Sir Thomas Wyatt:
„Whoso List to Hunt”.
Whoso list = whoever wishes (ktokolwiek pragnie)
Hind – female deer (łania)
Hélas – alas (niestety)
Vain travail – futile labour (daremna praca)
Deer – playing on a word „dear” (łania)
Sithens – since (odkąd)
Noil me tangere – touch me not (nie dotykaj mnie)
In the first lines of “Whoso List To Hunt,” the speaker states that for those who wish to hunt, he knows of a particular hind, a female deer, which seems to be a reference to a woman. He himself is trying to abandon the hunt because he is tired of chasing after her. The speaker sees no point in doing this anymore, as he seems to be the last of those who also hunt for her; she is out of his reach. Yet he still can’t forget about her and even if she escapes deliberately, he follows her. However, he is ultimately forced to abandon the chase as she is too fast and all that he can catch is the wind that rises after she passes. Further, the poet appears to assure everyone who wishes to hunt the deer that it is only a waste of time. The poet remarks that the deer wears a diamond collar around her neck, which reads “Noli me tangere”, meaning “Touch me not”. This inscription combined with the next words in the line ‘for Caesar’s I am” proclaims her ownership by another haunter. In the final line, the warning on the collar continues: the deer herself declares while she appears tame, holding her is dangerous, as she is wild. The whole poem relates to the author’s life. Thomas Wyatt (the hunter) fell in love with Anne Boleyn (the hind), but when Henry VIII fell in love with her too, the author had to resign from ‘haunting’.
„They flee from me”
Stalking – walking carefully in a stealthy way (skradanie się)
In danger – in sb’s power (w niebezpieczeństwie)
Pleasant guise – pleasing style, or possibly behaviour or livery (pozór)
Small – slender (smukły)
Heart – a play on word „hart” (jeleń)
Newfangleness – (literally) fondness for novelty, following the fashion; fickleness (pociąg do nowości, podążanie za modą; niestałość)
In the poem, entitled “They Flee From Me” the speaker uses a metaphor of animals and their features to describe the women. In the first lines, he states that they used to look for his company, but now they don’t, they escape from him. He recalls how in the past they walked into his chamber and at the same time, he compares how they are wild now. They do not remember him and the time when they came to him and put themselves in his power despite any danger. This danger may be allusions to what would be thought of them as they came to him (court life was dangerous in those days as women who came to men could lose reputation and be lost). The bread they were to take at his hand may be referred to as his money or food as the sexual hunger of women, which he could satisfy. Then, he writes that those women are no longer interested in him, as they are looking for a change, for the attention of others. The metaphor seems to refer to the women, with whom the speaker once had a relationship. In the lines 8-10, the speaker relates that not all relationships have been so bad, pointing that there was one particular woman with whom he was very pleased. In lines 10-15, he describes how he felt while being with her, as she held him in her arms. In line 15, the speaker assures the reader that the relationship indeed was real, yet the woman left him. The lines 16-19 seem to be some kind of lamentation of the speaker. First, he blames his gentleness for the situation, yet later he appears to defer the blame to the woman who ‘had to use newfangleness,’ follow a new fashion, probably adopted by the other women. In the last lines (20-21), the speaker points sarcastically at the ‘kindly’ way in which he is served. He seems to wonder that if he is served with all this pain, so easily, what the woman who gave him all this pain had earned her. He is hoping that she feels the pain as well, due to the separation, however can only wonder since he cannot be sure about her feelings.
