Hello, I'm Gill from www.engvid.com and today,
we're going to be looking at a poem.
So, when I did a previous poem, "The Owl and
the Pussycat", people liked it and said oh,
we would like more poems.
So, this is in response to that.
And also, you may have seen my lesson on Shakespeare
and Shakespearian phrases used in everyday
language that come from Shakespeare's plays.
So, this links to that as well, because we're
looking at a sonnet, which is a 14-line poem
by Shakespeare today, okay?
So, just to give a little bit of the history
of the sonnet, which traditionally is 14 lines
long and it's quite a strict - there are a
lot of strict rules about the rhythm of it
and the rhyming at the ends of the lines.
So, it's quite a hard thing for a poet to
do.
They have to work within some rules, but it
can produce some very interesting poems because
of that.
So, the sonnet started in Italy in the 13th
Century.
So, the first sonnets were in Italian.
And eventually, they filtered through to England
and sonnets in English started appearing in
the 16th Century, okay?
And one of the sonnet writers was Shakespeare,
who published a book of sonnets, over 150
sonnets, in 1609.
So, he wrote - he published 154 sonnets, all
in one book.
So, that was quite a lot.
So, we're going to look at one of his sonnets
today, which - it's a sort of situation in
this poem that you might recognize.
It's a very human situation, and we're going
to go line by line so that you don't get distracted
by a lot of lines below.
Just one line at a time, and I'll explain
it as we go along.
Okay.
So, here's the first line: Weary with toil,
I haste me to my bed.
Okay?
So, "weary" means tired.
This is somebody who has been working all
day and they're physically very tired.
"Toil" is another word for work, working.
It's an older word for working.
So, tired with work, "I haste" - means I hurry,
get to bed quickly.
I'm so tired, I just want to get to bed is
the sort of main meaning of this line.
So, "I haste me" I haste myself, I hurry to
my bed.
Okay?
So, that's the first line.
Quite a recognizable situation.
So, okay.
So, here comes the next line.
Okay, so this line is: The dear repose for
limbs with travel tired.
So, this is about the bed, the bed is lovely.
Oh, you can just lie down and sleep.
"Repose" means to lie down and rest, sleep.
So, you know what it's like when you're really
tired, you just want to get to bed.
And when you lie down - oh, wonderful!
It's great.
So, "the dear repose", he's just lying down
in bed, resting.
"For limbs", limbs are your arms and legs.
So, he's been physically working.
He's tired with working and with travelling.
So, "limbs with travel tired".
His arms and legs are tired from travelling.
He's probably been walking and maybe carrying
heavy things as well.
So, he's just physically exhausted and wants
to go to bed, okay?
Right.
Here comes the next line.
Okay, then there's a "but".
He's lying down, he wants to sleep, "But then
begins" another kind of journey, "a journey
in my head."
So, he's tired with travel.
He's had one kind of journey today, but then
he gets to bed and another journey starts
off in his head.
So, you know what it's like sometimes.
You're really, really tired.
You go to bed, but your mind is still working.
You can't stop thinking about things.
So, this is a very recognizable situation.
"But then begins a journey in my head", okay.
Here comes the next line.
Okay, so "Then begins a journey in my head/To
work my mind when body's work's expired".
So, this means the journey is in his head
to keep his mind busy, to work my mind, keep
my mind working, when my body's work has finished.
So, the work of his body, all the travelling
and carrying, has finished for the day.
But he's gone to bed, he's resting his body,
but he can't rest his mind.
He's thinking.
He can't stop thinking.
Okay.
Next line.
Okay, so - so, what is he thinking about?
So, he's saying "For then", when that happens,
"my thoughts, from far where I abide".
So, he's thinking of something that's a long
way away.
"Where I abide", where I am, here, where I
am.
He's thinking of something or someone far
away.
So, "For then my thoughts, from far where
I abide", where I am.
Somebody a long way away, okay.
Here's the next line.
So, "For then my thoughts, from far where
I abide/Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee".
So, he's talking to somebody whose "thee".
This is the old word for "you".
This is an old-fashioned word meaning "you".
He's thinking of somebody a long way away.
Again, a recognizable situation, okay.
So, "My thoughts intend", meaning they sort
of take me, they take me on a - this is another
type of journey, a pilgrimage, usually a religious
journey.
And "zealous" also is a word to do with religious
- very strong belief, a zealous pilgrimage.
So, he has strong feelings about this person
that he's thinking about.
They're almost like religious feelings for
the person.
So, that might - "For then, my thoughts from
far where I abide/Intend a zealous pilgrimage
to thee".
So, his thoughts have gone on a journey, like
a religious journey to somebody who he can't
stop thinking about, okay?
So, next line.
