Public Domain Projects Podcast: Recent Episodes
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An oration by James Louis Steed of the 14th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the fourteenth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Though this is considered part of the series of procreation sonnets, there is basically no reference to having children it. It does, however, have much of the same imagery of nature being cruel, etc. The poem is mostly about the author's infatuation with the fair youth, in particular his eyes.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 13th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the thirteenth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Who would neglect his house and let it fall to waste from the barrages of winter and let his own life be the end of it? None but unthrifts who wile away their lives on selfish pursuits. Shakespeare has faith, though, that the youth is beyond this sort of end as he, once again, pleads with the him to have a child.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 12th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the twelfth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. As with all of nature, the fair youth is not beyond the ravages of time. As summers turn to winter, so too will the youthful beauty of the young man turn to gray and whither. How can he best prepare himself for the inevitable outcome? Why, by having a child of course!
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 11th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the eleventh of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. The fair youth's superior human qualities make it especially important that he carry out the biological imperative, a plan developed by mother nature herself. If all humans believed as he does and decide not to follow the plan and bear children, it would mean the end of the race in three generations' time.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 10th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the tenth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. There's a fine line between love and hate and the fair youth is walking that line. Though he's not walking it for the sake of his love of others. According to Shakespeare, his love of self is a self-destructive force that weighs more heavily on the hate side of the fine line.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 9th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the ninth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Shakespeare asks the fair youth if it is out of fear of leaving a young widow that he remain single. He then goes on to say that, if that is the case, it is still better to have loved and lost. And if he were to bear a child with his potential wife, he would live on through that child and not really be lost to her.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 8th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the eighth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Why is the fair youth annoyed by the harmony he sees in families around him? He enjoys music, does he not? Music is more than a single note and a single note is not music. He needs a family with him to witness the tranquil quality of harmony represented by the concept of polyphonic music in this sonnet.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 7th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the seventh of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Rather than dwelling on the cold winter this sonnet compares the life of the fair youth to the bright sun and its passage across the sky throughout the day. The warning, though, is still the same, if only a little more specific. Have a son or the setting sun of your life will be the last anyone will ever think of you.
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 6th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the sixth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Again, we see winter as a metaphor for aging as Shakespeare warns the fair youth about the prospect of growing old and dying before bearing children. In fact, there is a mathematical formula presented in this sonnet calculating just how happy the young man could be based off of the number of children he has!
An oration by James Louis Steed of the 5th of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets published in 1609. This sonnet is the fifth of the author's "Fair Youth" and "procreation" sonnets. Shakespeare metaphorically uses seasons to describe the timeline of life. Specifically, winter is used to describe the latter years. The perfume of a flower distilled in summer reminds us of the once living beauty of the plant. Much like our children carry on in our winter years, reminding us of the summer of our lives.
William Shakespeares Sonnet Four (Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend) is the 4th of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Fourth of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Fourth of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Much of what Shakespeare is saying in this particular sonnet can be taken all kinds of ways. He continues to address the young man/fair youth and continues to attempt to convince him to have children but there is a lot of wordplay going on with possible mixed meanings of sexuality and commerce. The overall message, though, is very clearly stated in this sonnet. Youth and beauty are only loaned to us by nature. We have the potential to do more than spend it on ourselves alone. By having offspring, we make the most of the gifts that nature has given us in our youth.
Sonnet Four – Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free:
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
For having traffic with thy self alone,
Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive:
Then how when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee,
Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
William Shakespeares Sonnet Three (Look In Thy Glass And Tell The Face Thou Viewest) is the 3rd of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Third of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Third of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Shakespeare implores the fair youth to look upon himself in the mirror and take note of what he sees. It is his hope that the youth look upon his youthful exuberance and fair looks and realize that they are fleeting, but they can be carried on by fathering a child. He then asks the youth to see himself in his mother and to realize that her beauty is carried on with him. Then, of course, he has a dire warning for the youth. If he does not father a child, he will have empty “golden years” and his image will be unable to carry on past his own death.
Sonnet Three – Look In Thy Glass And Tell The Face Thou Viewest
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remembered not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee.
William Shakespeares Sonnet Two (When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow) is the 2nd of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the Second of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the Second of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Much like sonnet one, Shakespeare is trying to essentially scare the fair youth into marrying and having children by pointing out negative aspects to perpetuating young “lusty” days. Basically, when the fair youth reaches his forties, his youthful looks will have left him and he will have to face himself and those that ask him of his life and not have a “fair child” to sum up and carry on his legacy.
Sonnet Two – When Forty Winters Shall Besiege Thy Brow
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a totter'd weed of small worth held:
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;
To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,'
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet One (From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase) is the 1st of his 154 sonnets published in 1609. This is also the First of the “Fair Youth” sonnets, in which an unnamed man is being addressed by the speaker. In addition to that, it’s the First of the “procreation sonnets” where he feels compelled to convince the fair youth he’s addressing to get out there and get busy with procreation. Specifically, Shakespeare appears to be eluding to the selfishness displayed by the fair youth in not prolonging his youth and beauty by having offspring. His self-love (as opposed to giving love to another and to children) is viewed by the author as destructive not only to the fair youth but, really, to the world. This is because, if the youth never does marry and have offspring, his beauty will end prematurely, really by the youth’s own hand, and the world will no longer have access to it.
Sonnet One – From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
“Jabberwocky” was included in English Writer, Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel, “Through the Looking Glass,” the sequel to his more pervasive title “Alice in Wonderland.” This poem includes a wide variety of words that were made up by Carroll, but it is these nonsense words that make the poem so fun, much like many of the poems by Dr. Seuss. The poem is written in a series of quatrains with the first three lines in iambic tetrameter and the final line in a mix of trochaic and iambic trimeter, with a basic ABAB rhyme scheme. In this poem, a tale is told of a hero who confronts the terror of all the land, the Jabberwock.
Jabberwocky
``` ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. ```
“Dreams” was included in American Poet, Edgar Allan Poe’s first publication: “Tamerlane and Other Poems.” This first publication received very little attention at the time. The poem is written in iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme is a non-repeating series of couplets. It appears to be musings by the author about growing old, while comparing life to dreams and dreaming. Of course, anyone listening or reading the poem can take it any way they’d like.
Dreams
``` Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream! My spirit not awakening, till the beam Of an Eternity should bring the morrow. Yes! tho’ that long dream were of hopeless sorrow, ’Twere better than the cold reality Of waking life, to him whose heart must be, And hath been still, upon the lovely earth, A chaos of deep passion, from his birth. But should it be—that dream eternally Continuing—as dreams have been to me In my young boyhood—should it thus be given, ’Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven. For I have revell’d when the sun was bright I’ the summer sky, in dreams of living light, And loveliness,—have left my very heart In climes of mine imagining, apart From mine own home, with beings that have been Of mine own thought—what more could I have seen? ’Twas once—and only once—and the wild hour From my remembrance shall not pass—some power Or spell had bound me—’twas the chilly wind Came o’er me in the night, and left behind Its image on my spirit—or the moon Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon Too coldly—or the stars—howe’er it was That dream was as that night-wind—let it pass. I have been happy, tho’ [but] in a dream.
I have been happy—and I love the theme: Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife Of semblance with reality which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love—and all our own! Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
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