Shakespeare’s
history plays often raise the question: who is really at power? With the
complex construction of the body politic and the pull seen in Henry V of Hal’s struggle with the
balance of kingship coupled with personal desire, reveals the topic of
impermanence. Kings come and kings go. War is sieged and ended. Friends turn to
enemies. But within all of this lingers the shadow of change. Sonnet 114 reflects
this transforming nature, “it make of monsters and things indigest such
cherubins as your sweet self resemble, creating every bad a perfect best.” One
thing that Shakespeare appears to be aiming at within these is the desire for
eternity or permanence in an impermanent world. Sonnet 15 finds this through keeping a person alive or youthful in
poems entangled with the metaphor of nature’s endurance. In Sonnet 51, a
horse-riding metaphor depicts the racing to keep up with desire of perfect
love, but ultimately is metaphysical “then can no horse with my desire keep
pace; therefore desire, of perfec’st love being made, Shall neigh no dull flesh
in his fiery race, but love, for love.” Sonnet 4, reflects on life and the
possibility of unused beauty or regret. Lugging around the big red book of
Shakespeare, I can feel the weight of this longing and feel the remnants from
it. What ultimately results from these plays and sonnets are their
extraordinary longevity.
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