Is it just Shakespeare?
The pillar perish'd is, whereto I leant (Wyatt)
Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self-chosen snare (Sidney)
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night (Samuel Daniel)
Like truthless dreams so are my joys expired (Ralegh)
Love is the peace whereto all thoughts do strive (Greville)
Is it by any chance something to do with the basic form and metre? Rodent,
your cue again, I think.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Corelis" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 5:31 PM
Subject: Shakespeare's skaldic sonnets?
> Maybe this is a critical commonplace -- I haven't read much
> Shakespeare scholarship, and almost none on the sonnets -- but I've
> often been struck by how the lines in Shakespeare's sonnets almost
> always are divided strongly into to slightly asymmetrical halves, in
> the great majority of cases by placing the line's strongest diaerhesis
> so as to divide the syllables 6+4 or 4+6. Once you notice this, his
> lines become strangely reminiscent of the epic Beowulf meter, an
> impression often reinforced by the way alliteration so often ties the
> two halves together:
>
> Since Brass, nor Stone, || nor earth, nor Boundless Sea ...
>
> Sometime too hot || the eye of Summer shines ...
>
> pluck the keen Teeth || from the fierce Tiger's jaws ...
>
> from Sullen earth, || Sings hymns at heaven's gate ...
>
> why Dost thou pine within, || and suffer Dearth ...
>
> Do we see relected in W.S.'s refined and dainty Renaissance baubles
> the ghost of an ancient poetic Anglo-Saxon attitude?
>
> Does anyone know if scholars have discussed this, or is it just one of
> my own weird ideas?
>
> --
> ===================================
>
> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/
>
> ===================================
>
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