10 Apr poetry
Man, you think I’m a wise guy, but look what Howard Moss has done to “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” on page 449. This week, let’s work our way into literary analysis with questions 2, 3, and 4 which begin on that page, and which I reproduce here:
2. Compare some of Moss’s lines to the corresponding lines in Shakespeare’s sonnet. Why is Even in May, the weather can be gray less interesting than the original? In the lines on the sun (5-6 in both versions), what has Moss’s modification deliberately left out? Why is Shakespeare’s seeing death as a braggart memorable? Why aren’t you greatly impressed by Moss’s last two lines? [NOTE: Our textbook is making quite a leap here, I think, assuming that you aren’t impressed with Moss’s poem, which I think is kind of a funny take-off on ol’ Will. Well . . . Question 4 deals with that issue, I suppose.]
3. Can you explain Shakespeare’s play on the word untrimmed (line 8)? Evidently the word can mean “divested of trimmings,” but what other suggestions do you find in it? [HINT . . . no, wait, I’ll let you chew on that one a while.]
4. How would you answer someone who argued, “Maybe Moss’s language isn’t as good as Shakespeare’s, but the meaning is still there. What’s wrong with putting Shakespeare into up-to-date words that can be understood by everybody?”
