Shakespeare's Sonnets: Crash Course Literature 304

[@theletterwynn]

Shakespeare was a low-key gamer. His sonnets end in GG.

[@TheFleahost]

Renji Mao that's so bad it's funny and hurts simultaneously.

[@ayushbagchi7316]

You're my favourite person on the internet now.

[@istoleyourlatte]

What does GG mean?

[@thevinsilva8190]

@@istoleyourlatte good game

[@thewizard2390]

THATS EPIC B))))

[@photosinensis]

Where I'm from, summer days are neither lovely nor temperate. It's obvious that Shakespeare did not live in Texas.

[@lizkasper]

Or Arizona! *Again is grateful to live in a time with air-conditioning*

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

photosinensis Actually, in that sonnet he’s saying that the object of his affection is more lovely and more temperate than summer, meaning his original metaphor didn’t work well enough. So yeah. He was spot on. Summer is awful.

[@yulianagelb6267]

cummings

[@aaronkurzweil9143]

That was his idea haha. He says that they're not lovely hence why he probably shouldn't compare him to them.

[@katymulvaney8394]

Another Texan here -- I always read it as, "Nah, summer's awful, you're more reasonable than a summer day!"

[@tara.5986]

"He barely knew Laura, but when did that stop men from romanticizing women?" Paper Towns anyone?

[@calculatorisbae]

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[@ShakespearesLanguage]

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[@Christine-tp5pv]

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[@miguelesquivel121]

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[@RabeezRiaz]

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[@saanjalyvaishnav695]

I am a 10th grade student in India and I am astonished at the straightwashing of Shakespeare done in our English textbook. While our teacher was explaining Sonnet 55 'Not Marble,Nor the Gilded Monuments', in the first stanza, she explained that Shakespeare wrote this poem to his beloved mistress. In the later stanzas,she changed the pronoun to 'he' and explained it was addressed to his friend. However , if you read the poem it is extremely clear that the person to whom the poem is addressed to is a man and possibly romantically involved with Shakespeare. When I confronted my teacher about the fluctuations of the pronouns, she aggressively scolded me and told me not to "think of such things". As a young girl questioning her sexuality, it troubles me to see such ignorance in people.

[@elliart7432]

That awkward moment when you promise to immortalize your boyfriend and then forget to introduce him

[@liam1558]

Sonnets 1-17 be like Young man! You gotta settle down I said young man! Stop your sleeping around!

[@marrionlibrando5413]

Sonnets 18-126 be like Sleep with me instead homie

[@Master_Therion]

I used to write Shakespearean Sonnets for my girlfriend but... "Ne'er again shall I write her a sonnet She has gone from me like night fleeing dawn Her adorn'd in summer dress and bonnet Memories only of what's past and gone."

[@tara.5986]

Wow... A+

[@fatdal2710]

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[@BluoenixInstitute]

If I may, it sounds like you're trying too hard to sound like Shakespeare, like you're imitating his style and not really using your voice. But of course, I may very well be wrong. Perhaps this is your voice's style. My interpretation is a bit biased since the conversation began with William Shakespeare in mind.

[@Master_Therion]

Bluoenix Institute Thanks for the critique, I think you may be right. I prefer the AABB rhyming scheme anyways, it's more intuitive to me. What I wrote here was my attempt of a sonnet about sonnets... sort of "meta." LOL

[@BluoenixInstitute]

Master Therion No worries, Thanks for taking my criticism! Keep on and poet on!

[@gryphonavocatio]

Man, I'm glad John's doing a Crash Course again.

[@RachelRamirezCaroline]

Me too. Crash Course wasn't the same without him. It was by no means bad but he was missed.

[@rakenny2]

Νικόλαος יוסף q

[@graciecatherine672]

I'm always having to memorize sonnets for my theatre classes and I absolutely love reciting them. Shakespearean sonnets have such a beautiful rhythm

[@bellboots]

Ooof. That is a tortured analysis of 116, at least the "love is not love" part, which clearly does not end there (as suggested in the video) but instead reads, "love is not love which bends with the remover to remove." In other words it is not love if it changes when the object leaves. You can't make sense of a poetic statement based solely on where the line visually ends, or even mostly. You have to take the complete thought. But hooray for reading them and talking about them!

[@kendawg_mcawesome]

I would also point out that it is important where the line visually ends however. That is not accidental in a good poet, or even a good songwriter.

[@bellboots]

+Kendawg McAwesome of course, you are right, it's important. The whole premise of iambic pentameter and sonnet structure depends upon it. Every word in a poem should be important or you haven't edited sufficiently. What I said is that you cannot determine the meaning of a thought based solely or even mostly on where the line ends visually. The following thought drives the meaning of the prior one home even further, "oh no, it is an ever-fixed mark...."

