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The Sonnets and Narrative Poems
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
13 posts | 1 read
If William Shakespeare had never written a single play, if his reputation rested entirely upon the substantial and sterling body of nondramatic verse he left behind, he would still hold the position he does in the hierarchy of world literature. The strikingly modern sonnetsintimate, baroque, and expansive at once; the invigorating narratives drawn from classical subjects; and the flawless lyricism represented by a poem like The Phoenix and the Turtlepermanently deepen our understanding of the multiplicity and extravagant energy of our greatest poet. (Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 130

@jenniferw88 FOUND IT!!! I didn‘t really notice this one when I was going through and reading them all. Reading it on its own now, I like it better than I did. Maybe I should go back and read like one a day (maybe as a reading challenge next year) to take each one in on it‘s own. (please excuse my notes from sonnet 129 encroaching the space of sonnet 130)

#Shakespeare #sonnets #shakespeareansonnet #sonnet130

jenniferw88 Good job i wrote the first line out - I'd misremembered the sonnet number! 😂 6y
GingerAntics @jenniferw88 thank god for the first line look up index or it wasn‘t happening. I honestly slipped right past it when I read through. I‘m impressed you had it memorised. (edited) 6y
9 likes2 comments
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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I‘ve survived the sonnets - all 154 of them. Now on to the Narrative Poems. I feel like these are going to be more up my ally. I guess we will see. #shakespeare #sonnets #narrativepoems #poetry #isurvived

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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 136

Oh here we go again!!! Shakespeare has seriously taken a dirty turn in this series. I knew Shakespeare was (not so) secretly a dirty old man, but he‘s on a roll here.

#shakespeare #sonnets #shakespeareansonnet #sonnet136 #poetry #will #whoknew

jenniferw88 If you thought this is bad, the rudest verse in a poem I have found so far is in William Blake... wait a few minutes & I'll post the quote! 😂😂😂 6y
GingerAntics Now every time I see the word “will” in anything Shakespearean, I‘m going to be looking for the double entendre. 6y
batsy I guess Will is really making his will known 😳😂 6y
GingerAntics @batsy 🤣🤣🤣 6y
8 likes4 comments
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 135

Who knew the word “will” meant so many different things. Apparently in this poem alone, “will” is the “Male Christian name,” a word for sexual desire, AND a word for sexual organs of men or women. Who knew?! “Will” appears 13 times, and “wilt” appears once. They had to keep the capitalisation and italicisation from the quarto, because the different options may change the bloody meaning!!!

#sonnets #Shakespeare #shakespeareansonnets

GingerAntics #sonnet135 #poetry #will #whoknew This poem, honestly, suddenly turned dirty after reading the intro to the commentary on this particular sonnet in my fancy app. 6y
7 likes1 comment
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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When it takes you a while to figure out you really don‘t like the essay...in colour coded glory!!!

LazyDays 😮😨 6y
GingerAntics @LazyDays and that‘s just two pages of it. There are SIX more!!! I stopped reading the essay at that point. lol 6y
13 likes2 comments
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 58

Low-and-Behold, the next sonnet is a continuation of the first, and the lovely people at Arden Shakespeare who made this app saw fit to have Simon Callow read this one, too. Return to Sandringham divulging his true feelings to Jamie, once and for all. lol

https://vimeo.com/44722829

You‘re welcome!!!

#shakespeare #sonnet58 #shakespeareansonnet #sonnets #simoncallow #outlander #sandringham #jamiefraser #unrequitedlove

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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 57

So I was listening to the actor recite this sonnet and the voice sounded REALLY familiar but the face wasn‘t quite triggering who it was. So I googled...IT WAS THE DUKE OF SANDRINGHAM!!! Now I can only picture Sandringham waxing poetic about Jamie when I listen to this. 🤣🤣🤣

You will never read this sonnet the same way again. I wish you could hear it.

Wait, you can!!!

https://vimeo.com/44722828

9 likes1 comment
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 20

This one actually wasn‘t read by David Tennant in the app. I still quite liked it, then read the commentary and found out it‘s the sonnet that makes everyone think Shakespeare is gay. Go figure. lol Then again, I would love to see Simon Russell Beale‘s Hamlet as well. His discussion of the role in Shakespeare Uncovered was wonderful.