So, while he's thinking, his thoughts take
him to somewhere else where there is somebody
else who is on his mind.
And instead of falling asleep, "And keep my
drooping eyelids open wide".
So, he can't even close his eyes, his eyelids
that cover the eye.
They may be drooping, his eyelids are going
like this, almost closing, that's to droop,
like that.
But, instead, his eyes are open wide like
this, with the eyelids up, because he's still
thinking.
He can't stop thinking about this person.
So, he wants to sleep.
He's really tired physically, but his mind
won't let him sleep, and he's just got his
eyes open in the darkness, thinking about
this person.
You can't get to sleep doing that, okay?
So, right.
Next line, okay.
So, next line.
His eyes are wide open.
"Looking on darkness", the room is dark, his
eyes are open, but he can only see darkness.
"Looking on darkness which the blind do see".
So, people who are blind, who can't see, their
eyes, you know, they have that - the disability
of not being able to see.
He feels he's like a blind person.
He's lying there in the dark, but with his
eyes open, not seeing anything.
Well, it's the same for everybody if you're
lying in the dark, you can't see anything.
So, it's like being blind.
So, that's a strange thing to say, but this
is a poem.
So, the idea of blindness has something - a
deeper meaning, perhaps, in the poem, okay.
Right, so that's the first eight lines, but
we've filled the board.
Before we move onto the final six lines, I
just want to point out something else about
the sonnet, which is the way you get rhyming
at the ends of the lines.
Okay.
So, if you look at the end of each line without
worrying about "What does it mean?", you might
notice a pattern of repeated rhyming.
So, we've got "bed", "tired", "head", "expired",
"abide", "thee", "wide", "see".
So, I hope you can hear.
They're sort of alternating.
"Bed, head".
"Tired", "expired".
"Abide", "wide".
"Thee", "see".
So, sonnets do this in different patterns.
They're not always exactly like this.
It depends on what the poet wants to do with
it.
But we have a way of showing the rhyme scheme
just by using letters.
A, B, C. So, I'll just show you how that's
done, because then you can talk about the
rhyme scheme with the letters.
So, if you call the first word A, "bed", then
"tired" doesn't rhyme with "bed", so you call
that B. "Head" does rhyme with "bed", so that's
A again.
"Expired" rhymes with "tired", so that's B
again.
"Abide", that doesn't rhyme with anything
that's gone before.
So, we have to use a new letter - C. "Thee"
hasn't come before either, so we need another
new letter - D. "Wide" rhymes with "abide",
so we use the C again.
And then "see" rhymes with "thee", so we use
the D again.
Okay?
So, this far in the sonnet, you can say the
rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD.
Okay?
So, I'll just write that up here so we have
a note of it for when we look at the rest
of the sonnet.
So, ABAB, and you can also put a comma just
to show, because that is a way of - it sort
of creates a structure for the poem.
It holds certain lines together.
So, that's the effect of the rhyme scheme.
So, ABAB, CDCD, and then there will be more
to come.
Okay.
So, I'm going to have to rub all of this off
so that we can have the rest of the sonnet.
Okay, so we just left the poem where the person
is lying in bed with his eyes wide open, looking
on the darkness, which the blind do see.
Okay.
So, then it goes on: Save that my soul's imaginary
sight.
So, "save that" means except that.
So, he's saying he's like a blind person,
because he can only see darkness.
But he's saying except but my soul can see
something.
His soul or his heart has a picture in his
- puts a picture in his head.
So, he's looking on darkness.
He's like a blind person, but his soul is
showing him something.
A picture of something.
Okay?
Right.
Next line coming up.
Okay, so, "Save that my soul's imaginary sight/Presents
thy shadow" meaning your shadow, the person
he's thinking of who is a long way away, it's
like a shadow, like a ghost or something.
"Presents", shows your shadow, a sort of an
outline of this person.
He can picture them in his head.
"Presents thy shadow to my sightless view".
So, he's looking.
He can't see anything.
His view, his looking, his eyes are sightless,
meaning no sight.
He can't see anything.
But his soul is putting a picture into his
head of this person's shadow, their sort of
outline, what sort of person they are.
Trying to remember what they look like, something
like that.
So, his mind is working.
He's looking into the darkness, but there's
a picture in his head that comes from his
soul, which is reminding him of somebody and
what they look like.
Okay.
Here comes the next line.
Okay, so "Presents thy shadow", your shadow,
"to my sightless view/Which", meaning the
shadow, the shadow "which like a jewel", like
- something like a diamond or a precious stone,
a rich jewel, "like a jewel hung", hanging,
"in ghastly night".
So, the night is dark.
"Ghastly" makes it sound like a horror film.
A ghastly - it could mean ghostly, like a
ghost, which fits with the shadow.
