I’ve been watching a lot of your lectures since I stumbled on them via everything Jane Austen. This particular lecture (though I’m still in the middle of it) is blowing my brain apart with exhaustion, confusion, pleasure! Thank you so much for all your lectures…it’s a wonderful experience to have new doors of learning and insight open for a person 75 years of age! Deep appreciation!
I love sonnet 97. It got me through a heartbreak long ago, and it did so because it expressed so perfectly how I felt (what freezings I have felt, what dark days seen, what old December's bareness everywhere-wow), and it was evocatively beautiful in my imagination that I came to love the poem even more than the lost loved-one. I feel I could never exhaust the ways to experience this sonnet.Thank you Benjamin - you are brilliant and inspiring and beautiful as well.
I am so learning a lot from Benjamin McEvoy. The Lord bless you. As I hear him give this lesson, and as I read Sonnet 29 with him, I thought to myself: " This is what heaven looks like."
watched the whole lecture - it's fascinating, thank you so much! I also saw a lot of 80/20 rule applied here to understand Shakespeare's work (focusing on enjoyment over historical gossips, reading his poems to reflect on one's own emotions & most noticeable poetic devices etc) - I think that is how one should read great works too! :)
I am only recently, at the age of 23, getting into poetry and literature. Having been raised with music and educated in the western classics such as bach mozart beethoven and chopin etc the first 10 minutes of you explaining how you have favorite sonnets really opened my eyes towards appreciating poems: i do the same with beethoven sonatas, bach’s well tempered clavier, Chopin’s mazurkas… i have my favorites, some of my choices liked by all, some known only to a few, but all my favorites, they just speak to me. There have been countless times when upon first listening a piece didn’t speak to me but upon closer listening, listening with my gut, that I noticed details in a piece that moved me deeply! Thank you for your articulation!!
Over the course of watching a number of your extraordinary videos, even when you didn't mention Shakespeare's sonnets, a little voice in my mind kept saying, "The sonnets!" Personal canon? "The sonnets! Difficult works? "The sonnets!" Now, at last, I am returning to these intricate puzzles! How fascinating that I am both the puzzle AND the solution! That is my starting point! Your presentation on Sonnet 66 was superb! I enjoyed every minute of this lecture, but the discussion of Sonnet 66 was my favorite part. That makes perfect sense because I am feeling tired at the moment! Benjamin, I can't thank you enough for everything you do! Your presentations have renewed my love of great literature and brought purpose to my life!
Did you happen to catch the actor Patrick Stewart during the lockdown? I stumbled onto it somehow. He came on RU-vid every afternoon and read a Sonnet. Of course, he could read me a phone book and I’d be transported. I looked forward to it everyday. That was one positive that came out of all this. The people that rushed to offer their poems, art music. Andrew Lloyd Webber made us filmed musicals available every weekend. I thanked God everyday for the connections I made through the internet. I live alone and more that 2-3 days of solitude depresses me. So, people like you saved the day!
I wake up. Get a cold glass of water and read a sonnet. I don’t do it in order. I encourage my family to read some aloud together. The first sonnet I offered my son was 129,I think…The expense of spirit… etc. I loved listening to your delight, thanks
I like to read sonnet 1 as about the nature of art and genius. Rather than make a baby, he is telling himself, the artist, to stay always rngaged with the workd around him. The creative spark engendered in the artist is an investment made in the individual by the world or some divine force, in the hopes of a consequent artistic output which will improve enrich the world and feed and inspire future artists. The poem reminds the artist both what he owes to the muses and that genius is ecological, only sustained through constant appreciative engagement with the world and community around you
I have a small book: Shakespeare's Sonnets edited by Stanley Wells. It doesn't have any notes, definitions or anything else to influence the reader. I also have the Arden edition you recommend, and Helen Vendler's, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997) which has a cd with an audio version of most, but not all, of the sonnets. I had a couple semesters of Shakespeare in college and look forward to getting back into the bard.
These are all terrific works, Mike. I adore Helen Vendler - her close analysis/exegesis is unparalleled. I love how close she sticks to the linguistics. If you enjoy her on the sonnets, she has similar companions for Emily Dickinson and John Keats that I cannot recommend highly enough :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I graduated from the university in Poland with a degree in linguistics a few years ago and I had many literature lectures etc. But I have never heard anything so interesting and involving as your lecture. It was so... true. Love it🤗
Sonnet 66, There are a number of words in the sonnet that are no longer familiar, but the drift is clear. Just one line is truly confusing- "As to behold desert a beggar born..." What on earth does this mean? "Desert" with the emphasis on the second syllable, is a proper noun meaning the quality of being deserving, or by extension, a person who is deserving. So here w have a picture of a truly deserving person, being born a beggar.