Henry Howard:
„Love That Doth Reign and Live Within Thy Thought”
Eke – satisfy (zaspokoić)
Shamefast – modest (skromny)
Plain – complain
Bide – endure
In this poem, the speaker describes love as a kind of imprisonment and he himself is held captive. Love is imagined here as the man with weapons and the speaker is trying to fight with it. The result is however that love wins and he blushes – the ‘banner’ that oft rests in his face is the sign of its victory. In lines 5-10, the speaker relates that his beloved woman does not like this affection of his blushing and her smile changes into anger. In those days, the man was expected to show favour, but the lady was not, she was put on pedestal, she was like an unavailable goddess, which obviously accounts for such a situation. As the man notices that the lady is not pleased with his reaction, love escapes from his face into his heart; as he showed it once, now he keeps it all for himself. The speaker complains of the fact that he has to hide his feelings, but he endures his pain for the sake of his Lord, his other love; it is his duty to serve him until he dies. The man points at two different aspects of love here – love to his beloved lady and love to his Lord. In the last line he remarks that death of love is sweet and he would not mind dying for love, he is to pursue his love. In the poem, love is associated with suffering, complaining, there is this pain about unfulfilled love and on the other hand, it refers to hunt, it is like war, fight and in this fight it is love that is victorious.
Edmund Spencer:
Amoretti „Sonnet I”
Trembling – shivering (drżenie)
Lamping – flashing (lśniące)
Spright – spirit (nastrój)
Bath’d – immersed (zanurzony)
In the first lines of the sonnet, the speaker is telling his poem that when his beloved’s hands will touch its pages, it will be very happy. Some reference is made to the lady but her name is not stated openly. The beloved woman is portrayed here as a goddess, she holds all the power. She could make the poet live or she may kill him by rejecting his poetry, which would be seen as rejection of his love. His life is in her hands, which are delicate yet have terrible power. The poet is here a captive and his beloved lady is the victor. The words which he uses to refer to his poetry ‘happy lines on which with starry light, Those lamping eyes will deigne sometimes to look…’ refer to his wishes – all he wants for his beloved lady is to look at him the way she looks at his verse. She may look at him (read his lines) or not, she may love him, but does not really have to. In this way, the author emphasises how much control over him the lady really has. In the last two lines, he confesses that his lines are meant to please her because he cares for no one else and the only thing he expects is that the lady reads them.
Amoretti „Sonnet LXXV”
Strand – sand
Eek – also
Wypèd – wiped (starte)
Lykewize – likewise (również)
Devize – devise (zapis)
Whenas – when, at the time
In lines 1-4 of the poem the speaker writes the name of his beloved lady on the sand, but then a tide comes and washes it away. He again writes her name, once again waves come, and name is erased. This may be somehow seen as the speaker’s attempt to immortalise his lady. Yet in the next lines, he relates that she criticises him for trying to immortalise a something that is mortal. Her words emphasise the fact that nothing lasts forever and all the things in life some day pass away. In the next lines, the speaker says that other things may die, but she wants her to be remembered in his verse. According to him, their love shall live forever in lines of his poetry.
William Shakespeare:
Sonnet 116
The marriage of true minds – a union that is non-physical, platonic and idealistic.
Bends – yields (poddaje się, ustępuje)
Sonnet CXVI is about love in its most ideal form. In the first four lines, the poet refers to love as a marriage of true minds, which does not see any obstacles. He states that if love finds change, for instance in time or in age, and it changes; then it is not love. Thus, love should not change even if a person changes. In the following lines, the poet proclaims that true love is indeed an “ever-fixed mark, which will survive any crisis. It is a kind of tower, which cannot be destroyed, a guiding light to every lost ship. In lines 9-12, the poet remarks that love cannot undergo change in the course of time, although the physical beauty is affected. Love is everlasting, it can stand everything. In the last lines, the author concludes that if all he wrote about love is wrong or false, then he is not William Shakespeare, he never wrote and nobody has ever truly loved.
Sonnet 130
mistress – beloved woman (kochanka, ukochana)
reeks – stinks (cuchnie)
belie – lie, deny (zadawać kłam, przeczyć)
Sonnet CXXX is very different from other sonnets, not only Shakespearean, that one may encounter. Moreover, it seems to be a parody of the typical love sonnet. The poet portrays his lady as an ordinary mortal human being. He remarks that her eyes do not resemble the sun, the colour of her lips is not as red as a coral and her breasts are not white as snow. In this way, the poet wants to point out that his mistress is nothing like beautiful things of nature. The image of the lady here does not correspond to other sonnets. She is not perfect, her complexion and breasts are dark. Moreover, he compares his hair to black wires, says that her cheeks are not like roses damasked and her breath stinks instead of being reminiscent of some perfumes. However, the poet loves his lady despite she is not ideal, although she is not any goddess. In the last two lines, he thinks of his love as rare, as strong as from others to a number of women and calls these ideal comparisons false.
