William Shakespear Essay, Research Paper

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

Shakespeare was born on or just before April 23, 1564 in Warwickshire town of Stratford. His mother was Mary Arden and his father was John Shakespeare . John was a glove maker and trader in farm produce. He later became the mayor of Stratford. William was third of eight children. In 1582, when William was 18, he married Ann Hathaway, a daughter of a farmer in Stratford. They moved to London in 1583. They had three children (Susana, 1583-1649; the twins, Hamnet, 1585-1596; and Judith, 1585-1662). He spent most of his life in London theaters as a dramatist, actor and poet. His acting company was the Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men, and performed in two theaters, the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars.

He wrote some of the greatest poems. Some of these poems were, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim, The Phoenix and the Turtle, Autolycus Sings, and Ariel s Songs.

He was perhaps the world s greatest playwright. Some of Shakespeare s famous plays were: The Comedy of Errors (1590), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591), Love s Labour s Lost (1593), Titus Andronicus (1593). His latter works included The Taming of the Shrew (1594), A Midsummer Night s Dream (1595), The Merchant of Venice (1596), Much Ado about Nothing (1598), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), Romeo and Juliet (1596), Julius Caesar (1599), Hamlet (1601), Macbeth (1606).

After about 1608, Shakespeare’s dramatic production lessened and it seems that he spent more time in Stratford, where he had established his family in a house called New Place and had become a leading local citizen. He died on April 23, 1616, and was buried in the Stratford church. The carving on his tombstone reads:

Good Friend, for Jesus sake, forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here;

Blest be the man that spares these bones

And curst be he who moves my bones.

Autolycus Sings

When daffodils begin to peer,

With height! The doxy, over the dale,

Why, them comes in the sweet o the year;

For the red blood reigns in the winter s pale.

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,

With heigh! The sweet birds, O, how they sing!

Doth set my pugging tooth on edge,

For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirrar-lirra chants,

With heigh! With heigh! The thrush and the jay,

Are summer songs for me and my aunts,

While we lie tumbling in the hay.

Ariel s Songs

Come unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands:

Curtsied when you have, and kissed

The wild waves whist,

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.

Hark, hark!

Bow, wow

The watch-dogs bark,

Bow, wow,

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting Chanticleer

Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.

Full, fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange:

Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell.

Ding-dong!

Hark! Now I hear them,

Ding-dong, bell! Good Friend, for Jesus sake, forbear

The Phoenix and the Turtle

Let the bird of loudest lay,

On the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbiner,

Foul precurrer of the fiend,

Augur of the fever s end,

To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict

Every fowl of tyrant wing,

Save the eagle, feathered king;

Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white

That defunctive music can,

Be the death-divining swan,

Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,

That thy sable gender mak st

With the breath thou giv st and tak st,

Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence;

Love and constancy is dead;

Phoenix and the turtle fled

In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain

Had the essence but in one;

Two distincts, division none;

Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen

Twixt the turtle and his queen;

But in them it were a wonder.

Fear no more the lightning-flash

Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finished joy and moan.

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!

Nor no witchcraft charm thee!

Ghost unlaid forbear thee!

Nothing ill come near thee!

Quiet consummation have,

And renowned by the grave!

Where the bee sucks, there such I,

In a cowslip s bell I lie,

There I couch when owls do cry,

On the bat s back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

The Analysis of the poem – Autolycus Sings

I. The title Autolycus Sings means to me the song of Spring.

II. Line 1 – “When daffodils begin to peer,” – This means when the daffodils begin to bloom.

Line 2- “With height! The doxy, over the dale”, – It is more in the middle of Spring.

Line 3 – “Why, then comes in the sweet o the year;” – Spring time.

Line 4 – “For the red blood reigns in the winter s pale.” – Everything was scared from winter.

Line 5 – “The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,” – Sheets drying on the hedge in the sun.

Line 6 – “With heigh! The sweet birds, O, how they sing!” – The birds singing in the sky.

Line 7 – “Doth set my pugging tooth on edge,” – Drink until he s on the verge of being drunk.

Line 8 – “For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.” – Even a quart of ale is too much for a king.

Line 9 – “The lark, that tirrar-lirra chants,” – The song that the larks sings.

Line 10 – “With heigh! With heigh! The thrush and the jay, – The jay and the thrush are flying through the air together.

Line 11 – “Are summer songs for me and my aunts,” – All these are fun and soothing to him and his aunts.

Line 12 – “While we lie tumbling in the hay.” – They are tumbling in the hay and enjoying the Spring.

III. The literal meaning of the author, Shakespeare , saying how much fun Spring can be if you look and listen.

IV. The figurative meaning is that Spring is fun and sweet.

V. Smooth/normal.

VI. Tone stays the same.

Speaker stays the same

Theme – stays the same

VII. The poem is taking place during Spring.

VIII. 1. Imagery was used all throughout the poem. – Ex. “The white sheet bleaching on the hedge”, and “while we lie tumbling in the hay.”

2. Personification is used for the birds. – Ex. “The sweet birds O, how they sing!”

3. Smile – none

4. Metaphor – none

5. Alliteration – “with heigh”

6. Onomatopoeia – none

7. Repeated words, “with heigh”, phrases – none – ideas – Spring

IX. The poem has both end-stop and run – on.

X. The authors purpose for writing this poem is to tell his experience of Spring.

My Own Poem

In the Spring, winter thaws,

The bugs begin to knaw.

The birds start to chirp,

Which alarms me to the coming work!

The grass begins to grow,

Which means I have to start to mow!

My self reflection on my poem. Not everyone enjoys what Spring can bring.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Encyclopedia of World Biography, Vol 14, 1986. New York Press, N.Y., Pg. 142-143

2. Shakespeare, William,” Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. 1993-1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Funk & Wagnalls Corporation. All rights reserved.

3. Bowers, Fredson. “Shakespeare s Are: The Point of View,” Literary Views: Critical and Historical essays. Chicago: Univ. of chicago Press, 1946.

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