Thou Sonnets Art Boring.

When choosing my sonnets to read, I specifically focused on trying to pick the most popular ones. I did this for the purpose that as a future English teacher those are the sonnets most commonly taught in a classroom setting. Thus, I chose and read: 1, 18, 29, 60, 64, 73, 94, 97, 116, 126, 129, 130, 138, and 146.

I suppose I read 130 and 138 in more depth per se because I found those two out of the twelve most interesting, and I specifically chose 130 because I had a funny experience with it in middle school and a classmate wanting a copy of it to give to his girlfriend and the teacher embarrassing him with the fact he misunderstood and that there are much more flattering love poems. However, I think I read all of the sonnets in some depth because I read for understanding rather than just reading it. I used this website to read the sonnets which I found very useful because rather than giving a straight analysis it gave more of just a clarification for things that I may had not understood.

With my title I am not necessarily saying that I think the sonnets are boring because I in fact find many very beautiful and others very interesting (like 151: what is that), but I am more saying that from a view point of any one who didn't have a strange love for all things literature like say a high school boy in his English class, I think that he or she would find the sonnets very boring.


The sonnets all seem to have many of the same themes examples being that of love and self criticism. They also, of course, have the same, similar form (iambic pentameter, three quatrains and a couplet) which feels like a regurgitation of all things high school AP English. And thats one of the reasons why I think people come to despise Shakespeare is because they had a bad experience in school and found the sonnets very boring.

Professor Burton did bring up a very valid point about the sonnets that I had never really though about before about the sonnets being a great insight into Shakespeare with out as much complexity and without as much length. So I had this idea that if those people who had a poor experience were able to experience the sonnets in a more exciting and passionate way that they may have a better feeling towards Shakespeare. My exposure to the sonnets in high school was a brief skimming over them to say we read them and we then moved on to the "fun" stuff of a deeper look at one of the plays. I have this feeling that if everyone had this similar experience and perhaps had a bad experience if they read a play then it is no wonder they hate Shakespeare.

What I am trying to get at here is that I think the sonnets would be a great vehicle to teach Shakespeare in them self with out having to spend length and often confusing time studying a play. Because the sonnets have similar topics, teachers could group those sonnets into one unit to teach. Or teachers could use say "The Dark Lady" sonnets all as one unit and explore those. I would think that the students would be very interested in the Dark Lady because it is spicy and engaging and racy and that is what high schoolers and really people in general seem to like.

The sonnets have a lot more potential to them than what people typically seem to think. Many of the sonnets (like 130) seem to have a boring topic but in reality the topic is quite interesting and surprising. But to find that interesting-ness that takes time studying, so as a teacher I vow to actually teach my students the sonnets and the interesting hidden treasures to hopefully plant a seed of interest about the sonnets rather than just reading them in my students. I think that this would help change the future attitude towards Shakespeare. Yet you can already see a theme in my opinion --the experience of the student is all about the attitude and enthusiasm coming from the teacher