The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets [With CD]

THE ART OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS. By Helen H. Vendler. 692 pp. 1999. (pbk.) Shakespeare's 'Sonnets' is a deservedly well-loved body of poetry, and there have been innumerable editions. For the student and enthusiast, however, it's doubtful that there could be a more beautifully produced edition than the present book, although the critical essays that accompany each sonnet will probably prove too difficult for most non-specialists.One reason that Elizabethan lyrics are so powerful and memorable, is that they were composed in an age when poetry was still linked closely with music. Elizabethans were often competent musicians, and many of their poems were true lyrics or songs. Often their poems were set to music, and all were probably composed while the gentle plucking of a lute or some such instrument was running somewhere through the back of the poet's mind. Today we live in an age when composers are no longer giving us real songs, songs that stay in the mind and that can be hummed or sung when for some reason or other they rise into consciousness; songs that are always there when we feel like singing, and that can help cheer us up, make us happy, and refresh our spirit; songs, too, for both light and more thoughtful moods. In contrast to this true type of song, what we seem to be getting today is little more than words with little or no meaning accompanied by noise, the sort of stuff that a machine could write and probably is writing, and profoundly unmemorable. Shakespeare's 'Sonnets,' however, bring us a world of meaning. The whole of life is in them - its joys and sorrows, its passions and frustrations and torments - and all expressed in some of the most sonorous and beautiful English ever written, and set to powerful rhythms that deeply penetrate the psyche.Helen Vendler's edition, in addition to the accompanying essays, and like that of Stephen Booth's prize-winning 'Shakespeare's Sonnets,' gives us not one but two texts of the 'Sonnets,' each of which is given on facing pages : a facsimile of the original 1609 Quarto, and Vendler's edited text with modern spelling and punctuation. Seeing the texts exactly as they were presented to Shakespeare's contemporaries is an interesting experience. Some readers will probably love the antique spellings and typography, other may hate it, but at least we've been given a choice. And having access to the Quarto can lead to a deeper understanding of the poems.Vendler's commentary is a commentary for the advanced student and the scholar. Some will find it useful and informative, even brilliant. Others will be put off by her post-structuralist approach. But even those who don't care for her densely packed and technical commentary, will certainly be impressed by how beautifully produced this book is - by its excellent printing and smooth high-quality paper, and by the large clear fonts which do justice to Shakespeare's texts, and which make reading the 'Sonnets' such a pl

In this invaluable book, Helen Vendler investigates what she finds aesthetically most provocative in each of Shakespeare's beautiful sonnets, i.e., the fact that Shakespeare, himself undertook the writing of the sonnets as a "writer's project invented to amuse and challenge his own capacity for inventing artworks."The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets is comprised of a single introductory chapter outlining Vendler's own critical perspective and 153 individual sonnets, together with critical commentary. (Sonnets 153 and 154 are presented together in one essay.) Vendler's format seeks to restore "comprehension of the internal logic and old finery of Elizabethan lyric" which has almost completely disappeared from contemporary examinations of these sonnets. Vendler's book will help readers to better understand the language of Shakespeare's sonnets as well as uncover textual clues in a clearer and more deliberate fashion, leading readers to a greater appreciation of the power of language when manipulated by a master poet intent upon expressing the inner life of the speaker.The author provides fresh and unexpected interpretation of the sonnets based on clear, textual evidence rather than through a dominant theoretical perspective. She also explores linguistic strategies directly from Shakespeare's own compositional acts and then constructs upon them an interpretation of the poet's duty "to create aesthetically convincing representations of feelings felt and thoughts thought." Vendler chooses to concentrate her efforts on Shakespeare's ability to accurately convey the speaker's own misery, torment, joy, wonder, exuberance, etc. within the mere fourteen lines demanded of the sonnet, that most structured of all forms of expression. She points out that it is in the "simultaneous marshaling of temporal continuity, logical discreteness and psychological modeling that Shakespeare's sonnets surpass those of other sonneteers."Vendler then goes on to assert that Shakespeare, as a writer of sonnets, was seeking as many ways as possible to manipulate the form. His orchestration thus results in vignettes, musings and one-sided conversations with imagined listeners who do not reveal an extended hidden narrative or meaning but do "comprise a virtual anthology of lyric possibility."Vendler invites the reader to participate in his own exploration of the sonnets. Unlike most critical treatises where the poems appear as a block in front of the text followed by an analysis, in this book each sonnet and its analysis appear together. The reader can formulate his own speculations and check them against Vendler's without even having to turn the page.For those who want to listen to the beauty of these sonnets, there is a CD bound into the back cover of the book, providing an indispensable tool in helping readers to fully appreciate all the textual and acoustical clues--the allure de la phrase.This is definitely not a book to read straight through, nor is it intended for the

I also teach high school English, and have found this single book to be invaluable for me and my students when we are doing sonnet projects (each student has to explicate one of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets). Vendler's book is a God-send, particularly because of an amazing lack of accesible information on what should be a well-trodden field of study. I have found no other current book that investigates and explains each sonnet so well, and so impartially. Vendler is a scholar of the highest degree, and not given to controversial speculation without profound reasoning. This is a great book to donate to any public or school library for those of you who feel like doing a good deed . . ..

Vendler does an excellent job of making the sonnets accessible and illuminating for all readers of Shakespeare. For those who are novices to Shakespeare's work, Vendler points out the patterns of structure inherent in the poems. To the individuals more familar with the sonnets, Vendler offers a detailed analysis of the words of the poems. The sum of these approaches provides both the novice and the expert with an appreciation for the depth and complexity of the sonnets.Interestingly, Vendler does not often provide interpretations of the meaning of the poems. Instead, she chooses to provide the reader with an appreciation of the elements of the sonnets in order to allow one to make their own informed interpretations. Vendler has created a book that mirrors the sonnets in that it can be enjoyed on many different levels. But, regardless of which level upon which it is enjoyed, the book is an indespensible guide into the wonders of Shakespeare's sonnets. Any student of Shakespeare needs to have this book in their collection of critical works on the Bard.