Today we start something probably different,
something new, related but still something new.
Last time we finished speaking about major
Renaissance poets and before that we studied major
Renaissance dramatists. We spoke about several
terms that we needed to understand and we still
do. We spoke about censorship, patronage, and we
also spoke about the canon, and last time, the
rules of Decorum. What do you know about the rules
of decorum? Did you read more stuff about the
rules of decorum? What does the term rules of
decorum mean in the context of literature here?
Rules of decorum, yes, please. The rules of
decorum are the rules that the poet has to have in
his personality or in his style of writing to be
in the group of canon. To write great poetry, you
had to follow certain rules, specific rules. And
many of these rules were strict. You had to follow
them. What topic to choose? Universal truths,
remember? The language itself. Not everything can
be poetic. Only highly embellished poetic
language. And then the form itself. You had to
follow a particular structure. a highly organized
form of poetry. And in the 17th century and 18th
century, this became even more famous than now,
more common than now. But during the time of
Elizabeth and later on, we have a group of poets
who did not follow the rules of the Quran, who did
not want to obey these ancient rules of writing
poetry, of versification. Before I explain things,
I'll give you examples from their poetry, and I'll
let you come to certain conclusions yourself. Look
at this poem. And again, I'm not mentioning the
name of the poet, because we care more about the
text itself. We need to appreciate the text
regardless of who the poet is. This is a poem, The
Sun Rising. Look at the shape of the poem and tell
me what you think.
Please. How do you know? Did you count the lines?
How many lines? This is not a sonnet. Ten lines,
not fourteen. So it's not definitely not. By the
way, this is the first stanza of a poem consisting
of Three stanzas. So the sun rising, number one.
Okay, you noticed very quickly the rhyme scheme.
Good, very good of you. And you think it has in
part something from the Italian sonnet Petrarca.
Something clearer than this, please. Oh, remember
the poems before when we studied the sonnets? More
or less they were like this. Oh, sorry. They were
like this. Remember five feet, five feet, five
feet, five feet, ten syllables, ten syllables, ten
syllables. Sometimes four feet, four feet, four
feet, like eight syllables, eight syllables, eight
syllables. So you read a whole poem, a long poem.
And I said this about Shakespeare's sonnet. We
have over 150. Sonnets, and almost all the lines
consist of 10 syllables, because this is the rules
of decorum, this strict, rigid form of poetry in
general, but of the sonnet in particular. So the
first thing we notice is that this poem, this was
written again in the Elizabethan Age. Clearly the
shape is not following the rules of decorum. If
you count the syllables, how many syllables do we
have in the first line? How many syllables in
busy? Busy, happy, two. Okay, one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight. So four feet.
Unruly three. Unruly, like happy, two. Happiness,
three. Happily, three. Ha, pi, li, three. The
syllable depends on how many vowel sounds we have.
And then, why dost thou thus? How do you know the
number of feet generally? You divide the number
seven by two. And then, through windows and
through curtains call on us. One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Come on.
Clearly there is an intention to change, to be
different. An intention to not follow the rules.
Not write a poem with strictly the same number of
syllables and the same number of feet.
If you code more, you'll find again, I think this
is also 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and then 5 feet, 4 feet. So
number one, we notice the irregular form. The
number of lines, the number of feet in the first
line is not the same, second, third, etc. What
about the rhyme scheme? Can someone do the rhyme
scheme? Can you come here please? Yes?
Sun A Y, tell them why. The first sound takes the
first letter of the alphabet. Okay. Why B? Why not
A? It's different. It's not the same. So we go to
the second letter of the alphabet, which is B.
Okay. A.
New sound, we go to the next letter.
Parenthesis, C? No, definitely not. This is thus,
us, this is parenthesis. This is D.
Offices, parentheses?
No way. This is M. This is D. Not the same sound.
