2008 BM1 Assignment 1: Poetry

BM1 - Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature – SoSe 2008 Part 2, Courses A – D (oder macht Katharina auch mit?) Assignment 1 Please address the following five tasks and questions. You may write up to three pages of text, according to the formatting specifications of the style sheet. Longer Assignments will not be accepted. Or: Any text beyond the first three pages will be ignored.

1. Identify the speaker, the addressee(s), the communicative situation. 2. Identify the various sections of the poem and comment on the development of the theme(s) from one section to the next. 3. Comment on metre and rhyme scheme. 4. Find and analyse at least one metaphor in this poem and give examples of two other figures of speech from the poem. 5. Briefly comment on the sonnet in relation to the other poems you have dealt with.

Sonnet II.

  Oh happie houre, and yet unhappie houre,

When first by chaunce I had my goddesse viewed, Then first I tasted of the sweetest soure, Wherewith the cup of Cypria is embrewed.

  For gazing ferme without suspition,

Love coopt behind the charet of her eye, Iustly to schoole my bold presumption, Against my hart did let an arrow flie: Faire sir, quoth he, to practise have you nought But to be gazing on devinitie? Before you part, your leare you shall be tought, With that attonce he made his arrowes hie:

  Imperious God, I did it not to love her,
  Ah, stay thy hand, I did it but to prove her.

W.P. “Sonnet II.” Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia. London, 1594.

Explanations: 4 Cypria = Venus (supposed to come from Cyprus)

 	embrewed = stained with blood

6 coopt = confined in a small space charet = chariot 11 leare = lesson