[@meganmcewen7101]

Thanks for easing my ShakesFear

[@undefineperfection2782]

haha

[@HassanSra]

Nice

[@quame5565]

+Hassan Sora +

[@quame5565]

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[@Biscuitsdefortune]

Sonnets to Bromeo

[@TheFoodtubers]

Lezgo Bromeo l ( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀) =εз= ( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀)

[@sccrash420]

I despised all of my literature classes. It took me so long to comprehend the material; sometimes reading a paragraph 3 times just to get it in my noodle. However, your videos are extremely insightful, interesting, and concise. If only actual literature classes had lectures like this. Thank you for providing youtube with excellent, and intelligent, media.

[@vaeraplayrite8480]

Fun fact: The lyrics to Space Jam? In iambic pentameter. You could sing entire Shakespearean sonnets to the tune of Space Jam. Your welcome

[@calculatorisbae]

0:53 So you think he ended the rhyme scheme with a GG to complement himself on a job well done?

[@BiPaganMan]

Any Doctor Who fan can tell you that Shakespeare went both ways

[@adrisanchez1572]

😂

[@katymulvaney8394]

@Johnlocked in the TARDIS First time I watched that episode, I sheepishly put my fist down at that line.

[@scarredchild]

I went to a performing arts school for one year during high school. Each of the thirty-ish people in my class had to break down each line word by word of one of Shakespear's sonnets. We had to show the rhyme scheme, our interpretation, rewrite the sonnet in our own words, then perform the memorised sonnet to the whole class. It was fun for most of us.

[@curiousKuro16]

Sonnet 130 is my personal favorite. I have always had trouble with my body image, and it's comforting sometimes to know that even if I can never be pretty, someone might think me as fine as anyone else.

[@MichiruEll]

I have to admit, I never read any Shakespear. Of course, I'm familiar with some of it because... Shakespear. But I never knew that he wrote sonnets addressed to a man. Not that this is unheard of. A lot of French authors (I speak French originally) were at least bisexual and you can find that in their writing. But there's something particular about the fact that Shakespear romanticized a man. A lot of time, it feels like romance only exists for straight people. There's only ever straight couples in Romance movies, and the stories of those who aren't straight are always tragic, or at least they are always about overcoming some great difficulties in acceptance. There's something soothing about knowing such classic romantic words were written by a man, for a man. What I'm trying to say, I think, is thank you.

[@97epicman]

Thank Shakespeare instead. Not only did he write about both men and women, but his work is beautiful.

[@joshuahillman8438]

Mr. Green, Thank you for the time you take to make both informative and fun videos. These have been immeasurably helpful to my 8th grade students when trying to understand complex literary themes and ideas. So on behalf of all the teachers out there "borrowing" your information, I thank you.

[@Jotari]

The Dark Lady was Martha Jones obviously.

[@emeraldis3553]

..And 52 academics just punched the air

[@jenkins_onpiano]

gtfo XDDD

[@emeraldis3553]

I refuse to apologize for my amazing reference. *Tips hat and walks out*

[@tacitdionysus3220]

I have always thought that some of the energy in Shakespeare's sonnets is sublimated grief from the tragic death of his young son. If you read the sonnets to the young man with this in mind they take on a new dimension, particularly the allusions to death and decay juxtaposed with the eternity of love. I'm not suggesting they are about his son per se, but that he sublimated that grief to inform the depth of emotion and the imagery they contain.

[@Yutaka702]

Thank you so much John and the whole crash course team :) I started studying English at College this year and my Literary Studies course is really hard, because we sadly never discussed Literature in school :( But now I basically understand everything! Thank you sooooo much!

[@Novjuly]

YUSSS. I'm so glad they didn't skim over the fact that Shakespeare is writing about a man. And I'm also so glad John Green happens to agree with me that sonnet 30 is extremely romantic because it is not romantic. :)

[@zakaryaal-fageeh9443]

😍😍😍😍😍

[@jonbezy4479]

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[@badjamjam5286]

(╭ರ_⊙)EXACTLY(╭ರ_⊙)

[@zakaryaal-fageeh9443]

😩

[@Chouetterargentee]

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[@sahirincanada]

thank you so much Mr. john green ... i am gonna take my exam tomorrow.. you have just done it for me.. thank you sir....

