Okay, good morning everybody. How are you today?
Good. So, I think as usual everybody is prepared
with a report and today a response. A response to
Shakespeare's sonnet, Shall I Compare Thee to A
Summer's Day. So as usual, we are going to listen
to one or two reports and perhaps a response.
After that, I'm going to ask you general questions
about your response to the poem. Then we'll have
something about Shakespeare. Amal will give a
brief biography about Shakespeare. And then we are
going to start explaining the poem. After that, I
would be giving you two readers of the poem. One
is going to be sung and the other is going to be
recited. After that, you'll be left to compare and
contrast between the two and to say which one you
prefer and why. So this is our agenda for today's
class. Let's see who is ready to report. Yes.
Okay. I'm looking for. I don't know what I'm
looking for. Maybe everything and maybe nothing.
Maybe I'm looking for May I'm looking for the moon
between the clouds. May I'm looking for the stars.
May I'm looking for a child's face with a small
smile. Or may I'm looking for a white rose with a
beautiful smell. May I'm looking for a loyal
friend. May I'm looking for myself, my mind and my
heart. Or me, I'm looking for everything. So if we
searching, searching something, we will find
everything. Thank you very much. Maybe, you know.
It's a report, like she's recording her feelings.
It seems she's at loss. She doesn't know exactly
what she wants to do, but I'm sure she knows what
she's going to do with Shakespeare's poem. She has
to respond to Shakespeare's poem. Yes? Okay, it's
good to try to write in verse. Yes, please?
The last lecture was interesting, wonderful and
very useful because we make comparison and
contrast between the two poems, Marlow's poem and
answer of Marlow's bio relay in themes, rhyme,
rhythm, figure of speech, etc. So it was
interesting, especially after the short vacation
at the last week, which included hot and important
events. First, the exchange prisoners deal between
the resistance and Israel, which brought the
happiness and pleasure to every house in
Palestine. We felt as the day of Eid. Another
important event, the falling of Libyan president.
At the end of the lecture, Dr. Akram asked us to
write a reflection about the two poems and to
prepare the new poem, which is written by the
greatest English writer, William Shakespeare.
which Gaddafi said about him. He is from Arabian
origin. Yeah, it's good to link Gaddafi because
Gaddafi kept saying, Shakespeare, this is what he
kept saying. And his name Sheikh Zubair and the
English people changed his name and also
translated all his work into English language. So
yeah, Gaddafi was busying himself with small
things like this, you know. But it's okay, thank
you for linking a deaf with Shakespeare, you know?
Good, now I need a nice response. A response like
to the poem, you know? Yes? Just quick before I
come down to you and see your response to the poem
and to the poet, yes?
Comparing his beloved to a summer day, describing
her in a beautiful way, she's more fascinating
than May. When the sun dimmed by clouds or shades,
and every beautiful thing eventually faded, she
will never suffer the same fate. Everything will
change by chance or by the natural course of
decay, but her eternal beauty shall stay. For as
long as a human live and breathe with eyes that
can see, this is how long this verse will be.
Okay, thank you. So you believe in Shakespeare,
huh? You believe in Shakespeare, you think that,
yeah, we can do nothing to perpetuate the memory
of the people we highly honor, we highly like, so
we can do something about this. And this is like
the spirit of Shakespeare's poem, Shall I Compare
Thee to a Summer's Day. Okay, let me ask you about
your response. I know a lot of you want to read,
but because of time, I have to see how you
responded. How did you find the poem? Was it
interesting? Not interesting? Should we continue
reading Shakespeare? I don't know. Yes. What can
you tell me? Yes, please. This poem fits his
confidence because he thinks that his poetry and
his life is the source of life. Yes. So this, you
know, yeah, you're right. Like this poem, you
think it reflects like how, you know, he was self
confident of himself and of his poetry. Why?
Because he thought that, why do you think he was
self confident? It's the source of life and
immortality for his friends and his relationships
and the life. Okay. So I think it is because he
thought he cherished his poetry. He cherished his
poetry. He thought that his poetry was great,
good. Yes? Like other people who will respond? Who
will respond to this poem? Yes. What do you think?
Have you read the poem? Okay, tell me, like, how
you feel. You know, these people, like, know that
I'm busy. I'm leaving today early, but they are
worried, like, I'm not responding, you know? Good.
So, yes, what do you feel like? How you feel? Yes,
please.
Exaggeration. You think that Shakespeare is
exaggerating.
So you don't trust Shakespeare, you think like
there is something greater than Shakespeare's
verse. Yeah, this is like, you know, what is more
powerful than his poetry? Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala? Okay, death is okay, it is powerful, but it
is not, you know, as powerful as his verse, you
know? But you think, you know, Allah, Quran, like
Quran is immortal, you know? It's the word of
Allah. Okay? Good. Yes? I don't know. Did you feel
like the poem was difficult? Okay. It was easy?
Good. So what was he up to? What did he want to
say exactly? What did he want to say?
What did he want to say? Yes? That his beloved is
more beautiful than a summer day. How do you know
she is his beloved? Some critics say it was his
friend. Sir? How do you say it was his beloved?
What makes you think I know because we are
reading, you know, like. But it could be a friend
like, you know, there was an argument about like
he was talking to a friend. Okay. What about this
side? Yes. What do you think? It seems like you
have not read the poem. Yes. So again, yes. What
do you think?
