School Assignment regarding power in Shakespeare's poetry

[sarahmary95]

The question for the assignment is:

Your lecture must address the work of Shakespeare and how his poetry contributed to, or reflected ideas about 'power' in the era in which the poet lived and worked. In your lecture, you must include a detailed discussion of at least two poems by Shakespeare.

At the moment I am choosing between Sonnet 21, 71 and 91

Any help would be appreciated whether it is to do with power, the era or the sonnets.

Regarding the power it can be about how the power of love or nature contributed to or reflected society in that era.

[sarahmary95]

I'm thinking maybe about the Power of Death (like what it holds over life and love etc.) focusing on Sonnets 71 and 74.

Any thoughts on these sonnets or the theme of power within them

[Charles Darnay]

begin with your thoughts on the sonnets (in relation to Death) and you may get help expanding your ideas.

[sarahmary95]

For Sonnet 71:

It speculates on the memory that lasts after death, especially in the mind of his beloved. This provides a focus on the power that death holds over loved ones in the poet's life and society. Especially in the Elizabethan era when magic and superstition was held high in society and people were quite fearful of death and how death occurs.

For Sonnet 74:

This Sonnet is the last of Shakespeare's that focuses on death. It focuses on spirits and this links back to how the Elizabethan people were superstitious and beleived in magic. It provides a way that the person can triumph over the body's death. It links to other Sonnet's of his talking about the unity of lovers.

That's just basically some initial thoughts that I've had so far. Any other new information on further investigation I could do into these sonnets or this theme?

[Charles Darnay]

Some good thoughts. Be careful not to overplay magic and superstition, it was not as prevelant or at least dominant as you claim. What was prevelant was the dichotomy of body and spirit (or soul): both sonnets play with this idea.

[OrphanPip]

I would caution against attributing so much sincerity to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is not that these poems reflect those sorts of beliefs in Elizabethan society. The oddness of the extreme nature of the metaphors in the sonnets is part of the playfulness and propensity for exaggeration that goes all the way back to Petrarch.

Also, magic was not widely believed in during the Renaissance. People often ascribed naturalistic explanations that seem magical to us, but in their minds they actually believe bad odours at night might cause actual harm to you. Belief in religious omens was much more prevalent, but magic is not something they commonly believed in.

Charles has pointed you in a good direction for thinking about the poems in terms of theme. Sonnet 74's main trope is the equivocation of poetry with the spirit/soul. This is a common topic in the opening poems as well. 74 is interesting in comparison to the popular 18. 74 speaks about the immortality of the poet through poetry. 18 speaks about the immortality of the subject of art. You can use this for a way to speak about the poems' exploration of the "power of art" to surpass mortality.