Definitely not the same sound. It's a couplet.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Is it regular? How
can we tell? Is it musical? Does it make a musical
pattern? A, B, B, A, C, D, C, D, E. It is. It is
musical. But we can double check when we look at
the other stanzas. So this is stanza number one,
this is stanza number two. Strong? Someone do it
quickly. Someone. The rhyme scheme. Yeah, quickly
Also
D
E E So the same go here. It's the same. So this is
a regular rhyme scheme regular rhyme scheme
musical but The number of feet in each line is not
the same. But does that mean this is not musical?
Let's read the poem. Someone read the poem. The
first one, someone, please. Yeah, go on. The sun
rising, busy old fool and lonely sun. Why does
thou thus throw windows and throw curtains calm on
us? Must desire motions lovers seasons run saucy
saucy pedantic rich rich gosh child life is cool
boys and princesses princesses princesses go
talker handsome handsome handsome man that the
king will ride cold country ants to harvest
offices. Love all life, no season, no clime, nor
hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. I
think there is some music to this. Can you do it?
Yeah? OK.
It's not throw,
it's like you throwing windows, through windows.
So are apprentices.
Beautiful reading. Thank you very much. Let's see
what the poet is saying here. What is he talking
to? Who is he talking to? Who's he addressing?
Okay, who's that? Is he talking to a woman, to a
person? Yeah, he's talking to the sun. A
personification. And there is, if you don't read
the title here of the poem, and someone tells you,
busy, old, fool, unruly son, I'm sure some of you
will write it this way with O. Because these
features, unruly means naughty. Fool, busy,
adjectives that describe people rather than
things. So there is a personification of the son.
And generally, the son is also a symbol. A symbol
means something that stands for something else. It
symbolizes power. It symbolizes authority.
Probably, a new start, generally. But here, is he
happy with the sun? Remember that text, when the
sun was good because of the winter of discontent?
But here, the guy is attacking the sun, calling it
unruly, old, fool, busy. He's not happy with the
sun because the sun keeps sticking its nose, its
head, through the windows and the curtains. So
he's busy, old fool, unruly sun. Why dost thou?
He's interrogating the sun. Through windows and
through curtains call upon us. Must thy motions
lovers' seasons run? Saucy, pedantic, rich, go.
Go. Get out. That's why I would usually here in
this context take the sun as a symbol of
authority.
What's authority? Power. The mainstream. The
mainstream, the official worldview.
The poet, in a way, is personifying the son to
make this idea clear, as if he's talking to a
human being, to, I don't know, the king, or
probably the people, the critics who decide the
rules of poetry. You know what the word pedantic
is? Pedantic is someone who uses language in a way
to show off, like using big words, powerful
language just to show off that I can use better
language than you. So the fact that the poet is
personifying the sun and describing it as pedantic
and as nosy, you know, nosy because it sticks its
nose, curious, waking them up, he's saying, go
out. You're busy, you're old, you're a fool. Don't
disturb us, the lovers, because the lovers must
not or do not obey your rules. In my reading of
this poem, I think the poet is, again, when he
breaks the decorum of the lines here, he's also
breaking the rules by challenging the authority
itself, the sun that stands for power and
authority. The sun here, in my opinion, could be
the authority of criticism and poetry, the rules
of decorum. Because you needed to write. You had
to write poetry in a particular way. And the poet
here is dismissing this. Get out. Don't tell me
what I should do, when I should wake up. Why are
you sticking your head through the windows and
through the curtains? Get out. Go. Go instead of
waking me up, disturbing me, telling me, dictating
things on me. Go child. Let school boys. Go wake
up school children. And sauer apprentices.
Apprentices is originally apprentice. The boys who
work at somebody's place to learn a craft or a
skill. So sauer, you know, sauer is someone who
doesn't want to go to work. Go wake them up. Go
tell the court, the huntsman, the people in the
court that the king is going outside. Go call the
farmers. Tell the farmers, go harvest your crops.
Leave us alone. And then we have the beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful couplet here. Love, this is
so like Shakespeare, probably more beautiful in
many ways. When he says here, must thy emotions,
lovers, seasons run? I shouldn't obey the sun,
because we're more powerful. Love, all alike, no
season knows, nor climb. Love is all the time.
It's not in the morning. It's not at night. It's
not in the afternoon. It's not when you're hungry,
when you're thirsty. It's all the time. The sun
does not dictate this. So in brief, we have a text
here where the poet is clearly breaking the rules.
