Themes and Variations in Shakespeare's SonnetsFirst published in 1961. This study analyses Shakespeare's treatment of the universal themes of Beauty, Love and Time. He compares Shakespeare with other great poets and sonnet writers - Pindar, Horace and Ovid, with Petrarch, Tasso and Ronsart, with Shakespeare's own English predecessors and contemporaries, notably Spenser, Daniel and Drayton and with John Donne. By discussing their resemblances and differences, a not altogether orthodox picture of Shakespeare's attitude to life is presented, which suggests that he was not as phlegmatic and equable a person as critics have often supposed. |
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Contents
Preface | 9 |
POETRY AS IMMORTALISATION FROM PINDAR | 25 |
Shakespeare and Petrarch | 44 |
Shakespeare and Tasso | 53 |
Shakespeare and Ronsard | 59 |
Shakespeare and his English predecessors | 69 |
DEVOURING TIME AND FADING BEAUTY FROM | 93 |
Shakespeares sonnets on Love as the Dcficr of Time | 102 |
The instinctiveness and unphilosophicalness of Shakespeares | 119 |
Personifications of Time Age and Youth by Ovid Horace | 134 |
Tragedy and the Whole Truth | 142 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieved Aeschylus allusion Amores amours ancient love-poetry appears attempt beauty beginning Bellay beloved called carpe carpe diem celebrated Censorinus comparable compensation Daniel death declares despite distinction Donne Donne's doth Drayton edition elegy Elizabethan eternal example expression eyes fame flowers Greek Anthology hath heaven Herbert Horace Horace's hyperbole idea imitated immortality inspired Kassner kind King Lear Latin Laura lines live love's lover Mary Fitton means memorable merely metaphor Michelangelo mistress Muses never odes Othello Ovid Ovid's partly passages perhaps Petrarch Petrarch and Ronsard Petrarchan phrase Pindar Platonism poems poetic poetry poets professes Propertius Puttenham quoted regarded religious Renaissance Renaissance poets rhymes Ronsard seems sense Shakespeare Shakespeare's sonnets Songs Sonnet 64 sonnets written soul Spenser spirit stanzas style suggested sweet Tasso thee theme things thou Tibullus Time's topic tragedies transience true verse Vittoria Colonna word writing written during absence youth
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Themes and Variations in Shakespeare's Sonnets Volume 24 of Critical Studies Routledge library editions: Shakespeare, J. B. Leishman critical studies; in 36 volumes Volume 24 of Routledge library editions: Shakespeare, critical studies |
| Author | J. B. Leishman |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Psychology Press, 2005 |
| ISBN | 0415352959, 9780415352956 |
| Length | 254 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / Poetry Literary Criticism / Shakespeare |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |