{"id":2573,"date":"2022-06-14T09:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T09:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2022-06-14T09:43:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T09:43:48","slug":"the-imagist-shibboleth-vs-shakespeares-sonnet-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/?p=2573","title":{"rendered":"The imagist shibboleth vs Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15"},"content":{"rendered":"

In terms of its theme and emotional dynamics 15<\/a> is one of Shakespeare\u2019s simpler sonnets, but it has enormous power. We feel this from the very start:<\/p>\n

When I consider everything that grows
\nHolds in perfection but a little moment,<\/p>\n

The power is partly in the sheer vastness of that initial assertion and partly in the explosive way vastness is contrasted with littleness in the second line.\u00a0 This creates an extreme sense of suspense \u2013 where can he be going with this? \u2013 which is in itself intensely involving. The third line makes a similar contrast but far from tamely repeating the idea Shakespeare speeds up its development (line 3 covers the ground of both the first two lines), makes it more extreme (not contrasting something vast with something little but hugeness with emptiness) and makes it not a process of becoming but an instantaneous state of being. Developing line 3, line 4 shoots off in a new direction as it wonderfully combines evocation of the stellar space embracing Earth \u2013 projecting our imaginations as far outwards as they can go \u2013 with an intimate impression of people whispering to each other in a theatre audience:<\/p>\n

That this huge stage presenteth naught but shows
\nWhereon the stars in secret influence comment<\/p>\n

His mind moves among ideas at dazzling speed. What\u2019s strikingly at variance with the shibboleths of Ezra Pound and the imagist movement, and I believe much creative writing teaching even now, is how abstract these ideas are and how abstractly they\u2019re presented \u2013 at least in a certain sense.\u00a0 I think line four is the first in which we have anything that could really be called an image. At a stretch you might say \u2018stage\u2019 and \u2018shows\u2019 imply<\/em> images of performance, but neither word is given any kind of concrete content until line 4, and the comparison of life to a play is in itself fairly common in the writing of the time. \u2018Huge\u2019 I suppose gives a feeling<\/em> of concreteness partly because of the heavy emphasis that falls on it as a strongly stressed syllable falling where we\u2019d normally have an unstressed one.<\/p>\n

Concreteness in this poem comes less from images \u2013 even the brilliant one in line 4 \u2013 than from the drama of unfolding thought, the sense of being in the immediate presence of a mind simultaneously having and sharing ideas, from the first three quiet words through the sudden expansion in the second half of line one. If free use of abstract ideas gives the poem its reach, the intimately personal, circumstantial nature of the opening address to his beloved \u2013 \u2018When I<\/em> consider\u2019 \u2013 gives it a vital concrete grounding and an emotional impetus that\u2019s sustained by the rapid unfolding of the rest of the poem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In terms of its theme and emotional dynamics 15 is one of Shakespeare\u2019s simpler sonnets, but it has enormous power. We feel this from the very start: When I consider everything that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment, The power is partly in the sheer vastness of that initial assertion and partly in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2573"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2576,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573\/revisions\/2576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmundprestwich.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}