Sonnet Therapy #2

Golf, Song, and Shakespeare

Grow as a tree but stick with Cobra's chrome

Flow as Nickel Creek, these my reasons why:

Drive'n off the tee is the quickest root home

I wish you out of the woods, the club's try

Find in your past a game of lost and found

Might as well be dream'n lest you hear a snore

Time comes at you fast, try to slow it down

One chip to the green'n she's on the dance floor

Find your roots but the capable break free

The story's weave'n is pretty far out

Mind the woods, but escape their lunacy

One putt to break ev'n, a nifty par out.

The myth behind the trees takes quite the toll

Take risks on your leave, with higher stakes next hole.

*It becomes more free-verse-Iam-Pent near the end. For funs.

Shakespeare and the Restoration

Another one of my classes is about the inception of the "novel" in British Literature, years 1660 to the mid-1800s. Shakespeare was not a writer of novels, sticking with playwrights and poetry. He died around 1616, 44 (short) years before the Restoration period, yet, presumptuously, his style heavily influenced those Englishmen (and women) who pioneered the new "novel."

"The Restoration and the 18th Century" is an introductory article about the new novel.

Novel: "identifying the genre by no other marks than newness itself."

It seems that the article's definition attempts to advocate free reign within the realm of writing because the latter part of the definition elaborates --"Letters, diaries, memoirs, news items, government articles, drawings, verses, even sheet music crop up within the pages of the early novels"-- It's a collection of styles within a single product.

Shakespeare's work is pertinent to this topic because of his innovation. His individualistic style from the century previous to the Restoration prompted the Restorers to evolve their visions.

For example, Shakespeare's playwrights are identified as Comedies, Tragedies, or Histories, but his rich style surpasses the generic genre. The Restorers recognized the necessity for more dense and diverse works, genre aside. Shakespeare, or his scholars, may sub-group his works, but Shakespeare inadvertently wrote with a Restoration mindset, we'll call it "Renaissance writing." To be a Renaissance writer is to understand and utilize many different styles of writing--stretching beyond what's mentioned above from the Restoration article. In other words, if you're a Renaissance writer then your talent is well-rounded; like a "Renaissance man," time period aside.

Logically

-- Shakespeare:Playwrights::Restorers:Novels

(-- Writer:Styles::Writer:Styles)

Think of it this way

-- Shakespeare:Mathematics or Linguistics::Restorers:Poetry or Sheet Music

Shakespeare was as fresh as the works of the Restoration. His "newness" is obvious, but does his influence correlate within the Restoration writing revolution?

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I chose to knock out this story first. Instead, it's knocked me out. Days of the daze, looking back it seems that I might have been dreaming? I mean, I understood what generally was happening, but Shakespeare's style is more unorthodox than I had anticipated. Themes interrelated; for example, it's a playwright, has a play within its text, and the overall storyline is loosely based on the play within the playwright. This, I understood when reading.

Contrary to my understanding, there was a lacuna where my brain must've been moonstricken because I could not figure out the fairies' purposes. After I finished Act III Saturday afternoon I asked my friend for some help dissecting the differentiated realities (dream/sleep vs. real/awake) and roles. He, having not read Shakespeare for some time, advised that they might represent "the changing of the seasons," but instead they're purposes run more parallel with what's going on in the story. The Fairy King wants a Fairy Queen as do the other two aristocrats and four lovers.

A great deal can change overnight, but how much of what's changed is real? How much a dream? The fairies actions fabricate, yet balance, the emotions of the lovers. It's a true comedy because everything falls into place. Lysander loves Hermia, that's real. Hermia loves Lysander, that's real. Helena loves Demetrius, that's real. Demetrius loves Helena, that's debatable.

Finally, I'm curious to find if there are any parallels that conjoin Puck and the Mechanicals. Does Puck's story overlap with any of the actors' or their production's story, "Pyramus and Thisby"? Why these two? The obvious similarity, Puck is a jester and the troupe are the comic relief. It seems as if they're all individuals, lower workers, and/or wildcards.

Pr'experience

It all started Freshman year of high school, there bout. Romeo & Juliet was the text. Then to Hamlet, round Sophomore year, and it's references and usage have yet to cease over the past several years (including primarily my College Sophomore year). Junior year it was King Lear. Senior year, Much Ado About Nothing was all the rage, but I missed out on Macbeth when it was free on stage. Although!, Othello's production was creatively wild because it was re-made, adapted Native style. I think back on what I've experienced with Shakespeare, and realize that I took R&J and King Lear for granted. Later on in my experience you notice my maturity, I suppose maturity is what you could call it. I look back and really appreciate my studies/experiences with Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello.

More recent thoughts: To improve at poetry has been a recent goal of mine. Over Christmas break instead of reading more I was writing raps and rhymes. So maybe once in a while I should improv (or structure in a timely fashion) a standard, A-G, Shakespearean sonnet.

To keep up my wishful thinking here's...Sonnet #1

I want your eyes, mind, and even ears all in

It's a new world, from plays to sonnets

The first few lines of my Shakespearean

Scribblin' lining up like bolts and what? Knuts

Yo, in the hole you gots only pens and pulp

If symbols and meanings come between us

Then it's the squirrel's world, nuts and bolts

Feed the needful thing, pursue it like Venus.

Think a Costanza extravaganza

Think Seinfeld, Much Ado About Nuttin'

I double-dipped with a pun last stanza

Have some food for thought! Drink up, too! Glutton!

I'm tired, going nuts, a crazy fella

Third time's a charm, paronomasia.