Dirge (from Cymbeline – Act IV, Scene 1)
Dirge – Lament
Shroud – całun
Yew – cis
The poem is a type of funeral song, which is an attempt to find consolation in the death of a loved person; to help one’s sorrow, to make it less painful. In the first stanza, the speaker seems to address a beloved one, who has apparently died. The speaker begins by offering some advice about death to him/her. The person may now feel free from the heat of the sun and cold winters, which refer to unpleasant experiences that one may face during their earthly life. According to lines 3-4, at the end of a natural life, a person has completed their work or mission on the earth and should be now on the way to their reward in heaven. What is more, the speaker claims that death comes equally to rich and poor, ‘golden’ people and ordinary chimney-sweepers. In the second stanza, the speaker shows death as a benefit. He tells the dead person that they do not have to be scared of all powerful people any more or concern themselves with clothes and food. In lines 10-13, the speaker points out that the difference between strength and weakness makes no difference after death and lists three important types of people who cannot avoid it: king, professor and doctor. In the third stanza, he suggests that death frees one from dread of violent weather and meteorites; moreover, the dead person is now free from vicious gossip and the emotional ups and downs of living. In lines 17-18, the speaker says that all lovers eventually die. In the final stanza, lines 19-21, the speaker argues that death frees a person from fear of demons, witches and evil spirits. In the final three lines, the speaker wishes the death person’s freedom from evil, a quiet time of rotting in the grave and fame after death.
Macbeth
Gloomy vision of evil
Temptation of human faces
To what extent are the witches to determine what will happen, can Macbeth avoid this fate?
Act I, Scene 3 (the moment, when Banquo and Macbeth encounter Three Witches) (p. 228 & 230)
Macbeth seems to be afraid of the vision the witches give him. He is afraid of how he is to become the king in the future. The prophecy of the witches was some kind of temptation that would awake bad thoughts in Macbeth. He probably thought about killing the king before and taking the crown after his death. Banquo understands the prophecy of the witches; he seems to be aware of the evil that waits for Macbeth, that this may be a trap for him. On the other hand, Macbeth takes this prophecy immediately as true and then bad thoughts appear in his mind. He is imagining Duncan’s death even before he tells Lady Macbeth about it, yet he is trying to reject those horrible pictures that came into his mind.
Act I, Scene 5 (Lady Macbeth in Macbeth’s castle)
(p. 233)
Lady Macbeth receives a letter from her husband in which he writes to her about the prophecy of the witches. As she writes her answering letter, Lady Macbeth is also afraid of Macbeth’s nature that he is not without ambition and would like to become king honestly, yet at the same time he would like to obtain it in a dishonest way. Lady Macbeth is tempting him, saying that he is afraid of doing something, which he wishes to do. Lady Macbeth describes the crown as the golden round in her letter and she is strongly determined to dispel (rozwiać) all the obstacles that stand on the way to achieving the crown. The most important is the lust for power.
(p. 234)
As messenger announces that the king is to arrive at the castle, Lady Macbeth calls the dark powers to deprive her of her femininity, so that she could be cruel and strong enough to kill the king. The womanhood is connected with weakness, and she doesn’t want to to be weak anymore while achieving this golden ring, she doesn’t want any obstacles.
