William shakespeare Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

1. How does this sonnet attempt to define love? In the 1^st, 2^nd and 3d quatrains?

2. Explain the metaphoric explanation of love in the 2^nd quatrain.

3. Does love change with hours and weeks?

4. Analyse the imagery or metaphoric range of the sonnet.

William shakespeare Sonnet 60

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end; Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend. Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd, Crooked elipses 'gainst his glory fight, And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand, Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

1. How does this sonnet attempt to explain the nature of time as it passes, and as it acts on human life?

2. What is the structure of this poem?

3. Analyse metaphorical description of time's passage in human lifein each quatrain.

4. How do these images develop from one another?

William shakespeare Sonnet 147

My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desp'rate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. Past cure am I, now reason is past care, And frantic mad with evermore unrest, My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are, At random from the truth vainly expressed; For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Ben johnson poem

I therefore will begin. Soul of the age!

The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage!

My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by

Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

A little further, to make thee a room:

Thou art a monument, without a tomb,

And art alive still, while thy book doth live,

And we have wits to read, and praise to give.

That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses;

For, if I thought my judgement were of years,

I should commit thee surely with thy peers,

And tell, how far thou didst our Lyly outshine,

Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line.

And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek,

From thence to honour thee, I would not seek

For names; but call forth thundering Aeschylus,

Euripides and Sophocles to us,

Pacuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead,

To life again, to hear thy buskin tread,

And shake a stage: or when thy socks were on,

Leave thee alone, for the comparison

Of all that insolent Greece, or haughty Rome

Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come.

Triumph my Britain, thou hast one to show

To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.

He was not of an age, but for all time!

1. What complimentary titles does Jonson give Shakespeare in the poem? Make a list.

2. What does this indicate about his attitude?

3. In what sense is Shakespeare still alive?

4. Which other Elizabethan dramatists is he compared with? Is this comparison favourable or unfavourable?

5. Which classical authors are called forth to testify to Shakespeare's greatness?

6. What references are there to Shakespeare's acting career?