most worthy of comfort, now my greatest grief,
Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,
Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.
Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,
Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,
Within the gentle closure of my breast,
From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;
And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,
For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.




54
O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

Comments

[ascii-rock.livejournal.com]

the coincidences don't stop there! check this out.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

srsly?

[ascii-rock.livejournal.com]

you did take the quiz at the end, right?

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

uuuuuuuuuuh yes?

[mysteree80.livejournal.com]

I'm more baffled by the fact that William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, perhaps the two most influential authors of modern times, both died on April 23, 1616.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

ooh, that is fascinating. Cervantes...Don Quixote...did he write anything else? (*is probably setting herself up for GIGANTIC FALL*)

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's Don Quixote. He didn't HAVE to write anything else. That's thousands of pages right there.

(I read Don Q. while in the hospital getting chemotherapy, so if I can remember it fondly, it must be pretty awesome!)

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

wait, is it really that long? ...*adds to list of books to read, shamefaced*

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

No, I exaggerate. My copy is a mere 940 pages.

Don't be shamefaced -- I didn't read it until my 40s.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

what? I did...?

I thought you were being random


I mean...randomer

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha. little did you know...but you DID pick a number, and it was a good number. :-D