Shakespeare's Sonnets 1 and 2

Sonnet I

FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,

Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.

Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy content

And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.


My Interpretation of sonnet 1.

Shakespeare is talking about procreation being a necessity in beautiful people (not necessarily in looks); so that when these people age/ die/ are no longer able to bear seed, their beauty might live on in their heirs. (Notice the usage of male terminology which suggests that the British in that era were a male dominated society). Then he refers to these same people and terms them vain/ too full of themselves, because they feed their desire by masturbation/ celibacy. By doing this, they become their own worst enemies, because although they might be beaus, by ensuring that they do not procreate, they are being unfair not only to themselves but to society as well. The sonnet urges these people to rethink their foolish decision, or else continue being selfish and take to their grave something which they owed to themselves as well as the world, but were too miserly to share.

Sonnet II

When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,

Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,

Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:

Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,

To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.

How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,

If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'

Proving his beauty by succession thine!

This were to be new made when thou art old,

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

My Interpretation of Sonnet 2.

This is almost a continuation of the first sonnet as this one also talks about the need for procreation to carry on a family and self legacy.
When you are past the age of forty and age shows on you; when asked about where your great beauty is now, all you can do is feel ashamed, because you have nothing to show for it. If you would have instead had a child, then you could hold your head high and say my beauty lives on in my son. By doing this, when you are old and frail, you could still see your blood alive and young in your son and take pride in that.

A more indepth interpretation by me of Sonnets 1 and 2.

Shakespeare lived during the renaissance period and this was a time a large number of scholars, artists, politicians, authors and people who wielded immense power over the masses, started questioning the ways of the church (Roman). These people did not openly denounce their ways, instead they did it in ways that carried their messages where the church could not question or stop them. So, I feel that Sonnets 1 and 2 and some more I am sure were Shakespeare’s way of lashing out at the Roman Church because he was rebellious, a.k.a Wilde, Da Vinci, Voltaire, Michelangelo etc…

Through these sonnets he is talking about priests required to be celibate. Priests, who spread God’s word are known to be beautiful people, from the inside, not looks wise.

“As the Roman Catholic Church continued with new independence, it added even more remarkable doctrines that were not taken from the Bible. In 1079, Pope Gregory VII declared the shocking decree of celibacy for the priesthood.”

It was during this time that the seeds for the Church of England to be separated from the Roman Church were planted. These thoughts and more like them ultimately resulted in the Church of England forming a separate sect under King Arthur VIII, who came to be known as Protestants, in the 17th Century.
Protestant pastors can marry.

Others have speculated that during the years when nothing was known as to Shakespeare’s life, also known as Shakespeare’s dark years, he indulged in homosexuality. These sonnets may have been written as a plea to his male friend to marry and produce offspring just like he did. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and had a few offspring of his own. This is why, whether or not Shakespeare indulged in homosexuality or not was and still remains just that – a question, a doubt and mere speculation – there is no proof of this anywhere. You may choose to believe what you will.

My belief is that Shakespeare was addressing all three issues together. If you take the poem at face value, it is just a plea from one friend to another to marry and procreate. If you dwell deeper in history, then even the religious views make sense. And if you choose to believe that Shakespeare did indulge in homosexuality then the third viewpoint also holds merit.

There you go then, food for thought, eh?

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 16.

Place me on Sunium's* marbled steep,

Where nothing, save the waves and I,

May hear our mutual murmurs sweep;

There, swan-like, let me sing and die:

A land of slaves shall ne'er be mine—

Dash down yon cup of Samian wine!

By – George Gordon Byron - Also known as Lord Byron.


The last verse of this poem is an expression of determination and the birth of hope in the narrators mind.
He finally puts down his glass of wine and is the witness to the fact that his country will be free again or will die trying, but will never give up.

Sunium:

Cape Sounion is the setting of Poseidon's temple. Located right outside Athens this location is panorama of the gulf and a beautiful sunset.
A location of archaeological wonder.