How? Number one, the form itself. But is the form
related to the meaning? In my opinion, yes. This
is a revolutionary poem in which the poet, the
speaker says, I don't want to obey anybody. And
I'm breaking the rules. I'm breaking the rules.
Look at the language. Remember, we said the
language was especially the language of courtly
love. This is a love poem. The language of courtly
love. Remember the sonnet? Shall I compare thee to
a summer's day? Now what more lovely and more
temperate. Come live with me and be my love, and
we will all the pleasures prove. But this is a
poem about busy old fool and ruly son. Why dost
thou through curtains and through windows call
upon us? It's like there's a powerful beginning
here. There's someone who is dramatic about this,
probably expressing unhappiness or
dissatisfaction. That's example number one. The
same thing applies. to the other standard another
text this is one we have in the book what do you
notice quickly look at the text tell me what you
notice about this raise your hand please remember
generally i do it like this i look at the poem
that's the first thing i do the second thing is I
count the lines because it could be a sonnet if it
is a sonnet there is something I can say out of
the lines the counting I go for the rhyme scheme
so what do you notice please okay
so it's one block 14 lines interesting it is a
sonnet remember the sonnet Italy Petrarch
Particular subject matter, particular rhyme
scheme, Shakespeare? The rhyme scheme. Let's go
for the rhyme scheme. Can someone do it? This is
going to be problematic. Come here please. Yes.
Okay, no problem.
Tell them what you're doing. Okay, the first one,
first alphabet, A, U meant it's totally different,
bent than meant A, sorry, B. Okay, good. U and U,
A, U, C, and A. U and U are not the same, U, U, U.
They're the same. M and bent B, different.
Okay,
before she continues, what does this remind you
of? Italian sonnet, Petrarch, remember? A, B, B,
A, A, B, B, A, C, D, C, D, C, D. Go on.
I for I are you
sure maybe it is listen we started something
called imperfect rhyme what is an imperfect rhyme
there is rhyme but it doesn't rhyme hundred
percent probably fifty percent so anime Enemy and
I they are close but not close enough to be
perfect rhyme. So it should be DD Before she
continues. This is also Petrarch however Oh,
thank you. What is EE? Couplet. Thank you very
much. Good Listen to me The imperfect rhyme again.
Remember we said this before either it was read in
a particular way or when you read it you just do
it extend it stretch it a little bit so it could
be like anime I in a way a little bit close or
could have been pronounced in a way that But more
important to me is that an imperfect rhyme tells
us, when you read the text, be careful. The poet
is sending us a signal, a particular message. Why
we need to stop and see why there is imperfection
here. Does it reflect a particular idea? And
usually it does. So is this a Shakespearean or a
Petrarchan sonnet? Italian or English? Italian.
Are you sure? Yes. Half and half, mixture.
Generally, we have
several forms, but the most important forms are
again the Italian, the English, Petrarchan,
Shakespeare. We have a person here who's going for
Petrarch, the original, Sonneteer and then at the
end all of a sudden shifts to Shakespeare in a way
creating a new form in a way mixing things and
bringing a new form a bb a a bb a cd cd ee and
remember the sonnet With a couplet, it means
something. Remember we said some people believe
that only Shakespeare could do this, where he
develops in 12 lines a particular problem and
gives us the twist, the resolution, the closure in
two lines. So this is someone saying, I don't want
to follow Shakespeare, but I can be as smart as
Shakespeare, as good as Shakespeare, and this is
the couplet I have here.
So sonnet, different rhyme scheme. What do you
notice? What else do you notice about it? Now
read.
What is the sonnet about? Does anyone want to
read? Probably the first quatrain, yes? batter my
heart, three persons God for you, as yet but not
breathe shine and seek to mend, that I may rise
and stand o'er you, me and them, you're forced to
break, blow, burn and make me new. No, no, read
this again and pay attention to the B B B sound,
the alliteration. You're forced to break, blow,
burn and make me new. Break, break, blow, burn.
