Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Reading

Notes

For sonnet 81, notice that the Norton Shakespeare gives us different punctuation than the 1609 version gives us. What interpretive possibilities change when punctuation changes?

Also for sonnet 81, regarding the relationship between hearse and rehearse: the word hearse predates Shakespeare and was in use during his time. Think of it as a synonym for bier. There’s also a verbal form that means “to lay (a corpse) on a bier in a coffin; to bury with funeral rites and ceremonies.”

For a more recent take on the sonnet form, check out “The Rural Carrier Stops to Kill a Nine-Foot Cottonmouth,” by T. R. Hummer:

Lord God, I saw the son-of-a-bitch uncoil
In the road ahead of me, uncoil and squirm
For the ditch, squirm a hell of a long time.
Missed him with the car. When I got back to him, he was all
But gone, nothing left on the road but the tip-end
Of his tail, and that disappearing into Johnson grass.
I leaned over the ditch and saw him, balled up now, hiss.
I aimed for the mouth and shot him. And shot him again.

Then I got a good strong stick and dragged him out.
He was long and evil, thick as the top of my arm.
There are things in this world a man can’t look at without
Wanting to kill. Don’t ask me why. I was calm
Enough, I thought. But I felt my spine
Squirm, suddenly. I admit it. It was mine.