Act I, Scene 7 (p. 236-8)
The following passage is Macbeth’s monologue about the Duncan’s assassination. He speaks to himself and wishes that this foul deed was done, he doesn’t want to think about the consequences, and says that if there were no consequences everything would end in this moment and he wouldn’t have to be afraid of the future. However, there is still this judgement; he can still choose not to do it. Macbeth describes the king as a great man, pointing at the fact that he is his subject and the host, and that the king should deserve his duty. Macbeth regards the idea of murdering the king as a sin, as something terrible. He doesn’t have any motive, he can still consider whether to do it or not. Yet it is his ambition that makes him feel restless. It is tragedy of the man who chooses evil.
As Lady Macbeth appears in the room, Macbeth is not so sure whether to kill the king. Moreover, he definitely seems to reject the plan of doing this, explaining that the king had honoured him and he doesn’t want to lose his reputation so quickly. Then Lady Macbeth criticises him of thinking in such a way and says he will be a coward if he doesn’t kill Duncan. She raises in him the courage; her words finally persuade him to decide to do this. Moreover, Lady Macbeth remarks that he made a promise to her about it, and if he dares not to kill the king, he won’t be a man. She says that earlier time and place were inappropriate but now they are perfect, yet this seems to make him hesitate. Further, she adds she would be able to kill the baby of whom he could be a mother, if she has promised to do so. She is strongly determined to achieve what she wants; her ability to read Macbeth’s face lets her see his fear and other feelings.
Act V, Scene 5 (p. 285)
Macbeth cries out when Seyton with Soldiers are coming up to the castle. He is convinced that they will be easily defeated, that they will lie under its walls until they die of starvation. He even admits that he would go outside and fight with them if some of the people who should be on his side weren’t there. Then he hears a cry of women and he says he almost forgot how it is to feel fear; that he got used to this situation. There used to be time when he was scared of the smallest thing, but now nothing influences him anymore. Then it turns out that this shout belonged to Lady Macbeth who has just died. Macbeth speaks to himself that she shouldn’t die so quickly as a queen, that there would be time for it; she would have to die sooner or later. He leads some kind of monologue about the time, which leads to death (described as “the last syllable of recorded time”). At the end, he compares life to a walking shadow; to an actor who plays his role and then leaves the stage; to a tale told by an idiot, which actually means nothing.
Conclusion:
after Macbeth heard what witches said about his future, he becomes gradually evil, earlier he used to be a great, noble warrior
Macbeth is too much ambitious and he starts to use it for purposes
the witches know that Macbeth is ambitious and that is why they put this temptation
Macbeth won’t rest unless his ambition is satisfied
what is so striking about Macbeth is that he considers pros and cons of killing Duncan
Christopher Marlowe
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Prove – test (dowieść)
Madrigals – poems set to music and sung by two to six voices with a single melody or interweaving melodies (madrygał)
Kirtle – dress or skirt (spódnica, sukienka)
Myrtle – shrub with evergreen leaves, white or pink flowers, and dark berries. In Greek mythology, a symbol of love (mirt)
Swains – country youths (wiochmeny)
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is a pastoral lyric, a poetic form used to create an idealized vision of rural life within the context of personal emotion. In the first lines, the Shepherd invites a lady to to come and be his love. He promises that she will spend time with him looking at beautiful landscapes, observing how other shepherds work, how the rivers flow and the birds sing. He offers her a bed of roses, buckets of flowers and different types of clothing made of things that nature brings. The shepherds encourages the lady with his words, if she may make those things real, then she should come and be his love. The whole point is that this peaceful, calm type of shepherd’s life presented in the poem is actually not possible in reality. It is too ideal for shepherds to sit with a beloved lady and do nothing but look how the sun shines and flowers bloom. They are usually busy, they work very hard and sometimes even struggle to survive. There is this lack of dirt, cold and ugly things in the poem, everything is too perfect to be true. The shepherd speaking in the poem may be a young poet, a courtier who is painting this type of picture because he wants to achieve something, namely, the lady. The poem focuses on passion, pleasure, the delight of the moment, the nearest future. The shepherd’s desire needs to be ratified and he wants to ratify it immediately; it is of transitory nature and there is no promise of eternal love.
