D.H. Lawrence "When I Read Shakespeare"

Lawrence, D.H. "When I Read Shakespeare."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 403.

And Macbeth and his Lady, who should have been choring,
such suburban ambition, so messily goring
old Duncan with daggers!

How boring, how small Shakespeare's people are!
Yet the language so lovely! like the dyes from gas-tar. (lines 10-15)

D.H. Lawrence's "When I Read Shakespeare" acts as a critique of the most renown writer of all time. The speaker's diction and rhyme suggests that he/she is mocking the very things that makes Shakespeare's works famous.

The speaker attempts to describe Shakespeare's characters through utilizing words such as "choring" and "boring." These words are considered informal vernacular and drastically differ from Shakespeare's ornate diction. By discounting the importance of language, the speaker shows how trivial the characters truly are. Without the fluency and beauty of diction, Shakespeare's Macbeth is merely and blatantly put a "messy" murderer.

The repetition of the "ring" sound also adds to the unremarkable quality of the characters. Suggesting that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth "should have been choring," implies that there is a certain admirable trait to carrying out routines (but Shakespeare routine has become creating the familiar character). The routines of these characters has become the task of murder and therefore, is another boring and predictable trait of a Shakespearean character. The rhyming scheme itself begins to become redundant and boring, rhyming perfectly with no distinctions until reaching the end of the sonnet. In the rhyming of "daggers" and "are" there is a partial rhyme, suggesting that perhaps the characters are not quite as boring as the reader had begun to think. The importance lies on the "daggers" though, not on the characters themselves, showing that weapons used have more substance than people created. In the last stanza, the rhyme becomes perfect again, reaffirming the redundancy.

The last stanza states that language is lovely "like the dyes from gas-tar." Immediately, the reader can understand that the colors of gas-tar are not lovely things, but dark and dirty. Gas-tar is a not formally accepted term and its very comparison to Shakespeare's language is contradictory to the rhetoric that Shakespeare employed. The final line, for this very reason, reflects on the striking question of "Why is Shakespeare's work so significant if merely redundant in character styling and language?"

Robert Herrick's "The Pillar of Fame"

Herrick, Robert. "The Pillar of Fame."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 285.

Tho Kingdom's fall,
This pillar never shall
Decline or waste at all;
But stand for ever by his own
Firm and well fixed foundation. (lines 9-13)

In "The Pillar of Fame," Herrick's use of one structured stanza noticeably employs visual devices to cement the strengths and "weaknesses" of a pillar's form. The center lines, such as "Tho Kingdom's fall," suggest that struggles may arise that can weaken a man made kingdom. This short and abrupt line is complete with punctuation which emphasizes the pause and consequent importance, infering the apparent frailty. However, the lengthening lines following, show that these things will not affect the immorality of the pillar. Endowed with the firmest of structures, spaced liberally and deliberatly through out, the pillar itself is regaining its strength after the threat of trials have been made. Still lengthening the line, the last couplet concludes as a solid foundation to an everchanging, yet ever strong poem.

Herrick also employs various poetic traits. The ending words in lines 9-11 are masculine rhymes, rhyming one syllable "perfectly." These perfect rhymes suggest that at this point in the poem, the speaker's understanding of the pillar is diffinative. Fall, shall, and all are very strong words, determined to set the tone of absolutness as the reader nears the end of the poem. However, as the reader comes to the last two lines, there is no perfect rhyme. This lack of a perfect rhyme, or use of partial rhyme, draws an extreme attention to the last line "Firm and well fixed foundation." This emphasis shows that while the pillar is indeed strong, it is perhaps not strong in comforming to the ideals of society. Understanding that rhyme represented the flow of the universe, the speaker's deliberate use of partial rhyme suggests that the pillar is above the societal understandings of the universe because the pillar of fame is the one who has actually transcended time. The alliteration in the last line shows that the pillar is the foundation, a simple basis which stands on its own merits.