Samian –

refers to all things from Samos, another island of Greece, and birthplace of many Gods as well as Pythagoras (remember the right angle Pythagoras Theorem in Geometry?)

This concludes our poem, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did studying and researching it.

Movies you might want to watch related to this poem are (and they are mentioned below in the sequence in which they occurred in reality):

Troy – Achilles, King Menelaus, Helen (of Troy), The Trojan Horse.

Alexander – Macedonian King, son of King Phillip II, victorious over Darius, Persian King and father of Xerxes.

300 – Spartans v/s Xerxes, Battle of Thermopylae.

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 14 and 15.

Note from me – I have put these two stanzas together because Stanza 15 is self explanatory and I feel reading them both together will make a more interesting and emotional read. The history I will be referring to will deal only with Stanza 14.

Trust not for freedom to the Franks*—

They have a king who buys and sells;

In native swords, and native ranks,

The only hope of courage dwells;

But Turkish force, and Latin fraud,

Would break your shield, however broad.


Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!

Our virgins dance beneath the shade—

I see their glorious black eyes shine;

But gazing on each glowing maid,

My own the burning tear-drop laves,

To think such breasts must suckle slaves


“Trust not for freedom to the Franks” –

This is a very important political statement Byron is making.

The Greek rebel troops waited for years on end for assistance from the major powers of Europe, most importantly from the Franks but this assistance only came toward the end when political interests came into play…

Byron is encouraging the Greeks to become aware of the fact that they are alone in this battle.

Turkish force once again refers to the Ottoman Empire.

Whenever any island of Greece was defeated, their women were made slaves and rape of these ladies was very common.
Their children out of this were also made slaves.

Why name the country "Greece" which is a Latin name?

The obvious answer is because the "concept" of a Greece was invented by the Modern Latins even before the "country" Greece came into existence.

Since the Latins invented Greece it was appropriate that they give it a Latin name.

So the Greeks fought for their independence, and then they were incorporated into the country of Europe using a Latin name.

This is what Byron means when he talks about Latin fraud.

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 13

Small note from me - I have cut down on history because it has come to my attention that this becomes very heavy reading. So, what I have done and will continue to do, is first just write a small reference paragraph after which I will give the entire history. I hope this works better for you.

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 13

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!

On Suli's* rock, and Parga's* shore,

Exists the remnant of a line

Such as the Doric* mothers bore;

And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,

The Heracleidan* blood might own.



- And once again we see a continuation of Byron’s previous stanzas, this time referring to more than one ancestry’s descendants; and their resistance to alien forces threatening to destroy their lineage and take from them everything they stand for.

Suli, Parga are both places in Greece, and he is hailing the Doric and Heracleidan lineage.

Heracleidae & Dorians Tribes through the Ages (they were part of the same.)
(from 1600 - 1100 BC to Today)

1. Pontians

2. Macedonians ( Remember King Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great?)

3. Cretans

4. Spartans (Remember King Leonidas and Achilles?)

5. Epirotes

6. Rhodians

7. Cypriots

8. Troyans also called Trojans, city of Troy. (remember Helen of Troy and Achilles?)

New evidences (2008) in south Italy reports: "part of people of Troy should be primal Dorian race"


This much information will suffice to follow the poem as we may completely understand why Byron is reminiscing about them. These were the races which boasted the bravest and most legendary heroes. Apart from that, these races were also responsible for the birth of several world renowned scholars, philosophers, artists and poets.

To understand the entire history, read on:

Suli: "on Suli's rock, on Parga's shore/ Exist the remnant of a line", here Byron is honoring the sacrifice and courage of Suli. Suli was a mountain settlement which had successfully evaded the Ottoman (Turkish) rule over the years.
When finally they were invaded the population fought heroically and the women & children, preferring to die than be anything but free Greeks, jumped from the village's high cliffs. The Ottomans entered a dead town.

Parga is another city (but this city is located on a shore whereas Suli is mountainous and rocky) which has survived invasions of numerous countries. It also boasts of brave Grecians who warded off invaders and stood their ground in spite of being outnumbered.
Parga was also passed around to several different dynasties.