Answer to Marlowe
The poem is an answer to a pastoral lyric “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”. The lady here claims that the world and love are not young and if all what the shepherd offered her were true; she would maybe come to him and be his love. However, the lady knows very well that those promises are imagery. The fields change, the rivers freeze and the flowers fade with each following day. All those beautiful clothes and things will soon break and become forgotten. If everything could always be young and love could last forever, then she would be moved to come and live with him. The lady points out here that she can’t stop the time, so the shepherd shouldn’t make such false promises to her. Marlowe says “cease the day”, the lady answers “time flies so not cease the day,” so she is not to be his love, his promises are only transitory. In this poem, there are mentioned things that doesn’t appear in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:” dirt, decay, the act of withering, rottening. The lady presents the shepherd with a true image of reality.
Sir Walter Ralegh
On the Life of Man
Mirth – happiness, joy (wesołość)
Music of division – the music that marked the division between acts
Tyring houses – place where actors got dressed (przebieralnia)
Judicious – reasonable (rozsądny)
Spector – spectator, a play on word “spectre” (widmo)
Jest – joke (żart, kpina)
In this poem, the speaker says that human life is like a play in the theatre or a game, that our happiness is short; it lasts only a while and appears just between bad times. In the third line, he states that while being in our mothers’ wombs we prepare a performance to be born. The poet compares life to a comedy; we are dressed in different clothes, so as play a particular role. Our performance is watched by heaven that judges how we play and marks if we act in a wrong way. If we play well, we may be remembered as famous actors. In the next lines, the speaker compares our graves to the curtains, which are drawn at the end of the play. When time comes, we leave the stage and then we walk, playing our final roles, to rest forever. In the last verse, the speaker points out that what is not acted, but what happens in real is our death and then it is not a comedy, not any joke.
John Donne
The Good Morrow
The subject of the poem is love seen as intense, absolute experience, which isolates the lovers from reality. In the first lines, the speaker thinks about the past, he wonders what he and his beloved person did before they fell in love with each other. He seems to reject the life he led until he met his love. He describes this time as some kind of sleep in a cave, where you don’t see the outer world, just the reflection of reality. In lines 6-7 the speaker confesses that all other women he had met can’t were just the reflection of his lady, yet he didn’t fell in love with them really. The second stanza is a celebration of the present. The speaker and his beloved lady discovered they souls and now they make up their own, one world as two hemispheres. Their love is described as one little room, which for them means everything. In the lines 12-14 there is a reference to geographical discoveries, the outer world is rejected, only the speaker and his beloved are important. In lines 15-18 they are portrayed as two hemispheres better than any geographical sphere. Then the speaker remarks that what is equally is meant to be immortal. Here, when they are mixed and they make up one world their love is going to last forever, it is not going to die.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
In this poem, the speaker is forced to spend time apart from his lover, yet he wants to tell his beloved person that their separation should not be an occasion for mourning and sorrow, yet it should be quiet. He says that, “as virtuous men pass mildly away” they are to leave each other without any tear-floods or sigh-tempests. Their love is imagined here as sacred since the speaker says that expressing feelings like sorrow or telling other people about it would profane their love. In lines 9-12 there are two phenomena: moving of the earth, which brings harms and fears, and moving of two hemispheres, beloved people, which doesn’t bring any harm. Later the speaker emphasizes that earthly love can’t exist if people are separated, then it ceases to last. On the contrary, the his mutual feeling to the lady is not only a physical attraction, it is also love of their souls; they can be separated because their love is not based only on physical aspect. There are two aspects of love presented here – one physical, that can’t stand separation and the other – metaphysical, which is more spiritual and expands during separation. In lines 25-34 the lovers are compared to twin compasses – one foot stays at home while the other one goes around and it comes back home if the first foot is firm, meaning faithful. The circle is the symbol of perfection – it is a metaphor; “drawing a perfect circle”, people are shown as two compasses, which is unusual, but when we look at it, it makes sense.