So do you like the way he wanted to immortalize
his, the beauty of his friend? Why?
He's exaggerating. So the poem is full of
hyperbole. Like you don't, you know, believe what
Shakespeare is saying. Okay, yes, I think, you
know, do we have another response like to the
poem, to the form, to the questions, to the images
before? Yes?
Yes,
he asked a rhetorical question, you know? He was
able to compare his friend or his beloved to the
summer or a summer day. Can he do it and is he
going to do it perfectly? He doesn't know but he
did it anyway because he loved or he cared about
his friend or his beloved and he wanted to show
that to everyone. Okay, yes. I think you know he
started the poem by a rhetorical question. Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day? And the poem is
tricky, but I don't want like to go through the
poem until like we know something about the poet,
we know something about Shakespeare. I know you
studied Shakespeare, you studied some of his
plays, but it is very important like to know
something more. You have in the reader his
biography, but here Amal is coming to tell us
something about his biography. Yes, now, before we
start. I think it is safe to say that William
Shakespeare is probably the only poet
I think it is safe to say that Shakespeare is
probably the only poet in the entire wide world
that does not need any kind of any definition.
Just speak his name and his name speaks for all of
his contributions.
for the class, I will say some brief thing about
him. William Shakespeare is of course a poet, a
playwright, and one of the most prominent
characters, I mean poets in the English
literature. He is, he wrote 38 plays among which
Hamlet, Othello, Shakespeare, I mean King Lear,
and Macbeth, and a lot of other plays. He wrote
154 sonnets, and they were all very famous for
him. And Shakespeare, at the beginning of his
life, he started as an actor and a playwright. He
used to act in this theater, it's called The
Globe, and here I have some pictures for it. So
The Globe is a theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
It's a nice place where like you have a river,
Stratford-Upon-Avon, and he was living near The
Globe in fact. Yes? His plays at the beginning
used to be comedies and about history. I think
because
They became more sophisticated and more profound
and they became tragedies. We all know his style.
Shakespeare is known for the blank verse and he
always uses iambic pentameter. I think he borrowed
the blank verse from whom? From Christopher
Marlowe? No, not Christopher Marlowe. If you
remember, the one who invented the black verse was
Henry Howard Errol of Surrey. Shakespeare made use
of that by, you know, most of his plays were
written in iambic pentameter. But I don't know,
you said he was an actor and he was writing plays,
but then how did he come to write poetry? I don't
know, actually. Okay. I think, you know, in 1592
and 54, like, the theaters closed down because
there was a plague, you know, the plague. And, you
know, during this period, like, he wrote the 154
sonnets. And I think, you know, he addressed like
126 to a young man, and one like, you know, or 26
to the dark lady, and like two poems, you know,
like they were not addressed to anybody. But he
was like, his sonnets like were amazing by the
rhyme, the rhythm, the images, and so on. That's
it. I mean, his personal life is some sort of
secret. There are a lot of questions about his
life, his religion, his, I don't know, some of his
sonnets are not known who are they addressed to.
And that's it. He doesn't have a lot to talk
about. I'd like to read the poem for you aloud.
And after that, you're going to listen to two
versions of the song. Okay, I bet like you read it
aloud yourself. Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. And
summer's lease hath all too short a date, Sometime
too hot the eye of heaven shines, And off is his
old complexion dimmed, And every fur from fur
sometime declines By chance or nature's changing
course untrimmed. But thy, but thy eternal summer
shall not fade, nor lose position of that fair
thou ow'st, nor shall death brag that wondrous in
his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou
grow'st, so long as men can breathe or eyes can
see, so long they've lived this and this gives
life to thee. Okay, so in a minute, you'll be
listening to the two versions, and I wish after
that you see which appeals to you more, which
appeals to you and why, okay? So I wish you good
luck with watching it. Thank you very much, and
next time we'll continue, okay?
Shall I compare thee to
a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more
temperate Rough winds do shake the darling bells
of May And summer's peace hath all too short a
date Sometime
too hot, the eye of heaven shines And often he His
God-complexion Him, and every flare From flare
sometimes replies By chance or by nature's
changing course and trend
But I tell myself, shut up and run. No room of
possession, I prefer to dance. No shelter's
bright, that one who's in his right.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see So long
lives this And
this gives life to
thee
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art
more lovely, and more temperate. Rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May, And summer's leafs
have all too short a date. Sometimes too hot the
eye of heaven shines, And often it is known to
convection indignant, And every fair, fun fair,
sometimes declines By chance, or nature's changing
course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not
fade, Nor those possession of that fair thou
roast, Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in new
shade, When in eternal rhymes to time thou roast.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so
long lives this, and this gives life to me.
So now that you have watched both poems and how
they were recited, which one do you think suits
more the atmosphere of the poem? Which one did you
like?
So the first one. What about you?
Okay,
interesting.
Also, as she said, I prefer the first because it
is too emotional and make us to living inside the
atmosphere of the poem. And about the other one, I
think it is, it does not have feeling and it is
not emotion. It's like he was just reading the
poem. Yes, yes. First, it's more musical and touch
our hearts. But the second,
Any other opinions?
Who likes the first one? Show of hands. Okay, the
second. You're the only one.
I personally like the first one too. It's more
musical, more emotional. Shows everything, like
what he thought here. He's talking about love and
he wants to compare his love to a summer day and
stuff like that. So that's it. Thank you.