Dear Maria

Dear Maria, 

I’ve just read the first scene of Romeo and Juliet and if it weren’t for your story, I would be totally confused! Even knowing your sad story (and all the songs) I’m still lost!

I’ve observed that Shakespeare’s language is much different than the language I use today and the way you spoke in the 50s.  Even though I understand many of the words, the order and way Shakespeare puts them together is confusing. It is also hard to read Romeo and Juliet because it is all dialogue and long monologues. There isn’t any narration to help me understand what’s happening. Because much of it is in rhyme it sounds nice but it doesn’t always make sense to me.

At least I know and understand the main plot. I know that the Montagues (Romeo’s family) and the Capulets (Juliet’s family) are enemies and fighting. I also know that the Prince is frustrated and wants them to stop fighting and disturbing the peace in Verona. I also know that Romeo is sad and lovesick and that his family is very worried about him.

My experience reading Shakespeare hasn’t been the greatest so far. The language is difficult, and I’m still not sure what’s happening line by line. But I know the plot and what is going to happen thanks to watching and hearing your story millions of times and that’s really helped me.

If you are interested in reading the original version of your story, you will need to really take it slow. Stop and think every couple of lines and re read when you are confused. It also sometimes helps to read on and understand the big picture instead of focusing on all the individual words. I think that the more you read Shakespeare, the more you understand Shakespeare. Or at least I hope so!

Right now Romeo and Juliet is more work than it is worth. The language is very difficult to understand, and the plot seems slow moving and boring.  I think that it helps that I’ve seen or heard of other plays written by Shakespeare. Those plays were also more interesting than Romeo and Juliet maybe because they were comedies or scary.  But I’m still wondering if I understand your story so well, why don’t understand this?

The Beauty of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

            Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 mostly follows the general structure of sonnets.  It has 14 lines, 3 quatrains and 1 couplet.  The rhyme scheme is ababcdcdefefgg with 10 syllables per line in iambic pentameter.  The first part of the sonnet introduces the idea that Shakespeare’s lover is not typically beautiful.  The third part ends with his declaration of his love for her.  But instead of the second part introducing a turn or change, Shakespeare uses 12 lines to describe her flaws.  The first 4 lines each describe 1 flaw then the next 8 lines use 2 lines to describe each flaw.   The change as well as the conclusion both come in the final couplet.  So even Shakespeare doesn’t follow the exact sonnet structure in Sonnet 130.

            A line by line paraphrase of Sonnet 130 is:

My love’s eyes are not like the sun

Coral is redder than her lips

If snow is white, her breasts are dull

If hair is wire, hers is black wire

I have seen red and white roses

Her cheeks are not rosy

In perfume there is more delight

Than in my lover’s breath

I love her voice, but

Music is more pleasing

I’ve never seen a goddess

But my love walks on ground

And yet, I think my love is as special

As any other woman represented by these fake comparisons.

            Taken together, much of the sonnet describes Shakespeare’s lover as imperfect.  Her eyes don’t shine.  Her lips are not red.  Her breasts not white.  Her hair is like black wires.  Her cheeks are not rosy, her breath not sweet smelling, her voice not pleasing.  She is no goddess.  But although she’s no classic beauty, he thinks she’s more beautiful than the fake and clichéd ideas of beauty.  Shakespeare is challenging the traditional view of beauty.  He’s also criticizing caring just about the outside instead of what’s inside a person.  Shakespeare’s view of women and beauty is ahead of his time.  Instead of comparing women to perfection in nature his view of beauty is how he feels about women.  In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare didn’t see women as objects or symbols.  He instead appreciates women for who they are with all their imperfections. 

Shakespeare’s message still applies today.  Our society is so concerned with how people look and dress and obsessed with unnatural comparisons to models and movie stars.  Shakespeare realized that people aren’t perfect and are actually special because they are individuals.   I agree with Shakespeare’ s sentiment that we should love people for who they really are instead of what everyone thinks they should be.  Sometimes it’s hard to be different than what’s accepted but it’s important to be real and loved for who you are.  Shakespeare realized all of this and that’s another reason to appreciate him and his work.

A Sonnet for Princess

She prowls around the still kingdom at night

Her ears are up, her pounce on the ready

She keeps the world within her watchful sight

Her paws pad soft and slow and ever steady   

Head high, streamlined, white whiskers lead the way

Sharp teeth, strong claws, attack or else defend

Way back she roamed the wild, stalking her prey

House-bound she still sizes up a foe or friend

So when it comes time for going to bed

She purrs, meows, scratches at my shut door

When I give in she goes right to my head

Before I’m back she’s off to a loud snore

Of course, you know, I’m so quick to forgive

Sleeping without her now, I could not live.

Poems so far...

A Poem

It starts all jumbled up

Pieces upside down

or facing the wrong way

You’re not sure where to start

It doesn’t look like there’s enough pieces

Are some missing?