Another great lecture!! I had just started the Sonnets as part of my scriptural reading project (after watching that lecture), and this knowledge has already increased my understanding and enjoyment 3 sonnets in! I planned to read one a day, but find myself not ready to put them down. Any advice on this, considering I’m trying to read scripturally?
While reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, I found so much of the sonnets in Wilde's words. Inspired to write a poem about Oscar Wilde, I wanted to know a little more about where he physically was living, how old he was, etc when he created Dorian Gray, and whether or not he had been a Shakespeare scholar while studying the Classics. This lead me to The Portrait of W.H., the short story by Oscar Wilde. Have you read it ? OMG. Its like a link between the sonnets and Dorian Gray. It was written the year before Dorian Gray was published. This short story deserves one of your 'deep dives.'
Great start to a Sunday.. Thx Benjamin. The hour went by so fast. What was the name of the book you mentioned at the beginning which has a sonnet on each page and discussion on the other?
Been very into your channel, was wondering if you enjoy the writing of rainer maria rilke? Would love your thoughts on his work, as he is my favorite poet at the moment
Thank you, Jonathan :) I love Rilke - one of the poets most personally meaningful to me, alongside Shakespeare, Rumi, and Blake. We have a podcast on his 'Letters to a Young Poet' that you might enjoy!
And if you want to listen to a sonnet a day, here's Sir Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet a day. Why not read and listen at the same time? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-InIMPmMszkE.html
I have had people say I'm bad when I don't believe I had been. So I can relate. Not sure if I agree though. Isn't better to have good character despite what people think?
I think so, yes. Even if one's virtue were hidden somehow from everyone else, you yourself would know that you had good values and tried to do the right thing.
What I have to say is not profound, nor will it be much help to you, but I just want to share my love of Sonnet 73 to you. As my husband aged and knew that his mental faculties were declining, this man, whose passion for literature opened up vistas of volumes for myself, and for my son started to memorize Sonnet 73 when he knew his mind was going. Mel was born on December 11 and died on December 11 and this year, for the first time, my son and I sat down and we read Sonnet 73 to each other, alternating lines, and discussing each line, each word as we made our way through. The evening was perfect, the air was still and very crisp and we timed the reading at sunset. My son and I often try to come up with some way to honor the date of Mel‘s birthday and recognize his absence and this year was the best. So Ben and to your audience, I am presenting my son with a copy of the sonnets, and the challenge to read them all in succession for this coming year, 2024. It will be interesting to see where we are when December 11 rolls around next year. Perhaps then I can give you my top 10. Happy reading everyone.
Hi there. Im from Brazil. Watching you talking about Pound, Auden, Bloom's commentaries, it was a pleasure. Thanks for the video and the explanations. I just bought "Oxford Shakespeare Complete sonnets and poems". I do accept your challenge. Thank you.
"How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?" From sonnet 65 Especially in this age of war and madness. Don Paterson's book on the sonnets is erudite, illuminating and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Thank you for you for your wonderful talks on literature, particularly Shakespeare. You give so much of yourself and model response to literature so well that we move forward more confidently with our own. I have a particular a question about Sonnet18 that I haven't been able to find any comment on any where and want to ask you what you think. Is the "thee" in this poem literally a lover as commentaries invariably say or is Shakespeare personifying love here? The description seems to be pointing to the enduring nature of love which is kept alive in poetry rather than to the qualities of a lover. Why describe a lover as temperate? Why say that the lover will the lover never wander in death's shade? It seems to me that the poet is celebrating love itself. Am I missing something here?
Quite intriguing, Benjamin M. I love Shakespeare, but have never really delved into the sonnets. Serendipitous, indeed, that I get to hear your brilliant episode. Many thanks for your channel.
I am so excited that this video popped up in my feed! I started reading the sonnets, one a day, over a month ago. I keep a notebook with quick reactions to each one, and I'm enjoying the process. Thank you for this deep dive!
11:45 Pls dont mind me, just taking notes Fascinating lecture. I have to study Shakespeare's sonnet in my post graduation syllabus, and I most certainly think I found just the content. Many thanks for the book you recommended in the video.
