English 1B - Seminar 7

Shakespeare and Addonizio - Sonnets

Read the following sonnets, then answer the two questions at the end with one paragraph per response.

First Poem for You

I like to touch your tattoos in complete

darkness, when I can’t see them. I’m sure of

where they are, know by heart the neat

lines of lightening pulsing just above

your nipple, can find, as if by instinct, the blue

swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent

twists, facing a dragon. When I pull you

to me, taking you until we’re spent

and quiet on the sheets, I love to kiss

the pictures in your skin. They’ll last until

you’re seared to ashes; whatever persists

or turns to pain between us, they will still

be there. Such permanence is terrifying.

So I touch them in the dark; but touch them, trying.

Not Marble Nor the Gilded Monuments

Not marble nor the gilded monuments

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till thejudgement that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.

Give a quick summary of each poem – what is the speaker of each poem saying? What concerns are at the heart of each poem?
Compare and contrast the two poems. What do they have in common (other than the fact that they are both sonnets)? What are the marked differences between the two?