NOTES

BOOK ONE

1

The noteworthy qualities in this spring song are the frequent repetitions of the rhyming sounds, the gaiety of the movement, and the large number of pictures flashed upon the canvas. Let your mind fill in the details of these pictures and try to catch the joyful mood of the poet.

Read in a sprightly manner, stressing the rhymewords and endeavoring to suggest the birds' song in the last verse.

2

This song is sung by the fairy Ariel in "The Tempest." He is about to be liberated from service to a magician; he sings this snatch of song in joyful prospect of deliverance. Notice the frequency with which the "i"-sound occurs in the rhyme. Notice also the alliteration in lines. 3 and 7. This all makes for lightness of sound and movement. Notice the change of movement at the beginning of the sixth line: the trochaic metre is changed to the dactyllic. Both are gay movements, but the latter is more lively.

Read lightly and rapidly, trying to express the joy of the fairy.

3

Another song from "The Tempest." Ariel is drawing Prince Ferdinand along by magic music. The last part

of the song is meant to be somewhat nonsensical. The barking of the dog and the crowing of the cock were probably intended to come from back of the stage, thus confusing Ferdinand and suggesting supernatural agencies.

Notice how the movement of the lines suggest the wild, irregular dancing of fairies. The first line moves swiftly and rhythmically, the accent falling on every other syllable:

Come' un-to' these yel'-low sands'.

But in the next line the movement is slow and stately, as if the dancers were almost walking:

And then take hands.

The third line is rapid again, the fourth slow. Then the tempo grows more rapid and irregular, as if the dancers were whirling through some intricate measure. Notice also the alliteration, which makes the stressed syllables yet more emphatic and suggests the strict tempo of dance music:

Curtsied when you have and kissed
The wild waves whist

Foot it featly

The burthen bear

The strain of strutting chanticleer

Line 4 probably means "kissed the waves into silence."

4

This poem is divided into four sections: summons to the sun; statement of what this day means to the poet; invocation to the sun ("Fair King"), to Flora, and the winds; the poet's expectation of his mistress.

Observe the irregularity in length of line and the complicated rhyme-scheme. Observe how the meaning is

carried over from verse to verse and how long some of the sentences are. Observe also the beautiful, highlycolored pictures.

In reading aloud try to express the grace and dignity of the poem. Let the voice linger on the strong, picturesque phrases, and run rapidly over the unemphatic ones. Read the ideas as sentences, not as lines; and let the long, flowing sentences rise at the end to a climax. Read in a tone that is somewhat loud and deep and sustained, occasionally varying this as the meaning and movement suggest. For example: the third section begins rather low and works up to a climax in the line "Did once thy heart surprise." From this on to the end of the section the tone is level and smooth; and when the fourth section begins, it is very soft and subdued. The lyric, when well read, is full of pomp, yet full of beautiful musical effects as the sound rises and falls and the movement flows and ebbs.

This poem contains several references to mythology, which must be looked up before the student attempts to read aloud.

5

Shakespeare's sonnets are remarkable for their intellectual content, their emotional intensity, and their felicity of phrasing. In studying them it is well, first of all, to get the meaning.

The main thought of this sonnet is easy to grasp: it is, that since time changes everything, it will take his love (his friend) away. sometime: former. store: quantity. state: condition. confounded: ruined. Eternal modifies "brass." The third line of the second quatrain means, that the firm soil wins land from the ocean. antecedent of which, in line 13, is "thought."

The

Examine the phraseology and see how picturesque and forcible it is: "Time's fell hand;" "rich proud cost" ("rich" is almost an adverb here, modifying "proud"); "outworn, buried age;" "hungry ocean;" "kingdom of the shore."

Now read the poem aloud. Remember that the thought is not finished until the end of the twelfth line, though of course you will make a brief pause after each clause. Work up to a climax and put much stress on "Love" in line 13. Bring out the contrasts in the second quatrain and in the first two lines of the third quatrain. Endeavor to make the whole thought as well as the details intelligible.

But we are not through with our study yet. Shakespeare must have employed all his artistic skill in polishing these sonnets of his, and we will do well to study after him. Read the first line, for example, and observe the beautiful combinations of sounds. Notice how "I" and "time", "have" and "hand", "fell" and "defaced" pair off and echo each other. Notice also the fainter vowel echoes in "when" and "fell", and the consonant echoes in "seen", "Time's", and "defaced.” Read the whole line again and listen to the musical flow of the sounds. Now read the poem through, a line at a time, lingering over those that fall pleasantly on the ear. Almost every line will reveal some beauty of phrase. When you have done this, read the sonnet as a whole, endeavoring to express the beauty of every line and the majesty of the complete thought.

6

Same theme as in the preceding. Here the thoughts are expressed in rhetorical questions. The couplet, as

usual, adds a new idea. Notice in how many ways the same idea is expressed in these two sonnets.

The first line is elliptical; it means "Since there is no brass", etc. but, line 2: but that. mortality: death. rage: power-that is, death. Line 12 means "Who can keep Time from destroying Beauty, from taking spoils from it." The miracle referred to in line 13 is explained in the next line: that the poet's love shines bright in black ink-a sort of pun.

Visualize the figures of speech. In the second quatrain reconstruct the picture of the siege of a walled town. 'Battering days" is a splendid figure. "Summer's honey breath" refers, of course, to the life of his friend.

Murmur over the poem line by line to get the beauty of the sounds; then read the whole sonnet, trying to bring out clearly and musically the central idea and all the details. Stress the contrasted words: "beauty" in line 3, contrasted with "brass", "stone", etc., in line 1; "hand", and "foot" in line 11; "black", and "bright" in line 14.

7

This pastoral lyric is very simple in subject matter and in form; simplicity should therefore mark the reading. The student should enter into the spirit of the selection, should visualize the pictures vividly, and should endeavor to give adequate expression to the simple, dainty, musical notes.

Notice the alliteration throughout, and the pleasant combinations of vowels and consonants. Notice the liquids in the second and other stanzas, and the feminine rhymes in the third. All this is to produce the soft, melodious undertone for which the poem is noted.