Yeah, that's that's part of the strong language
strong opening here. Is this a love poem? There's
God here. You know three persons in Christianity
who have Trinity. The Trinity. This is a religious
poem and the whole poem is about the poet trying
to break free from the sins of God's enemy, Satan,
the devil. He's asking God to break this
relationship between him and Satan, to free him.
Divorce me from who? From his relationship with
the enemy of God, Satan. Because he wants to be
close to God. He wants to be free. And there's a
paradox. I like the paradox here. Imprison me to
make me free. What is a paradox? Saying something
and saying the opposite. That's irony. Paradox is
a sentence that contradicts itself. When someone
says imprison me because I want to be free. What?
Feed me because I want to be hungry. Break me
because I want to be new. Generally, it's a
statement that contradicts itself. When you first
read it, you think it doesn't make sense. But when
you analyze it, when you put it in its context,
you realize how smart and witty this is. So he
wants to break the old him, the sinner, the person
that is close to Satan, to the devil, because he
wants to be new with God. He wants God to imprison
him away from the enemy of God, from him to him.
If you are a prisoner with God, you're still free.
He offers you a lot of freedom. So what is this
poet doing? Again, changing the form, changing the
rhyme scheme, and changing the subject matter of
the most important form of English literature of
that time, the sonnet. So there is a deliberate
Insistence on this, on bringing something new, on
breaking the rules of the Qur'an. This is someone
saying, no, I am more powerful than the rules of
the Qur'an. Because the rules of the Qur'an are
busy old fool and unruly. They keep just calling
upon us, telling us what to do and what not to do.
I'm not going to follow this. OK. One more. This
is another sonnet. Probably I can pass it on. Look
at this poem. it's in the book by the way and the
title is Easter Wings you know not Red Bull this
time but if you look at the text from afar it
sounds like a bird flying or probably two birds
flying because this is body the wings the body the
wings
What was that? The M?
But generally I just turned it this way because I
wanted to show you how it could look like a bird,
like wings. Easter, wings. Also Easter, you know
Easter, we are in March, Easter. This is also a
really just Christian thing here.
This is the poem. Now, the title, Easter Wings,
might sound religious. It is religious. But when
you look at the shape of the poem, remember, when
we go for Shakespeare, for Ben Jonson, even
Marlowe and those poets, same number of syllables
and feet. This looks crazy, because we have long
line, shorter, short, and then the shortest, and
then it gets long. Listen. Now these group, these
poets, this group of poets did something new to
literature, to English poetry. And this is
important because to them, the meaning is more
important than the rule. Again, the meaning is
more important than the rule. If I feel like
writing a religious poem in the sonnet form, you
go for it. If I feel that the line needs five
feet, I go there. If I feel it needs less or more,
I go there. The idea is more important. The idea
is more significant than the rule itself, than the
number of the syllables in many ways. Let's see
how they connect where the meaning and the form
are connected. In the rules of the Quran, like in
Arabic poetry by the way, sometimes when you read
Arabic poetry you find that a particular word
doesn't fit in the context. I'm not sure if I
mentioned this before here. What's his name? Elia
Boumadie, in one of his poems, Kam Tashtaki, He's
inviting people to be optimistic. And in one line,
he says,
So he's saying, like, be happy because the sun is
burning. It doesn't work. Why? Because he chose
this particular word, although it is the wrong
word, because of the rhyme and because of the
meter. It wasn't mulqafiyah. For those
metaphysical poets, for those poets we're studying
today, the meaning is more important. They can
break the rule for the right word, for the right
idea. Let's see how the meaning, the theme, is
connected with
The form. So this is the longest line, right? And
this is the shortest line. Same here, two lines,
very short, long, long. The first line says, Lord,
again, God, religious. Lord who created man in
wealth and store. And that's why we have the
longest line. He's saying, God gave man
everything. This big, the biggest thing. God
created man in wealth and store. And that's why
it's the longest line. What happens next? Man
begins to lose.
