Friday, September 17, 2010

Shakespeare, Sonnets and [in]sanity!

If you have ever studied Shakespeare you probably have also gone insane at some point in your life. Most likely this lapse in sanity coincided with the studying of Shakespeare. Now don't get me wrong his work can be incredibly beautiful, but also incredibly frustrating! (oh and also VERY sexual! don't believe me? check out Dirty Shakespeare by Pauline Kiernan)

In university I took a year long Shakespeare English course. I don't remember a whole lot from it other than the teacher was incredible too bubbly for 8:30 am and didn't like me very much. Now, a few years later, I am back in school. I am again dealing with Shakespeare, but this time I am memorizing, analyzing and reciting. Not necessarily in that order. This past week we were to memorize and recite Sonnet 116 and 27. 116 I LOVE! I memorized it in about 30 minutes and can recite with passion and be able to relay the meaning. 27 though.....well I can recite it after several hours over a few days of working on it. It's dark and sad and not nearly as fun at 116! After doing 116 my teacher exclaimed "THAT'S F-ING AMAZING!" after 27....."well that wasn't very good." OK there was a little more, some praise for my decisions and effort, but really it sucked.

So here's my question to any of you readers still out there:

What is your favourite work by Mr William Shakespeare? and why?

1 comment:

  1. Connie is always absurdly perky in the mornings. I had Chaucer with her. It did NOT improve *my* morning disposition :P
    I'm afraid I don't know nearly enough Shakespeare. Perhaps you'll have to teach me some ;)

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