1209: Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

It’s fall, and that means “back-to-school”. We put together this week’s episodes for the educators in our audience — especially those of you who may be looking for a little Slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost. We hope you all enjoy these selections, as learners of any age.

In this episode, Major writes… “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is brilliant for how the speaker disproves the idea that his girlfriend could be compared to anything in nature. He takes aim at hyperbolic similes; he offers examples that deflate the notion of flawless physical perfection. Any poem either collapses or succeeds based on the originality of its vision. The substance of Shakespeare’s vision is that our imperfections are what make us truly beautiful and rare.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Norton Young Readers of In Praise of Mystery from US Poet
0:06.5	Loria Aida Lamone and Caldecod honor-winning illustrator Peter Seis, a transcendent picture book featuring the poem that will travel into space aboard
0:16.3	NASA's Europa Clipper in praise of mystery, celebrates humankind's curiosity.
0:21.9	Asked us what it means to explore beyond our known world and shows
0:26.6	how the unknown can reflect us back to ourselves.
0:30.2	And praise of mystery is available wherever books are sold.
0:34.4	It's fall and that means back to school.
0:38.2	We put together this week's episodes for the educators in our audience, especially those of you who may be
0:46.2	looking for a little slowdown treatment on those classroom classics, from Shakespeare to Frost.
0:54.4	We hope you all enjoyed these selections
0:57.4	as learners of any age. I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.
1:07.0	I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.
1:13.2	An unreasonable fear emerged recently in a dream. I could not recall my family and those I love.
1:30.4	This was not prosopagnosia, the inability to recall faces. My difficulty? I was unable to hold them in language. In the dream I was seated in a park in front of a sketch
1:46.6	artist who wore an exaggerated beret. My mental images were there but words eluded me. I struggled to describe members of my family's most basic features.
1:59.8	My daughter's hair, my older son's height, my younger son's nose.
2:06.8	It was as if my subconscious had lost a bit of my boundless affection.
2:12.8	They were left undrawn to the disappointment of the artist who waved me off.
2:20.2	Isn't calling to mind those we love and their endearing marks and presence a measure of that love?
2:27.9	It is how others learn that we live in the company of real people with real features.
2:34.3	A pudgy stomach, a mole, speclings of gray hair.
2:40.1	In my waking life, I carry within what makes my family and friends unique and quirky,
	...

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