#shakespeare #sonnets #sonnet20 #simonrussellbeale #shakespeareansonnet

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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 12

This isn‘t nearly as bad as I expected. Some of these I‘m not so excited about, but some of them I quite like. It doesn‘t hurt when you‘ve got David Tennant reading some of them, either. lol

#Shakespeare #sonnets #sonnet12 #davidtennant #shakespeareansonnet

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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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Just in case we needed any (further) proof that I‘m weird. #Shakespeare #sonnets #davidtennant #shakespeareanactor #dtmakeseverythingbetter

Mandigolightly No, he‘s amazing at Shakespeare. Did you see him as Hamlet? 6y
GingerAntics @Mandigolightly oh when I think of Hamlet, I think of David!!! Every other production of Hamlet I see inadvertently gets compared to that one. 6y
Mandigolightly @GingerAntics he was amazing in Much Ado as well. A+ actor 6y
GingerAntics @Mandigolightly the scene with the paint? Perfection. He‘s got to be my favourite Shakespearean actor in existence. 6y
13 likes4 comments
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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When you take a graduate level Shakespeare course and your final paper is on poetry forms in Romeo & Juliet, and the traditions they draw upon. #gradschool #gradschoolproblems #gradstudent #shakespeare #colourcoded

I‘ve never had much success attempting to read poetry. I really want to give this one a go, though. If nothing else, I have dramatic readings of them all to help me get through.

Linsy Whoa 😲 Impressive! 6y
GingerAntics @Linsy that all made sense at one point. Looking at it now is like reading Greek. lol I have no idea what all of it means anymore. I probably would if I read the intro essay again, but I don‘t really feel compelled to read it again. lol 6y
readinginthedark I'm not so great at critical readings of poetry either. I found it so interesting, though--one of my teachers in high school would have us write a response and interpretation of a poem from the board each day, and everyone had such different responses! Sometimes she would read us an author's interpretation of his or her own poem, and they were almost always different from any of our answers. 😆 6y
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GingerAntics @readinginthedark oh that sounds like a great little exercise. I‘m trying to think if an English teacher ever made us doing anything with poetry. I‘ve bought copies of poets‘ work previously and never end up getting into it. I always try, then always end up lost. Short stories may be my limit in brevity. I‘m not sure. I remember studying an epic poem once, but that‘s it. I really need to find a way to approach this. 6y
GingerAntics @readinginthedark I feel like I should read poetry. No idea why. I read a lot of nonfiction, so maybe it‘s that same compulsion that makes people want to read nonfiction. 6y
readinginthedark Do it! I try to read something from a new poet once a month, and I've really enjoyed some of my discoveries. I don't worry about figuring out "what it means," just whether or not it speaks to me in some way or even if I just enjoy the use of language. 6y
GingerAntics @readinginthedark it‘s not even that. I just have a hard time getting into it. I‘ve technically written my fair share of it, but I just have the hardest time really getting into it. It‘s like I don‘t get it or something. Without a plot I sort of start getting all turned in circles and I have no idea what‘s going on. I do enjoy other types of work that encapsulate poetry (Shakespeare) or epic poetry. Dunno what my deal is. 6y
GingerAntics @readinginthedark I‘m a firm believer in anything like that (a poem, a song, a painting) having a slightly or even significantly different meaning to every person because we bring our own experiences and perspectives to the table. So I‘m not so worried about meaning. It‘s more the form or something. I can‘t quite put my finger on it. It‘s really weird. I‘ve gotten into the overall arch of the sonnets just powering through. Need to do that more. 6y
readinginthedark You want something that tells a story; that makes sense to me. Narrative poetry would probably be best. Something that's still talking about something obvious but is just considered poetry because it's flexible with sentence structure, maybe? I'm better at writing poetry than reading it, as well. 😆 Which seems so quirky. 6y
GingerAntics @readinginthedark I‘m SO glad I‘m not the only one. lol I‘m really excited for the narrative poems after the sonnets. I think those are going to be more up my ally. I don‘t think I would have gotten through the sonnets if I didn‘t have an app with different actors reading them. 6y
GingerAntics @Texreader this is the intro to my beloved, beautiful hardcover copy of Shakespeare's sonnets. 6y
14 likes11 comments
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GingerAntics
The Sonnets and Narrative Poems | William Shakespeare
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After reading a lovely little blog post about the feminist threads of some of Shakespeare‘s narrative poems, it might just be time to sit down and read them. Apparently, Shakespeare was groundbreaking and advanced for his time in the way he talked about women‘s agency and lives. #shakespeare #sonnets #narrativepoems #venusandadonis #therapeoflucree

