Shakespeare's 8th Sonnet (Hardcore Analysis) (Patreon)

Shakespeare's eighth sonnet introduces the exciting new field of music for his poetic sequence. 

Today we're discussing music appreciation, the power of metaphor, and family as antidote to ephemerality. 

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 “Music to hear”
• 1:20 Shakespeare’s aim with this sonnet
• 2:00 reading the sonnet together
• 4:00 Shakespeare’s musicality
• 4:30 is Shakespeare’s argument compelling?
• 5:00 where is Shakespeare in the sonnets?
• 6:10 the condition of music
• 7:00 music, metaphor & mood
• 8:20 “if music be the food of love”
• 10:20 being out of sympathy/harmony
• 11:30 when metaphor becomes music
• 13:00 strings on an instrument
• 13:57 what is Shakespeare saying?
• 14:20 difference between the quatrains
• 14:40 the joy of the sonnets
• 15:20 “mark how one string”
• 15:50 when one becomes none
• 17:12 how to appreciate music
• 17:50 learning to listen in nature
• 18:20 ephemerality and timelessness
• 18:50 music I’m currently enjoying
• 19:30 a listening exercise for you
• 20:00 complexity & simplicity in the sonnets
• 21:00 what do you make of this sonnet?

Sonnet VIII

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
 Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
 Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'

Shakespeare's Sonnet Project

• Sonnet I
• Sonnet II
• Sonnet III
• Sonnet IV
• Sonnet V
• Sonnet VI
• Sonnet VII 

Questions for you:

1) What music have you been enjoying recently? 

2) Is there a difference between appreciating literature and music? 

3) You've now heard many of Shakespeare's arguments to the Fair Youth in the procreation sequence. Which ones have you found most persuasive? 

Happy sonneteering!