Mythic origins

According to a myth based on an etymological fantasy, the Dorians were named for the minor district of Doris in northern Greece. Their leaders were mythologized as the Heracleidae, the sons of the legendary hero Heracles, and the Dorian incursion into Greece in the distant past was justified in the mythic theme of the "Return of the Heracleidae".

The most famous of Dorian groups were the Spartans, whose austere and martial lifestyle was much admired and feared.

Upon the death of Eurystheus an oracle tells the Mycenaeans to choose a Pelopid king and Atreus and Thyestes — already installed in nearby Midea by Sthenelus — contend for the prize. Atreus eventually wins out and his son, Orestes, returns to Mycenae and seizes the throne from Aletes, son of Aegisthus.
Orestes expanded his kingdom to include all of Argos, and he became king of Sparta by marrying Hermione, his cousin and the daughter of Menelaus and Helen (This is The Helen of Troy – the face that launched a 1000 ships, watch the film Troy, it is a very good depiction of Achilles and Helen and the Trojan Horse). Finally, Tisamenus, Orestes' son by Hermione, the daughter of Helen, inherits the throne.

The Heracleidae ("children of Heracles") return to the Peloponnese, led by Hyllus, the son of Heracles, and Iolaus, Heracles' nephew, and contend with the Pelopidae ("children of Pelops") for possession of the Peloponnese.

The Heracleidae base their claim to power on their descent, through Heracles, from Perseus, the founder of Mycenae, whereas Tisamenus was a Pelopid whom the Heracleidae regard as a usurper.

After a year, the Heracleidae are driven out by plague and famine. Upon consulting the Delphic oracle, they were told that they had returned before their proper time: the god said they should await "the third crop."

Accordingly, after three years, the Heracleidae invade the Peloponnese again, and Hyllus challenges the Peloponnesians to single-armed combat. In the ensuing duel with Echemus, king of Arcadia, Hyllus is killed and the Heracleidae undertake to withdraw for fifty years.

The Heracleidae invade again, under the leadership of Aristomachus, the son of Hyllus and Heracles' grandson. But Aristomachus is slain in combat with Tisamenus and his army, and the Heracleidae withdraw once again.

Upon consulting the oracle again, the Heracleidae are told that "the third crop" referred to the third generation of Heracles' descendants.

The Return of the Heracleidae under Heracles' great-grandsons is finally successful — although Aristodemus is slain by a thunderbolt, and his sons Procles and Eurysthenes assume leadership of his forces.

Temenus, Procles and Eurysthenes (the sons of Aristodemus), and Cresphontes cast lots for the kingdoms. Temenus becomes master of Argos, Procles and Eurysthenes of Sparta, and Cresphontes of Messenia.

Cresphontes secured the rule of Messenia for himself by the following stratagem: it was agreed that the first drawing of lots was for Argos, the second for Lacedaemon, and the third for Messenia. Both Temenus and the sons of Aristodemus throw stones into a pitcher of water, but Cresphontes cast in a clod of earth; since it was dissolved in the water, the other two lots turned up first.

Traditionally, this "Return of the Heracleidae" takes place eighty years after the Trojan war — between 1100 and 950 bc — and is represented as the recovery by the descendants of Heracles of the rightful inheritance of their hero ancestor and his sons.

For ancient historians, the Return of the Heracleidae explained the spread of Doric language and culture throughout areas regarded as Achaean during the Minoan and Mycenean eras: in the historical period the whole of the Peloponnese with the exception of Arcadia, Elis, and Achaea is Doric, along with Doris in northern Greece and the islands of Crete and Rhodes.

The traditional date of the "Dorian Invasion" correlates with archaeological evidence of widespread burning, destruction, or abandoning of Bronze Age sites on both Crete and the mainland in Late Helladic IIIC (1200-1050 bc), and the beginning of the Dark Ages in Greece.

