If you ever wanted to compliment your lover on their beauty, maybe don't use Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, despite its ironic reputation as one of the most popular 'love poems' of all time. Because most of the sonnet is about, well, how the speaker's love doesn't really match up to ideal beauty standards. But then again - is that such a bad thing, considering that the bigger message underneath it all is much more flattering? In this video, I unpack it all with a close reading of its language, form and structure.
TIMESTAMPS:
01:46 - Idea #1: Reductive parts vs holistic whole
05:33 - Idea #2: Limitations of language vs possibilities of form
Background on Shakespeare's Sonnets: www.bl.uk/shakespeare/article...
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