All the pieces have to fit together

for it to be done

Sometimes it looks like you found the right piece

But it doesn’t fit

You can turn it around and around

or try it in a different spot

or give it up

come back to it later

You have to stop,

Step back

Look at the whole thing

even with the missing pieces

Keep checking the picture on the box

Imagine what would fit there

Try to see it

Search for it

When you find it

See if it fits

Start with the border

Once you get that, everything else comes together

When you get enough of the pieces

The rest come easier

When it’s all done

A complete creation

Separate pieces, now one

It makes sense

Seems so easy

How could you not have seen it?

Now that it’s done

You’ll always see it

A Memory Forgotten

Does it evaporate

Like a puddle after a sun shower

Or chip away

Like a week-old manicure

Or does it wear away

Like a piece of a Coke bottle tossed by the ocean

Maybe it’s gone

Never to be seen, heard, felt, smelled or tasted

Again

Or is it always there

Always lingering

Stuck

Like a song in your head

A Peasant Feast

A wedding in a barn

hot food on a humble platter

wine poured from jugs

feasting at a communal table

noisy conversation

musicians standing

a small boy licking his fingers

a grinning bride

A peasant wedding

so different than a gentleman’s

so real and undisguised

no ornate costumes

no formal dances

no silver goblets

no polite conversation or excessive manners

instead a simple, genuine, joyous celebration

A peasant wedding feast

Pieter Bruegel: “Peasant Wedding Feast”

(despite many tries, could not upload painting -- have hard copy)

Pieter Bruegel was a great Flemish painter of the 16^th century (Venezia  3).  Very little is known about his life except that he traveled to Italy to study their great artists (Venezia 8) and lived and worked in Antwerp, Belgium (Venezia 3).  His first paintings were landscapes combining scenery from Belgium and the mountains and valleys he saw when visiting Italy (Venezia 12). He was greatly influenced by the artist Hieronymus Bosch who painted strange scenes filled with weird creatures (Venezia 11).  Later he became interested in painting people, adding more people to his works.  His paintings reflected his interest in the poor people who lived in the countryside - peasants- (Venezia 14) although he was not one himself.  He painted peasants working, playing and feasting (Venezia 16).  It is rumored that Bruegel would go in disguise to peasant celebrations (Venezia 17).  His paintings are thought to contain secret messages, symbols and images (Venezia 18). 

Bruegel’s painting “Peasant Wedding Feast” shows a marriage celebration taking place in a barn.  The painting is filled with many people and various things happening.  Food is being served.  Wine is being poured.  Musicians are playing.  People are eating and drinking and talking.  A crowd of people are trying to get in.  A young boy is sitting on the ground licking his fingers.  The bride sits alone in front of a blue cloth with a calm look.   The painting is a detailed and realistic picture of a 16^th century peasant celebration.

“Peasant Wedding Feast” shows the reality and joy of peasant life in the 16^th century.  Bruegel himself was not a peasant but perhaps he found the simple, country life to be more interesting and real than his own. Maybe that is why he would sneak into and paint their lives.  Bruegel’s interest in peasants may show not only his appreciation for their simple and merry lives but also his dislike for the fake and mannered life of the rich in Europe at the time.

Peasant Life

A wedding in a barn

hot food on a humble platter

wine poured from jugs

feasting at a communal table

noisy conversation

musicians standing

a small boy licking his fingers

a grinning bride

A peasant wedding

so different than a gentleman’s

so real and undisguised

no ornate costumes

no formal dances

no silver goblets

no polite conversation or excessive manners

instead a simple, genuine, joyous celebration

A peasant wedding feast

Works Cited

Hill, Suzanne. “Meaning in Peasant Wedding Feast.”

Suite 101.com.

31 Jan. 2012.  

            http://suzannehill.suite101.com/meaning_in_peasant_wedding_feast.

“Pieter Brugel the Elder.” The Artchive. 31 Jan. 2012. http://www.artchive.com /artchive/

            B/bruegel.html.

Venezia, Mike. Pieter Bruegel (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists).   

            Connecticut: Children’s Press, 1993. 

Dearest Elizabeth

Dear Liz, 

I can’t believe you’re alive and well!  And that you ran off to be with Will, I had no idea! You’re not who everyone thought you were. You’re not who I thought you were. This is my sister here, Elizabeth Holland, society’s treasure, who faked a death to be with her true love, a coachman.  It sounds like one of the novels I would read.

I can’t even begin to explain how devastated I was when I heard about your death. You’re my sister, my perfect sister.  Always there to please others, always doing what was best for your family and your reputation.  At first I thought it was my fault that you were dead.  I found out that you knew about Henry and me.  I was so overwhelmed with guilt. Thank you for understanding that I love Henry.  I love him so much Liz and I hope he still loves me.  I hope he doesn’t end our romance because he feels guilty for your death, as I did.  How could I live without him, he’s all I have left.      

