Description
For your first close reading assignment, you will need to analyze two lines from one of the
Shakespearean poems we have read and discussed in class. There are two steps that you must
accomplish for this assignment. First, you need to analyze the two lines. Essentially, you need to
indicate what the lines mean. You do this by paying attention to diction (words used) and their
connotative/denotative meanings as you understand them. You also need to focus on what
images (sights, sounds, smell, taste, touch) come to your mind as you read the lines. Second, you
need to relate the analysis of the two lines to an overall issue in the poem. Below are four topics
from which to choose, one from each poem. Each topic ends with the overall focus that you need
to address regarding the lines.
Choose one of the following four topics for your close reading.
- From William Shakespeare’s Sonnet #18: “So long as men can breathe; or eyes can see,
/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (13-14). Analyze the lines, and then explain
how they reflect what you consider to be the major theme of the poem. - From William Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 23: “I all alone beweep my outcast state, / And
trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,” (2-3). Analyze the lines, and then explain
how they reflect the speaker’s view of his life when he is not thinking of his beloved. - From William Shakespeare’s Sonnet # 130: “And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,/
As any she belied with false compare” (13-14). Analyze the lines, and then explain how
they reveal the speaker’s view of his beloved and how his beloved compares with others.