Essay examples --

Eric Vaughn Biber Professor Mary Dudy Bjork English 421 Essay 2 May 1, 2008 The Miracle of Poetry. â€Å"Such ‘unnatural’ tendencies have an intimate relation to genius, and what we call ‘genius’ is, exactly, the awareness, and expression, of planes, or dimensions, beyond the biological and the temporal. That is why Shakespeare’s Sonnets are so deeply concerned with the problems of time, death and eternity† (Knight, 69-70). Maybe Shakespeare knew that true literary genius existed in the study of the relationship man has with death and certainty, so he pointed his writing in this direction for literary immortality. Maybe yet he was simply fascinated with death in general, and his genius shined through in his writing. Regardless of his motives, it is clear that Shakespeare was at some level fascinated with time and its overwhelming destructive powers. This fascination was evident in almost all of Shakespeare’s works, but most notably in his Sonnets. Not only did Shakespeare realize the fragility of life, but he found a way to overcome t he universe’s inevitability with poetry. Although most of Shakespeare’s Sonnets are dedicated to a certain young youth, this dedication is only a front to carry on one of Shakespeare’s greatest concerns; the certainty of time and death. With the use of the written word, Shakespeare found a way to overcome the power of time and immortalize all that he loved, whomever and whatever that may be, inside the power of his ink. When examining the presence of time and certainty in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the best place to begin is with Sonnet 18. This is by far one of Shakespeare’s most famous Sonnets, and probably his most misunderstood by the common reader. Though this Sonnet seems to be a simple love poem on the... ... considered the first of the â€Å"procreation† Sonnets directed to the fair young youth, a deeper look at Sonnet 1 reveals evidence of Shakespeare’s uncanny ability to understand the nature of the universe. 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: (1.1-4) â€Å"The rose embodies only the perfect moment that intervenes between fulfillment and decay. Describing it, Shakespeare makes no attempt to speak in a biographical voice, or that of a dramatically defined persona. It is simply â€Å"we† who speak, as the voice of a consensus, and our desire for preserving the flower’s beauty is no less natural than its coming decline. Such a confluence, using â€Å"we† to unite temporarily speaker, reader, and the ordinary world, has a justification of its own† (Weiser, 3).