The Holy Sonnets – Sonnet VI
The sonnet begins with an apostrophe to Death, it is challenged here. The speaker addresses Death, saying that it can’t be proud just because it kills people and people are afraid of Death. He names Death as something powerful and dreadful, yet he remarks that in reality it is not so since those who Death kills do not die. The speaker also says that it cannot kill him. In lines 5-8 Death is imagined as something pleasant, when soul is let free from the body (soul’s delivery). Further, the speaker talks about Death as a slave to fate, he points out that it is used by kings and desperate men as an instrument, that it is not itself the power to kill. Moreover, he asks if there are things like poppy and charms that make us sleep, then why it should be painful; it can make us sleep as well. In the last two lines the speaker writes that after a short sleep caused by Death, we wake up to live forever, to eternal life, and Death is to die forever.
The Holy Sonnets – Sonnet X
There are four metaphors in this sonnet:
an usurped town – a man possessed by evil
the poet is a prisoner
reason is held captive
marriage to evil – the poet is asking God to divorce him
In the first lines of the sonnet, the poet talks to God, asking him to destroy his heart and make him new. The speaker uses words connected with destruction such as ‘overthrow, break, blow, burn, etc. as his heart needs to be destroyed so as to be made new. In line 5 the poet describes himself as a usurped town, which means he is conquered, possessed by evil. In the next line, he writes that he worked hard to admit God, to let him into his heart, but without effect. He says that reason should defend him, but the reason is also held captive by evil. The speaker confesses to God that he loves Him and he would be very much loved by Him. In lines 10-15, however, he says he is engaged to evil, yet he asks God to make him free. He claims that only when God will imprison him, he will be freed from evil. In the sonnet, we may notice some kind of contrast between life on the earth and life in heaven, it may be that life is our imprisonment and after death, we are let free from evil to go to heaven and live with God.
George Herbert
The Pulley
Pulley – krążek, blok, koło pasowe – metafora pokazująca człowieka jako koło w maszynie które kręci się nieustannie I przewija swoje życie etc.
Disperse – spread (rozsiać)
Bestow – obdarzyć
The first lines of the poem talk about how God created the man and gave him all the blessings – beauty, strength, wisdom, honour. However, God refused to give him the rest, for fear that he might adore those gifts instead of God Himself. God has kept the gift of rest from man knowing fully that His other treasures would one day result in a spiritual restlessness and fatigue in man who, having tired of His material Gifts, would necessarily turn to God in his exhaustion. We must keep living, work hard and suffer – and this is supposed to raise us to God. The whole sense is that it would make our faith stronger. Man should keep his faith in real God, not in all earthly things, because they will pass away. The speaker, using the words “if goodness lead him not, yet wariness may toss him to my breast” wants to convey that God doubts in the man’s willingness to submit to Him, but as he might be tired of his earthly wariness, he will finally turn to God.
The Collar
Collar – sth that restricts us, that limits our freedom (koloratka)
The poem is a complaint of a priest who is angry about the constraints that bind him. Impatient with the human condition, he decides to break free. He doubts whether he still should be in suit – if he should still be a priest who serves God. The speaker says that there are no fruits of his work and this made him bleed, he suffered. However, he later admits there were some effects of his work, but were they were blown with his sighs; he cried and became so overwhelmed with his emotions that he had a blurred sight. It also may be that his eyes are only open for bad things but closed for good ones. In next lines, he asks himself “have I no bays to crown it” – he considers whether there was any sense of his work, if it was pointless, as he has no reward. Yet from verse 17 two voices seems to be speaking to him. One says that there is fruit and remarks that he has hands, so everything can be changed. He advises him to compensate for the wasted time and leave the mental dispute about what is proper or not. He tells him to leave behind all the things that restrain him and to take some pleasure in doing what he wants. Cage, rope of sands and petty thoughts are symbols of restriction. Yet as the priest’s rebellion goes fiercer, he hears the voice of God calling him ‘Child’ and he replies ‘My Lord’ without even considering what to say; he feels this sense of belonging to God, it is his submission to God’s power at will.