The destructions are clear, but their causes are much disputed — theories run the gamut from economic factors, to social upheaval, climatic change, or external invasion.

And it is generally agreed that Doric speakers did enter Greece around this time, but most likely as a migration after the Mycenaean centers were destroyed. (The late Bronze Age was a period of migration throughout the Mediterranean basin.)

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 12

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 12


The tyrant of the Chersonese*

Was freedom's best and bravest friend;

That tyrant was Miltiades*!

O! that the present hour would lend

Another despot of the kind!

Such chains as his were sure to bind.

- Here is a continuation of Byron’s previous stanza, referring to Miltiades and his resistance to outward invasion, in spite of his reputed tyranny towards his own subjects.

Byron prays for the rise of a tyrant king like Miltiades, which he believes would still be better than Greece falling into foreign hands again.


For the full history read on.

The Thracian Chersonese was originally inhabited by Thracians.
Settlers from Ancient Greece, mainly of Ionian and Aeolian stock, founded about 12 cities on the peninsula in the 7th century BC.
The Athenian statesman Miltiades the Elder founded a major Athenian colony there around 560 BC. He took authority over the entire peninsula, building up its defences against incursions from the mainland.
It eventually passed to his nephew, the more famous Miltiades the Younger, around 524 BC.
The peninsula was abandoned to the Persians in 493 BC after the outbreak of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–478 BC).
The Persians were eventually expelled, after which the peninsula was for a time ruled over by Athens, which enrolled it into the Delian League in 478 BC.
Sparta gained control between 431 BC-404 BC, but the peninsula subsequently reverted to the Athenians.
In the 4th century BC, the Thracian Chersonese became the focus of a bitter territorial dispute between Athens and Macedon, whose king Philip II sought possession. It was eventually ceded to Philip in 338 BC. After the death of Philip's son Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the Thracian Chersonese became the object of contention among Alexander's successors.
In 196 BC, the Seleucid king Antiochus III seized the peninsula. This alarmed the Greeks and prompted them to seek the aid of the Romans, who conquered the Thracian Chersonese, which they gave to their ally Eumenes II of Pergamon in 188 BC.
At the extinction of the Attalid dynasty in 133 BC it passed again to the Romans, who from 129 BC administered it in the Roman province of Asia. It was subsequently made a state-owned territory and during the reign of the emperor Caesar Augustus it was imperial property.
The Thracian Chersonese subsequently passed to the Byzantine Empire, which ruled it until the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century AD. In 1356 the peninsula became the first part of Europe to fall to the Ottomans, who subsequently made it a major base for raids and incursions into territories further afield.

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 11

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 11

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!

We will not think of themes like these!

It made Anacreon's* song divine:

He served—but several Polycrates*—

A tyrant; but our masters then

Were still, at least, our countrymen.



- Byron is expressing a roller coaster of emotion, one moment high and the next a low. He shows anguish and hope, one followed by the other.
Here again he is beautifully moving back to optimism from the hopelessness portrayed by him in the previous stanza.
He continues to take us up and down which is what I believe he is feeling as well.

He is ever hopeful in this stanza, thus:

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!

We will not think of themes like these!

Anacreon's* song/ Polycrates*:

Anacreon of Teos in Ionia, B.C. 563-478, migrated with his countrymen to Abdera, now the city of Avdhira in Greece, on the capture of Teos by the Persians, B.C. 540.

He then lived for some years at the court of Polycrates of Samos (who died B.C. 522), and afterwards, at that of Hipparchus of Athens, finally returning to Teos, where he died at the age of eighty-five.

Of his genuine poetry only a few inconsiderable fragments are left; and his wide fame rests chiefly on the pseudo-Anacreontea, a collection of songs chiefly of a convivial and amatory nature.

So:

A tyrant; but our masters then
Were still, at least, our countrymen.


Here, besides talking about Polycrates of Samos, he is also laying the foundation for his following stanza which talks about more kings of Greece, who were all tyrant kings.