Thinking About a Sonnet

143 to be precise.

Lo! as a careful housewife runs to catch 
One of her feather'd creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe and makes an swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay, 
Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase, 
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent 
To follow that which flies before her face, 
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent; 
So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind; 
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me, 
And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind: 
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy 'Will,' 
If thou turn back, and my loud crying still.

It's the sonnet I took with me to work on during the intensive. I picked it because it was a week past the deadline of when I was supposed to have all my stuff in to the training assistant, and I'd been procrastinating on sitting down and finding a sonnet. My teacher had sent out an extensive list of sonnets which weren't too far out in their iambic structure so I picked one at random and read backwards from there. I think it may have been 145, but I don't remember.

I came to 143 and was immediately struck by it. Why? I had to answer this question at the workshop. Well, it's adorable, for one! Babies and housewives and chickens, what's not to love? And then it turns sexy and just a little (or a lot) dark.

Working on it with Dennis Krausnick opened my eyes to so much about Shakespeare and my work as an actor. Reading it to myself, I can't help performing it in my mind. And when I do in this moment, I'm struck by the "but" of the speech, it's antithesis, which becomes a musical theme in the lines. Behind, but, back. A big shout out to asses. I love the sway of these lines, to me they invoke the hips and butox of a beautiful woman.

"You have to get interested in big buts." Your friend, Dennis Krausnick (inside joke, Dennis and I are friends on Facebook though!)

And then at the end, "my loud crying still". I'm struck by the two potential meanings of still. Do you turn back and I'm still crying, or has my crying stilled, have I stopped? It could be either, and it's both!

Thinking about sonnets...

This has been an exercise in simplicity.