shakespear-ellec

[shakespear-ellec]

Playlist

Pound of Flesh - Regina Spektor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRUIiwaS0_4

Sigh No More - Mumford and Sons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WJyAYhCt1s&list=PLBTW3EuXHkMqGitnEt76xVmXGkmrbFNcc&index=6&t=0s

Ophelia - The Lumineers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTOC_q0NLTk&list=PLBTW3EuXHkMqGitnEt76xVmXGkmrbFNcc&index=9&t=0s

Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford and Sons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kx_LbzasKU&list=PLBTW3EuXHkMqGitnEt76xVmXGkmrbFNcc&index=6

Send Them Off - Bastille

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn-6fiVkAcA

[shakespear-ellec]

INDEX

please enter: 

shakespear-ellec.tumblr.com/search/ 

into the address bar and add one of the following terms at the end.

Works:

venus-and-adonis

juliet-and-romeo

sonnets

a-loves-labours-lost

a-lovers-complaint

etc:

lily, violet, rose

red, black, white, purple

sun, moon, fire, sea, ocean

love, kiss, blood, tears

cupid, angel, heaven

[shakespear-ellec]

Reflection essay

Common placing was really interesting to me, though I’m not sure how much I would enjoy it in the traditional form. I created an aesthetic blog style because it seemed more interesting and for Shakespeare specifically aesthetics are a huge  part of it so doing it in this way made sense. However, it’s not really a sustainable way to maintain a common place book. I’ll attempt to bring common placing into practice more often, but I’ll shift to keeping a regular notebook and see how effective that is for me.

There were a lot of quotes that I liked but seemed fairly stand alone and wouldn’t really fit in with any of my existing categories nor be consolidated into other categories so I did have to cut a few out that I otherwise would have included. A lot of Shakespeare work revolves around love, desire, and death, but beyond that the subjects he explores seem to vary wildly; including but not limited to food, mythology, religion, greed, corruption, and gender. This made it a bit hard to choose categories that would actually help me narrow down my choices, so I focused more on aesthetic aspects. I wanted to explore the dichotomy between the modern ignorant expectation and perception of his work in contrast to the reality. While his poetry and the poetic nature of his plays are beautifully written upon first glance, they have a much deeper and darker meaning behind it all, So I wanted to reflect that in the blog. The blog itself is visually pretty and aesthetically appealing with pinks and soft artwork paired to the quotes, but when one actually reads and studies the quotes the reality of their meaning is brought to light.

I included music because I thought it would pair well with the idea of the plays and show ways beyond written words that their stories still affect the world. His poetry is of course meant to be read as such but a huge aspect of sound and visual elements is missing from the experience when one just reads the plays, so I wanted to include the visual aesthetic aspect, and that idea evolved into including a playlist of sorts based on his works.

I think Venus and Adonis and Juliet and Romeo were my favorite works we read this semester (which is pretty easy to tell considering the bulk of my quotes seemed to come from there two pieces) Mostly because I was familiar with Juliet and Romeo already and was excited to explore it more in depth and understand it beyond the awkward and stilted re-enactments my 9th grade English teacher put her class through, and Venus and Adonis because I was familiar with Ovid’s version of the story but was unaware of Shakespeare’s, and was excited to study the differences. Other works like some of the sonnets stood out to me for their beautiful wording but I find longer works (the plays) more engaging so I tend to gravitate more towards them. Overall I really liked the work we read and the creativity we were allowed to take on this assignment.

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Love’s Labour’s Lost

Lines: (5.2) 103 – 105

Quote: ‘For’ quoth the King ‘an angel shalt thou see; yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously’. The boy replied, ‘An angel is not evil; I should have feared her had she been a devil’.

Themes: lovesick

Context: Boyet telling a story to depict another perception of love.

Commentary: the different perspectives of love throughout the pay and how the characters evolve, or don’t evolve, is an interesting contrast to the shifting depictions.  

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Love’s Labour’s Lost

Lines: 140 - 141

Quote: Love is a familiar; Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but love.

Themes: lovesick

Context: Armado lamenting the pain of love

Commentary: interesting allusions to cupid and the depiction of love here plays off of a later pert of the play nicely.

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Love’s Labour’s Lost

Lines: 102 – 107

Quote: Why should proud summer boast Before the birds have any cause to sing? Why should I joy in any abortive birth? At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May’s new – fangled shows, But like each thing that in season grows.

Themes: feathers, flowers, melodies

Context: Berowne trying to convince him to open the gate

Commentary: I like the bird imagery

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Sonnet

Lines: 4

Quote: A crow that flies in heaven’s sweetest air.

Themes: feathers, stargazing, pigment

Context: sonnet 70

Commentary: The repeated use of birds (and their color) to contrast imagery is really interesting. 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Sonnet

Lines: 10 - 14

Quote: constant stars, in them I read such art As truth and beauty shall together thrive if from thyself to store thou wouldst convert: Or else of thee this I prognosticate, thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.

Themes: stargazing

Context:  sonnet 14

Commentary: I especially like the last line of this quote, I like the way Shakespeare explores the way love desire and beauty can bring about the end of something. 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Sonnet

Lines: 1 - 2

Quote: Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy

Themes: melodies

Context: opening to sonnet 8

Commentary: I just really liked this line.

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: A lovers Complaint

Lines: 285 – 287

Quote: O how the channel to the stream gave grace! Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses That flame through water which their hue encloses.

Themes: flowers, pigment

Context: talking about the way he looks when crying

Commentary: Interesting imagery 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: A lovers Complaint

Lines: 141 - 147

Quote: So many have that never touched his hand sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart. My woeful self that did in freedom stand. And was my own free-simple (not in part), What with his art in youth and youth in art Threw my affections in his charmed power, Reserved the stalk, and gave him all my flower. 

Themes: lovesick, feathers, flowers

Context: talking about being in love

Commentary: good depiction of the love and lack of love she feels. 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: A Lovers complaint

Lines: 120 - 123

Quote: So on the tip of his subduing tongue All kind of arguments and question deep, All replication prompt and reason strong, For his advantage still did wake and sleep

Themes: melodies

Context: depicting the way he uses words to sway people 

Commentary: I really like how this line hints at the cyclical nature of time within the piece. 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: A lovers Complaint

Lines: 71 - 75

Quote: ‘Father,’ she says, ‘Though in me you behold the injury of many a blasting hour, Let it not tell your judgment I am old: Not age, but sorrow over me hath power. I might as yet have been a spreading flower

Themes: flowers

Context: talking to her father about what ails her

Commentary: I really like the way it shows the power imbalance and her own thoughts and feelings. 

[shakespear-ellec]

work: Let The Bird Of Loudest Lay

lines: 50 - 52

Quote: To the phoenix and the dove, Co-Supremes and stars of love, As chorus to their tragic scene.

Theme: stargazing, melodies

context: the ending in which the birds die

commentary: Again, very sad but very beautifully written. 

[shakespear-ellec]

work: Let The Bird Of Loudest Lay

Lines: 21 - 24

Quote: Here the anthem doth commence: Love and constancy is dead, Phoenix and the Turtle fled, In a mutual flame from hence. 

Theme: melodies, sweet dreams

context: approaching the end of the poem in which the birds die. 

commentary: The ending of the poem is really sad the depiction of the bird's final dance so to speak is really pretty. 

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Let The Birds Of Loudest Lay

Lines: 13 - 16

Quote:  Let the priest in surplice white, That defunctive music can, Be the death-divining swan, Lest the requiem lacks his right.

Theme: melodies, pigment

Context: talking about the birds 

Commentary: I really like this imagery

[shakespear-ellec]

Work: Let The Birds Of Loudest Lay

Lines: 1-4

Quote: Let the bird of loudest lay, on the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be: To whose sound chaste wings obey.

Theme: melodies

Context: opening lines to the poem

Commentary: I think this was my favorite poem we read. A lot of the sonnets were really good but I like the language used and the imagery throughout.