https://hammaclet.tumblr.com/post/175644496729/its-been-a-while-since-i-last-rea...

GingerAntics @merelybookish @CoffeeNBooks @cocomass @TheBookHippie @CSeydel @wanderinglynn @Lcsmcat @Rachbb3 @InLibrisVeritas @batsy @Bookishgal71 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BookishBelle @JennAndrew @Gezemice @BiblioLitten @KatieanneF @readinginthedark @Jess_Read_This apparently us wondering if Shakespeare intended to be a bit of a feminist in some of his plays or if it‘s us reading our own time into them might have actually been intentional on Shakes‘s part. 6y
GingerAntics Go figure. 6y
KatieanneF I absolutely think Shakespeare was a feminist! I think if you look at his comedies, especially, you see strong, forward thinking characters. He was ahead of his time and I think his more dense works generally get more credit than his lighter stuff, but it is equally valuable and insightful 👍🏻🌟 6y
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GingerAntics @KatieanneF oh I totally agree. He probably wouldn‘t recognise the word “feminist,” but I imagine the concept was something he was all about. He seems to have enjoyed writing strong female characters. 6y
KatieanneF @GingerAntics I think so too! There is also a lot of research supporting the idea that more women “snuck” onstage than is widely recognized. It seems that in these cases, he turned a blind eye, or perhaps even encouraged undercover females to be onstage. I just played Viola in a stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love and read a lot on that topic during the process. So interesting!! 6y
GingerAntics @KatieanneF I‘ve read a little bit about that. It would be so cool to be able to be a fly on the wall at the Globe theatre in those days. He did like to push the envelope with the authorities, so that would be one more way to do it, with a very difficult process of proving it was really a woman. It‘s not like you could just go lift up someone‘s skirt in public. lol 6y
Jess_Read_This I love your edition of this book. I would love a further exploration into his feminist support; even though like you said, he wouldn‘t have recognized that word. I wonder what prompted him to be divergent from the majority of the males in that time! 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This I‘m right there with you. Of course he never could have known that he needed to write down his thoughts/ideas about it at the time. Modern psychologists say that in The Rape of Lucrece his depiction of what she goes through after the rape is SO accurate, that for someone to recognise that in that time period when women were legally blamed is just amazing. 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This thanks, I actually stumbled upon it at Half Price Books. It was such a lovely edition I couldn‘t pass it up. I think I paid less than $5 for it. Now the intro essay and the essay at the end have tons of notes and highlights in them from when I used it for a paper for one of my Shakespeare classes when I was getting my masters. My prof loved that I was taking a Shakespeare class as stress relief. lol 6y
Jess_Read_This @GingerAntics I haven‘t read The Rape of Lucrece. I‘m going to now. Wow. If he was so accurate in the aftermath, I wonder about his experiences that allowed him to be supportive of women. There‘s too much unknowns for me! I need answers.. lol. The more I‘m learning about the man, the more amazed I find myself. 6y
GingerAntics @Jess_Read_This EXACTLY!!! I‘m right there with you!!! I‘ve literally had that thought. Did something happen to him? His mother? Sister? Wife? Daughter? How did he come up with this stuff?! I haven‘t read it yet either. We‘re looking at possibly waiting until August for R2, so I‘m thinking that‘s the perfect time to read the sonnets and narrative poems. 6y
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