The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.0701  Saturday, 24 March 2001

[1]     From:   Frank Whigham <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 21 Mar 2001 08:09:04 -0600
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0679 Re: Poets

[2]     From:   Stephanie Hughes <
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        Date:   Wednesday, 21 Mar 2001 17:02:04 -0800
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.0657 Re: Poets


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Frank Whigham <
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Date:           Wednesday, 21 Mar 2001 08:09:04 -0600
Subject: 12.0679 Re: Poets
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0679 Re: Poets

Well, it's perhaps a Renaissance poetic trope, anyway: Sidney says in
A&S 70, "Wise silence is best music unto bliss."

Frank Whigham

> > Successful lovers screw, they do not write.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Stephanie Hughes <
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Date:           Wednesday, 21 Mar 2001 17:02:04 -0800
Subject: 12.0657 Re: Poets
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.0657 Re: Poets

     You've given me no cause for poetry?
     What cause did Dante get from Beatrice?
     Engorged frustration! (We're alike in this.)
     One look and literary history.
     Contagious Keats yearned hopelessly.
     Sir Philip loved Penelope in vain.
     (To anyone who reads, he'll still complain
     Her dog was better kissed. Don't pick on me.)

     If you had crushed me in your arms instead
     Of planting them across your chest, would I
     Have grabbed my pen and stabbed you? It's no lie,
     Had Laura said to Petrarch, "Come to bed,"
     His sonnets would have scarcely come to light.
     Successful lovers screw, they do not write.

     aq

I give this poem the ultimate compliment. I'm going to save it and hope
that I will be given your permission to use it whenever I write about
the probable scenario for the writing of Shakespeare's Sonnets, or any
lengthy sonnet cycle. It can't be better said than this.

Stephanie Hughes