And then because there is loss here, the line
shrinks. Thank you for the word, shrinks. And then
decay, you know, decay decline, fades, decaying
even more and more till he became most poor, most
poor and we have the shortest line. But what
happens next with thee, thee here, Lord. Let me
rise. Because there's rising, it grows again
bigger because you connect, you go back to God. As
larks, as birds. You know the lark? Harmoniously
and sing this day thy victories. Then shall the
fall further the flight in me. Oh, thank you. I
love the further alliteration. The fall further
the flight. It's alliteration where the sound It's
like, it's like wings fluttering. Similar to this
in a way, fluttering. The fall, further, the
flight, there is alliteration here, but also there
is a paradox. What's a paradox? A sentence that is
self-contradictory. How does the fall further the
flight? If you fall, you fall. But here he says,
if I fall, I rise up above. Because this is a
religious concept here. If you commit a sin and
you repent, you go back to God, you will rise
higher than ever before. If you count the number
of syllables here, Ten. Can you say how that
worked with you? One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten. One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten. One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven
One foot. One foot. No, two syllables, one foot.
Plural of foot. And then one, two, three, four,
five. The same thing happens again and again. But
again, what I'm saying here is that the longest
line corresponds, is connected with what it means.
Wealth and store. God gave man everything. And
when man lost everything, became the most, most
poor. Same thing happens again. Most thin, because
this is the most thin physically, it's the most
thin. But the poet is saying that I want to imp.
Imp means like link, glue, connect. My wing on
thine. And that's why we have here, this is a bird
probably standing for man. And this is another
bird standing for Jesus or God. And he wants the
wings to be connected so they can... Affliction,
pain shall advance the flight in me. I want to go
back to you, God. Forgive my sins. I love you,
God. I'm coming back to you. Look at the rhyme
scheme here. We have Thor. Same. B, more, A, B,
Puro, so A, D, C, rise, D, listen, harmoniously
rhymes with D but imperfectly. So C, also rise and
victories, they rhyme but imperfect rhyme. So D
and C.
So A, B, A, B, A. C, D, C, D, C. And the same
thing happens later on. What do we see here again
is that a poet deliberately, on purpose, changing
the form. And the form is not random. It's
connected with the meaning in many ways. If you
notice, we have in one stanza, we have two
imperfect rhymes here. So they don't look for the
perfect rhyme. They don't look for the most
beautiful, most elegant, most powerful, most
highly, you know. Like a word that really is
poetic that only poets and only people who go to
university know. The right word in the right place
is usually used. Because the meaning is more
important than the rule. What is this?
Okay, see, this is clearer here. What is this?
This is John Donne and his school of poets. John
Donne. John Donne. And his followers, George
Herbert. The Easter Wings poem is a poem by
Someone named George Herbert. So in brief, to wrap
things up, John Donne as a poet clearly was
dissatisfied with the way English poetry was
written during his time. He didn't like the rules
of decorum, so he broke them. He changed many
things. He changed something about the form, about
the language, about the rules, the meter. For this
poet, the idea is more important than the rule. So
he would break the rule just to convey the right
idea.
And what does that mean? Does it mean that it was
okay to do this then? Of course not. Remember,
this is the heyday of Renaissance. And then we
will be having the neoclassical age, the age that
emphasized rules over meanings in so many ways.
The rules of decorum were sacred. You had to
follow them. And when someone comes to do this,
number one, he's viewed as a threat. Writing
something different, writing something new could
be viewed as a threat because some patrons might
find this interesting and would be, oh, I want
this poet who writes different poetry. And I want
to give him money. I want to bring him. So
probably some critics of that time viewed this as
a threat. But definitely, they didn't like
Diondan. But not because Diondan was writing bad
poetry. or difficult poetry, or complex poetry. It
was because John Donne was breaking the rules. And
the rules for them are the most important things.
One critic, Johnson, we studied Johnson already as
a dramatist and a poet, he said, John Donne
deserves hanging. Yeah, that's extreme. He
deserves hanging.
For what? For writing different poetry? Where's
the freedom of speech, right? And he said, John
Donne will perish. You know perish? He will
decline. He will be forgotten. Perish. No one will
remember him. Perish. He will vanish. He will
disappear because no one will like his poetry.
Actually, many people liked his poetry, but the
mainstream critics The critics who called for the
rules of the Quran did it like this, and they
kicked John Donne and his followers from the
canon. They would also not talk about them, ignore
them, and when they talk about them, they would
negatively frame them. Remember the word frame?
Important word here. Frame? to describe somebody
in a negative way or a positive way. But here,
John Donne was negatively framed by the mainstream
critics. How? Someone said, he deserves hanging.
Someone said, he will perish. Someone said, he
writes a perplexing poetry. Someone said, John
Donne, this is not poetry, this is verse.
Someone said even, because a lot of critics agree
that John Donne is smart, witty. Alexander Pope
said, no, he doesn't have an extraordinary kind of
wit. All poets have the same level of wit like
Donne. So John Donne and his followers, for about
200 years, was in a way marginalized, was not in
the canon, was kicked out. And thanks to a very
important man, a very important critic, a very
important poet in the 20th century, early 20th
century, T.S. Eliot. The Wasteland, April is the
cruelest month. When he was reading poetry, he
came across the metaphysical poets, John Donne.
And he said, wow, these are important poets. He
showed how important their poetry was, to the
extent that in the 20th century, John Donne and
his followers became more important than Johnson,
than Dryden, than Samuel Johnson, and then
Alexander Pope combined. Many poets in the 20th
century started to imitate them in a way. That's
why John Donne is considered a modernist. What is
a modernist?
Modernism. He brings new ideas, he experiments, he
changes. The 20th century went back to the poets
like John Donne to imitate them, to learn from
them. And finally, when we read the literature
box, we will come across the term metaphysical.
Listen to this again. Metaphysical poetry,
metaphysical poets. This is an ugly term. Look at
it. It's horrible, right? Metaphysical poetry. It
sounds terrorizing, intimidating, spooky. Now,
this term was used again by the mainstream critics
Dryden and Johnson to describe John Donne and his
followers. What does it mean, metaphysical?
Believe me, it doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean
anything. But it was used in order to, again, make
people just, in a way, hate those poets, not read
them. Because I want to read poetry. Oh, yeah.
Metaphysical, it sounds, the name even sounds
difficult. So this is also negative framing. So
according to T.S. Eliot, the term metaphysical was
a term of abuse. What's abuse? As an insult. So it
wasn't used to describe them, but it was used to
insult them. To tell people, don't read this
poetry.
I'll stop here. I will continue this later on. But
let me just summarize the last point here and see
how funny literature is and how life works against
certain ideologies and ideas. Ben Jonson said John
Donne will perish for breaking the rules.
Ironically, nowadays John Donne is more important
than Ben Jonson. and probably other mainstream
critics, neoclassical critics of that type. So no
matter how much sometimes the official mainstream
critics and poets try to dismiss some poetry, not
because it's bad, but because it's against their
ideology, against their rules, because it
threatens them, no matter how much, how hard they
try. Later on, people will have the chance to read
this poetry and appreciate it for its beauty and
its contribution. Okay? So these are the major
points I just discussed here.
You don't have to write them down. You can see
them in the video, by the way.
Our next class will continue doing John Donne,
George Herbert, and Andrew Marvel. And I'll repeat
these ideas and speak about the features of
metaphysical portrait. Do you have any question?
Please. How we can know the irregular rhyme scheme
like this? When you look at the poem and trace the
rhyme
Generally, go with your gut, meaning like, what do
you feel here? How do you feel? And then go
through it again and try to see whether two rhymes
are close, not close enough to be perfect rhymes,
but probably 50% and you bring them together. So
here, generally, when I first read this, I didn't
like rise with victories. Because rise is
different from victories. But does it sound like
it? In a way, yes. A little bit. Not 100%. So we
go for imperfect rhyme. When we remember these are
the metaphysical powers, we say, oh, they didn't
want to follow the rules 100%. But there is more
to this. When you study the imperfect rhyme, I
think you will find more reasons why this is
imperfect. There's something going on. We need to
analyze. Okay, thank you. If you have any
question, we can continue after this. Thank you
and good luck.