[@kukachoo42]

sonnet 130 reminds me of the poem "la reina" by pablo neruda. this idea that love isn't about admiring someone because they're perfect but rather you love someone despite their imperfections because they are human

[@antaresharrison8269]

I remember learning about Iambic Pentameter on my first day of high school freshman honors Engish. We used the Oscar-Meyer Wiener song to put sonnets to and it never failed.

[@antaresharrison8269]

+usefulmuse it blew my mind too

[@RachelRamirezCaroline]

Thank you for doing Crash Course Literature John! Your presence was greatly missed. Congrats on your success.

[@randapanda4201]

Is no one going to comment on his laptop that says “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS”?

[@Narokkurai]

According to Poetic Designs by Stephen Adams, the reason Iambic Pentameter works so well for the English language is because English is timed according to its stresses. The average English speaker, speaking comfortably, will try to keep the spacing between stresses constant, so we'll tend to speed up or slow down at certain points in order to keep that timing. Iambic meter simply codifies this speech pattern as a ruleset, so when you read well-written Iambic poetry aloud, it feels perfectly natural, neither rushed nor slowed, unless the poet wants to deliberately disrupt your timing with well-placed Trochees and metrical inversions. All of that is opposed to syllabic-timed languages, which gives the same timing to each syllable, regardless if it's stressed or unstressed. Romantic languages, like French, Italian and Spanish are syllabic-timed, which is why they often sound very hurried and musical to English speakers--we aren't used to hearing every individual syllable getting the same amount of time. It's also one of many reasons why Haikus read so awkwardly in English. Japanese is also a syllabic-timed language, so its syllable-based structure not only dictates the syntax of the poem, but also its pacing and rhythm.

[@clynn6048]

Love that ending.

[@derpyderp6561]

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[@WICKEDMAN85]

Trying to learn a monoglue, Henry 4 Part 1, Henry Percy (Hotspur) My Liege speech for auditioning. I can say its a damn tricky speech to learn and say at a fast pace. Makes me proud to be British knowing Shakespeare changed the World we know today!! Great programme to watch.

[@hannahalaska6324]

My favourite author helping me with my literary class, thank u John!

[@feitocomfruta]

Catherine Tate reciting Sonnet 131 during a Red Nose Day sketch with David Tennant is amazing. Her delivery is perfect. Amist I Bovvered? Looketh at my face...

[@donniebills4770]

Shall i compare thee to a summers day is hands down one of Shakespeare's deepest lines. Especially how it fits into the sonnet itself.

[@GlenSify]

I really like how you say things like "we don't know if she was black or just had black hair" instead of saying "this is our interpretation." I also really like Crash Course. Thanks.

[@hopangfung9401]

Thanks to your lecture and insight, I should've known you 36 years ago - the year I started my English language and literature course.

[@AlexPope1668]

And in the end this transforms into Dear Hank and John: a comedy podcast about death. XD

[@IamSamys]

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[@thecdnwanderer]

It made me chuckle!

[@keithadr]

i couldn't help but think of the guy as the 10th doctor and the dark lady as Martha Jones lol

[@keithadr]

***** yea I was laughing the whole time

[@Pfhorrest]

oh man, that DW episode is way more clever in retrospect now. (as if the DW/Shakespeare/HP mashup at the end weren't enough already).

[@calculatorisbae]

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[@Chouetterargentee]

yesss

[@drakegeer-timmins6780]

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[@shizyninjarocks]

I started watching this series to pass my CSET, but now I just like watching it.

[@BriWhoSaysNi]

It really wouldn't be a video with John if it didn't end with something existential panic-inducing. lol Side note, My Mistress' Eyes is one of my favorite poems for exactly the reasons mentioned.

[@luckyocean_cat5350]

Shakespeare was bi can we just agree on that

[@sarahgooey]

Yes we can

[@spodybanjack8800]

Yep

[@Vesnicie]

luckyOcean_Cat I couldn't care less if he was a green-skinned, four-armed dendrophiliac.

[@emilia7921]

luckyOcean_Cat yessss

[@lilys1183]

or we can focus on his writing more than caring about that but okay

[@CapriUni]

I love writing "Shakespearean" sonnets. It's like a word game: a combination drabble and crossword puzzle... Plus, you get a chance to make a point about something important to you.

[@RedEdddd5]

Will you ever do a UK history, like you did for US history? I mean there is plenty to talk about...

[@q1w2e3621]

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[@DuranmanX]

How about Spanish History Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion!