But Liz, how could you desert us? How could you desert me? With father already gone, you left me behind with mother and her expectations for me to marry well. And you know, I can’t do it Liz. The one man I would marry  is mourning your death. We still have no money. Mother has sold everything, including your things and father’s things. Society knows about our financial state.  Soon everyone will know we are destitute. They are probably putting together the pieces about your engagement to Henry.

Currently your best friend Penelope Hayes has made quite an impression in society. You should have seen the performance she staged after your death. Always crying or something about how much she missed you and how young you were and what about Henry and this and that. I saw right through it. I knew she was a fake and was behind your disappearance for her own selfish little desires. Now she wants Henry. My Henry!  I won’t let that happen Liz.  I will put that Penelope in her place before she even tries to lay a gloved finger on him.

Please Liz, forgive me for seeming angry, I’m not. I’m so glad you’re alive and I wasn’t responsible for your death. I’m glad you’re in love. I appreciate your trusting me with your secret. I know we are different and there are things that I do that you don’t approve of.  There are things that you do that I think are amusing as well.  But we are sisters and always will share a bond. So I thank you for telling me your secret and in exchange I will keep you up to date on what is happening here.

So I have to ask you something Liz. I want your advice for once. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get our family out of this financial disaster. I don’t want mother to be upset. I don’t want us to be even poorer. But I don’t want to marry some rich snobby bachelor. I want to marry Henry. So I am asking you, the girl who always knew the right thing to do, or so I thought, to help me, the girl who never cared about the right thing to do.  She needs you now, more then ever.

                                                                        Your loving sister,

                                                                        Diana

This is a fictional letter I created between two characters in The Luxe series book Rumors. Diana writes back to her older sister Elizabeth after she learns that she faked her death. Diana is the only person who knows that Elizabeth is alive and why she had to run away.  I think Diana would have mixed emotions about what Elizabeth did.  I imagine that Diana would be relieved that Elizabeth is alive and that she didn’t cause Elizabeth’s death.  But Diana would also be upset and feel a little abandoned by Elizabeth. Elizabeth left Diana alone, with their depressed mother, and poor. The only hope for her family requires her to marry a rich man. Diana probably would feel stuck and would want Elizabeth’s advice on how she can help her family financially and still marry Henry, her true love. Diana and Elizabeth have different personalities and didn’t always get along. Diana is honest and to the point. She’s real and would tell Elizabeth that she’s upset and in need of her help. Diana wouldn’t want the responsibility of her family. She would want to do what’s good for her and marry Henry.

                                                            

Rumors about Rumors

I have just finished The Luxe and am now reading Rumors, the second book in The Luxe series.  At the end of The Luxe, it was revealed to the reader, and Elizabeth’s sister Diana, that Elizabeth who was engaged to be married to Henry wasn’t dead. She had run off to be with her coachman and true love, Will.  We also learned that Elizabeth’s “best friend” Penelope had helped Elizabeth fake her death so that Penelope could marry Henry.

I’m just starting Rumors but after reading The Luxe and getting to know the characters, I already have some predictions on what may happen in this book to Penelope and Diana.  Penelope is evil, conniving and selfish. This was earlier displayed in The Luxe where Penelope paid for secret information about Elizabeth from her maid in order to get rid of Elizabeth.  She threatened to ruin Elizabeth’s reputation by exposing her affair with Will.  She only helped Elizabeth escape and fake her death so she could marry Henry.  Now that Elizabeth is out of her way, there’s nothing to stop Penelope from marrying Henry.  I’m predicting that Penelope will try to gain Henry’s love by acting like Elizabeth.  Penelope and Elizabeth were the two stars in society, but Elizabeth was always more well liked because of her flawless manners and obedience.  Now Penelope can play that role. This will help Penelope’s reputation and allow her to work her way higher on the social ladder and into Henry’s heart.

Little does Penelope know, Henry wasn’t in love with Elizabeth, but with her little sister, Diana. I’m predicting that Diana and Henry will continue to be in love and later get married. This could happen because Diana’s family is still deep in debt and Henry’s father still needs to find Henry a suitable wife. This is not what Penelope wants so she will probably form another plan to destroy Diana like she did to Elizabeth.  She may do this by getting secret information about Diana and worsen Diana’s already bad reputation and social status so that Penelope can end up with Henry.  Penelope may even drive Diana out of town like she did to Elizabeth.

Now that quiet, sweet, and beautiful Elizabeth is gone. The evil Penelope and willful Diana will take center stage in Rumors. Penelope is fierce and determined to get what she wants. She will do whatever she has to do to get it.  Diana is determined as well as unruly.  She doesn’t care what others think and does as she pleases.  I’m predicting that there will be lots of conflict between these two girls, wanting and battling for the same thing.  

The next book in the series is called Envy, maybe that book will be about Penelope’s envy for Diana after she marries Henry or Diana’s envy for Penelope after she marries Henry.  I guess I’ll have to read it to find out!