But there's darkness here, but there's also
something bright, like a jewel.
So, he's lying in the dark, but the person
he's thinking of is sort of shining brightly,
like a jewel.
Like a diamond, and the fact that they're
like a jewel makes them sound very important
and valuable, if you like.
A precious - somebody precious, who is very
important to him.
Okay, so it's just like a jewel there in the
darkness, hanging - hanging in the air.
"Hung", hanging in the night, okay?
The shadow, which is like a jewel, which is
a bit of a contradiction, but anyway.
The jewel hanging there, "Makes" the "black
night beauteous", is like "beautiful".
It's an older word meaning "beautiful".
So, the jewel hanging there in the darkness
makes the black night beautiful.
And "her old face new".
Now, this is a difficult part.
It's difficult to understand.
Who is she?
"Black night" is a "her"?
Is like a woman?
You can have a kind of a symbolic idea that
the black night is a woman with a black cloak
or something.
"Her old face", some people think that's like
the moon.
The moon up in the sky has a face on it.
It's quite difficult to really understand
this part.
But the jewel makes the night beautiful, and
it's a kind of refreshing - bringing some
light and something new.
Making something that was old young again.
A refreshing kind of thing.
So, even though he can't sleep, he can see
something positive in this.
Okay?
Okay, so we're nearly at the end of the poem.
This is the next to last line, and usually
with Shakespeare, it's indented a little bit,
because the last two lines usually rhyme together.
So, they're - it's like what you might call
a punchline or two punchlines which completes
the poem.
So, that's why it's indented a little bit.
So, this is a final comment that he's making
on his situation, lying in bed tired, but
unable to sleep.
He saying, "Lo", meaning "here you are".
This is an old-fashioned way of saying, "this
way", or "like this" "in this situation".
"Thus", like this, in this way, "by day my
limbs", so in the daytime, my arms and legs.
"By night, my mind", so in the daytime, he's
- his limbs are working and getting tired.
At night, his mind is working and getting
tired.
Poor man.
Okay.
Let's find out what the last line's going
to be.
Right, so, "Lo, thus by day my limbs, by night
my mind/For thee," you, "and for myself, no
quiet find."
So, he just can't rest ever.
Working in the daytime physically.
His mind working at night.
He can't get any rest.
No quiet, meaning peace and calm and rest
and sleep.
So, because of the person he's thinking of,
"thee", the person he's talking to, you.
"And for myself", and they're a long way apart,
he can't find any rest.
So, hardly gets any sleep.
So, there we are.
So, that's probably a recognizable situation.
It may have been written in 16 - or published
in 1609, but it's a sort of universal situation
that everybody probably experiences at some
time or other.
So, let's just continue, first of all, to
finish the rhyme scheme.
So, we started it off on the previous board,
ABAB, CDCD.
"Sight" doesn't rhyme with anything that's
gone before.
I've just checked, so we've got to use a new
letter here.
So, after D comes E, so we need to give that
an E there.
And "view" doesn't rhyme with anything that's
gone before, so that's F. Then we have "night",
which rhymes with "sight".
So, E again.
And then we have "new", which rhymes with
"view".
So, that's another F. And then, we have the
final two lines, which as I said, they both
rhyme together, okay.
And that's called a rhyming couplet, when
two lines appear next to each other and they
rhyme.
So, "mind" doesn't rhyme with anything that's
gone before, so that's got to be G. "Find"
rhymes with "mind", so that's another G.
So, we've got ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.
So, you could say that is the rhyme scheme
of this poem, of this sonnet.
It's a nice quick way of saying how it rhymes.
And that's fairly typical of Shakespeare's
sonnets, to rhyme in that kind of pattern.
Okay, so I hope you found that interesting.
And we will now - I will read through the
poem without stopping to explain so that you
can hear it all in one piece.
Okay, so hopefully that has introduced you
to some new vocabulary as well as to the poem
and the sonnet form, if you haven't come across
that before.
So now, I'll read the poem through without
explanations so that can hear what it sounds
like as one piece, okay.
So, here we go.
So:
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed.
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view
Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night
Makes black night beauteous and her old face
new
Lo, thus by day my limbs, by night my mind
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
Okay, so there we are.
There's a Shakespeare sonnet for you.
And if you'd like to explore Shakespeare a
little more, if you haven't already seen my
lesson on Shakespeare's words in everyday
language, have a look out for that one.
And we have some other poetry.
We have a haiku lesson coming up, and possibly
some other poetry and there's already a lesson
on a sort of comic poem by Edward Lear called
"The Owl and the Pussycat".
So, if you haven't already seen that one,
do have a look, okay.
And I'm sure there'll be a quiz, so have a
look for that on www.engvid.com and see you
again soon.
Bye for now.