[@RedEdddd5]

***** Good reference!

[@DuranmanX]

Jeffy Samuel try playing "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses"

[@damagineer3147]

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[@abhiprakash74999]

We all die. *Laughs in Isaac Arthur's strangely strong and stirring voice

[@lancegoodemote8890]

Yes

[@NoobLuvMoney]

"Yong man, there's no need to feel down. I said young man, pick yourself off the ground." :^) yay shakespeare

[@yumMnM]

He should have talked about sonnet 20. "A woman's face with natures own hand painted" the one that shows Shakespeare had a boner for a dude. So beautiful and tragic. By far my favourite.

[@bug724]

I only read sonnet 20 like two weeks ago, and it's a little bit erotic compared to what I had been reading which is his 60s through 70s where the entire feeling is much more, "When I die forget me, and forget all I ever did". But yeah, sonnet 20 is really amazing. But I think it's 61-62 (?) that are my personal go to ones.

[@icanplaythepiano3939]

I only see these courses because of how enthusiastically you present it!!! I only see these courses because of YOU John Green 😊😊😊☺️☺️☺️😃keep it up!!

[@hydrangeadragon]

that ending got pretty dark real quick xD

[@marisandinianimelove]

Possible plot twist of Doctor Who: The young man in the sonnet is the Doctor himself. Wouldn't that be hillarious

[@spodybanjack8800]

marisandinianimelove That would be awesome

[@spodybanjack8800]

marisandinianimelove And his companion the black mistress/dark lady?

[@ashleeellis2361]

ive been reading poetry (mostly Shakespearean) to my 2 month old brother and sister. mostly because they just like to hear voices and I got sick of narrating the day to day business of our household but they also really seem to like the rythm of it (its often the only way they will sleep).

[@ladyastralis]

Thanks John. I particularly loved your summation at the end.

[@thestudybunny586]

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU UPLOADED THIS BEFORE MY SUMMER SCHOOL EXAM!!!!

[@lar9299]

oh god, I just love how passionate John is about poetry, as passionate as Shakespeare himself but... a far more realistic

[@naushadsagar7192]

the prominent lecture of my life

[@NealGaikwad]

William shakespear was famous for his _ _ _ _ _ of sonnets. A)Garland B)collection C)anthopology D)couplets How many options are corrects fits as common noun for this filling blank ??

[@zigaudrey]

6:19 This quote is true, yet beautiful. I wonder if Shakespears was inspired by Italian Sonnet and wrote variation of this form. "Love is not love". At first, I thought love is toxic, because it involve a individual living with another one and can't live if he get divorce or died at young age. Then, he become depress and find himself/herself weak. Love is supposed to exchange their feeling and accept their choice, like leaving or divorcing. Resisting to loneliness and be strong alone, even if this hurt. Unfornatly, Love is like a puzzle piece, they were so attached that they shatter brutally, like a broken heart. I believe that love is a weapon, not a need. I hope to read his sonnets in French. Speaking of which, do you teach Charles Baudelaire's poetries? I heard that his poem were translated into English that you can read them and study them. Charles was involved in Edgar Alan Poe's work as he translated them into French. Could be why he choose the word ''Spleen'' to define the existantiel anxiousness?

[@hughmck7734]

I love the idea of mortality being circumvented by our enduring, haunting creations and selves

[@connor2785]

it's lit

[@cellogirl0096]

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[@thiefoftrust]

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[@blackberrrygoblin133]

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[@mahadhassan3212]

W

[@baranxlr]

L

[@johnlemus7921]

I was talking with a friend today about Sonnets, more spesifically William Shakespear's and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, which happen to be my personal favorites. I think she is going to love this video.

[@thetheorylover]

"He's showing how easily change and fickleness can happen. Like, look how easily..." [sudden stop; checks phone] "A server error has occurred." Touché.

[@doughyfreckles6565]

You and Hank are my favorite I love you guys

[@damagineer3147]

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[@tara.5986]

Then you should check out their main channel, Vlogbrothers, if you havent already.

[@benaaronmusic]

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[@doughyfreckles6565]

Yeah dude I love Hank (: No offense to John but Hank is my numbah 1

[@crunkcore]

every time I see that cute lil john green face in a crash course video I cry with joy

[@rebeccaweir6362]

I liked your random insertion of someone's last words. A+ for nerdiness.

[@dallasmartinfark]

This was great - thank you and I wish this series could go on until you have to start covering Dean Koontz because you've covered everything else.

[@SydB_]

This is truly excellent John! The best lessons I've seen on KZbin regarding any subject. Now do some Hemingway please!

[@ellen3666]

Can you guys do a (couple) episodes on Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card? There's plenty to talk about just in that book, not to mention in the whole series.

[@ramisabashar7217]

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[@shannongarrety6105]

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[@Templedelagloire]

Lol

[@roshpotter06]

Kuro Shinigami it's probably not what you are looking for, but I think Nostalgia Chick did an episode on Ender's Game.

