Tonight's
show and, something somewhat different. . .
Speaking the Text (Fast-Track)
Eric Decker Journal Week 1
6.26.06
Exciting first day of class – I’m a graduate student now! It was great to start out with physical warm-ups, helping to loosen and focus – laughing certainly helped too!
We spent most of the period working with the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, an in-depth scansion, using the opportunity to learn terms (end stop, elision, contrapuntal, sprung rhythm, quatrain, antithesis, operative words, etc). A great exercise, making me excited to dig back into my sonnet and find a little bit more than just memorizing the words. I can identify the elements pretty well and offer a general explanation of how each device works, but I can’t marry it yet to the content, “with Shakespeare, match form and content.” The examples seem pretty clear once they are pointed out to me. In “From ancient grudge BREAK to new mutiny” now I get how the form was broken there. Find that on my own? Not yet.
Just did scansion on my sonnet. Interesting quatrains that elaborate the initial idea. I marked the rhythyms (I think) but thrown off on a few. . . mistresses’ is the 11th syllable but what to do with it? PERfumes or perFUMES?
I think my general approach is what John Barton in Playing Shakespeare terms “naturalistic.” I’m trying to approach this nearly conversationally. This would never be told to a mistresses’ face, as it’s a bit insulting. I picture this as guys sitting around in a bar, talking about the women they’re with in a derogatory way (or as an object to be analyzed and compared). The narrator, though, changes the tone at the end and states, in essence, “but she’s a great wench!” So I’m going to try to keep it informal. Will I lose a balance between the “Two Traditions” Barton speaks about? Is it better if it’s a conscious choice?
6.27.06
Sonnet work today, starting with physical activities to help explore the texts. Some worked very well (whisper all but last word) and during others I was too distracted (turn on intention change). Then delivered my sonnet!! I pretty much knew the text, but clearly missed some meaning (reeks) and some pronunciation (damasked and perfume) that could have been fixed if I had stayed closer to the iambic pentameter. Lesson learned. I had been working with the meaning of belied as “brought the lie to” instead of “slandered” which offered a small change, and any She vs. any she (meaning mistress).
It’s tough to know when he is using metonymy or not!! “my love” – is that her or his emotional connection?
How to know when to break the rhythm rules? Sometimes it’s very clear (“treads” is operative because it’s action, antithesis, and a verb, so stress it – wow!! Three great reasons!!), but sometimes I miss it (“DAmasked" vs. “daMASKED") Hmmm. . . I think I need more practice to refine this skill. It’s back to the Barton thing. How conversational was I trying to make to make it, but actually losing the message? I think I need more practice to refine this skill.