[@yawzheek6722]

Seventh grade teacher told you what a sonnet was? You went to a much better school than I, sir. But thank you for this informative and educational video!

[@hajerhassan3816]

Thanks for this video it has really motivated me to read more of shakespear's sonnets.😄👏

[@hellisgr]

The iamb is not a "fancy" word, it's "a term that referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in "delay")", taken from Wikipedia.

[@olleicua]

What's going on a 5:52 .. there a frame where you can half see a person..

[@aperson22222]

My favorite is "When in disgrace in fortune and men's eyes . . . "

[@mojosbigsticks]

Would you consider doing The Great Gatsby? I've just finished reading it, and I don't get what the fuss is all about.

[@varana]

He did, two episodes: watch?v=xw9Au9OoN88 and watch?v=cn0WZ8-0Z1Y .

[@mojosbigsticks]

varana312 Brilliant, thanks. I didn't realise he'd already covered a whole slew of American literature. That'll save me reading a few more classics!

[@zuzusimp99]

A little tip for recognizing iambic pentameter is the words sound like a heart beat, you know that Da Dum Da dum effect. Which is handy to remember since iambic pentameter is used in a lot of love poems.

[@nishatiwari4884]

Nice explanation🙏

[@SamanthaLouiseHayden]

YES!!!!!! Another literature video 🤗 All my life I have waited...

[@ieltslisteningbyemma]

Mr.Green can you please make a video on the story ''As you like it.''

[@carlosspragge6627]

Can you guys please do a crash course on dostoevsky's books

[@joshbobst1629]

Isn't The Bros Karamazov going to be one they look at this time?

[@carlosspragge6627]

i don't think so

[@danilevi9251]

The world's best author in my opinion

[@carlosspragge6627]

agreed

[@sarun4ikP]

That would be rather interesting to hear about our classics from John. I wonder how different his view would be from russian teachers or general public

[@satyreyes]

John twice emphasizes the phrase "Love is not love" in Sonnet 116 to suggest that Shakespeare isn't so sure about whether love is eternal. But in context, those words mean just the opposite: "Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds." Shakespeare is saying that love is eternal by definition -- if it "alters," then it wasn't really love in the first place!

[@lightsideofsin8969]

I love that he made clear that humanizing your partner is a lot more romantic than romanticizing them. People look weird and have bad breath and I don't think it's romantic to hide all these "flaws" that aren't flaws in order to make your partner seem perfect.

[@VishrutKannan]

Im literally watching this because my dad is making me do work and this actually makes stuff fun

[@UdyKumra]

He looks so happy to be back in Crash Course!

[@anaghaaviswanathan944]

Make one on Julius Caesar. Awesome video...

[@clairedeluneee]

Yay! 116 is my favorite of his sonnets; I'm so glad it was mentioned in this episode

[@stephanieareson]

Glad that ended on an inspirational and not at all depressing note.

[@whenigrowup064]

10:07 "Love transcends time"... where have I heard that before? Oh yeah - Muuuurph!

[@Rocketboy1313]

What is love? Baby, don't hurt me Don't hurt me, no more

[@pranavnambiar3615]

Sonnet 130 is THE BEST!!

[@JEENIE4448]

I had to memorize sonnet 116 for my English class and before I clicked on it I said I wonder if he'll talk about it 😄

[@friederichhuepfenstolz4011]

Also, the pronunciation of Laura with only monophtongs is standard in Italian, at least in contemporary Italian. So it might not have been artistic liberty.

[@SwitchFeathers]

Gotta love how even Shakespearean sonnets end with "GG".

[@mayfu6508]

Full of knowledge!

[@owengriffith5983]

who else is here because of their teacher

[@KannikCat]

"Well, actually I can't guarantee that I'll actually see you next week..." Classic awesome hilarious John & Crash Course. Perfect way to end a great episode. :)

[@rgcoco2419]

At 1:49 the quotation from Sonnet 116 is incorrect. "Impediment" should be plural.

[@Wokanshutaiduo13]

But see, he doesn't say "love is not love," he says "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." Which is not the same thing as doubting love, but rather defining true love as one that persists even as circumstances change.

[@steakstyles101]

In terms of her breath "smelling" ("...the breath that from my mistress reeks"), it might not be super accurate. Apparently there is no recording of "reek" being used as synonymous with "to smell bad" before the 18th century! I have no sources and may be very wrong.

[@lukasmisanthrop8557]

thanks for educating me, i love it.

[@divyayadav9369]

True love is my favourite💜

[@taharchaib4714]

Very useful. Thankx .