Star-Spangled Shakespeare
"Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck"
A Sonnet - By William Shakespeare
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.
*
There are many more beautiful sonnets by William Shakespeare
The Art of the Sonnet
Sonnet:
A sonnet is a 14-line poem.
English sonnets usually have 10 syllables per line.
Often there are three a-b-a-b rhyme patterns, followed by a rhyming couplet for the final two lines.
According to the Oxford English dictionary, our word 'sonnet' derives from the Italian word 'sonetto' meaning ‘little sound’.
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564 ~ and he died there in 1616.
He is regarded, by many, as one of England's greatest playwrights and poets. He was also an actor.
His plays include 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Hamlet', 'MacBeth', 'A Midsummer Nights Dream', 'The Merchant of Venice' and many others.
Though Shakespeare is possibly best known for these plays, he is also famous for his sonnets. He wrote 154 of them. Two of them ~ numbers 138 and 144 ~ were first published in 1599, in a collection called 'The Passionate Pilgrim'. All of the others were later published together, in 1609. This quarto was simply titled: Shakespeare's Sonnets', with the additional words 'Never before imprinted'.
Edit - More Stars
I was first attracted to this sonnet ~ "Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck" ~ because of the reference to 'stars'.
'Stars'. It is a beautiful word
'Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck ...'
'... constant stars, in them I read such art'
I decided to find more 'starry' Shakespeare quotes.
Romeo and Juliet - Star Crossed Lovers
Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Prologue:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
'Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.'
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Much Ado About Nothing
Act 1, Scene 1
Helena:
'Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.'
*
Act 2, Scene 1
Beatrice:
'.... but then there was a star danced and under that was I born.'
*
Puck:
'But she [the queen] perforce withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.'
*
Oberon:
'And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.'
*
Act 5, Scene 1
Hippolyta:
'How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes
back and finds her lover?'
Theseus:
'She will find him by starlight.'
Stars in the Sky (also used to frame quotes)
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar Act III, Scene I
Caesar:
'... I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks;
They are all fire and every one doth shine'
King Lear, Act I. Scene II
King Lear, Act I. Scene II
Edmund:
'This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are
sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make
guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if
we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion;
knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance;'
Sonnet 14 - Spoken
English Language Hub: How to teach and learn plurals and the apostrophe
From Online Shakespeare - Sonnets
Sonnet 14 - Sung
Some of My Poetry Hubs - Including Shakespeare and Chaucer
- War Poetry: 'Break of Day in the Trenches' by Isaac Rosenberg - The Impact of war.
- 'A Wife in London' and 'Drummer Hodge' by Thomas Hardy
- Tennyson and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
- Tennyson - 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' - Honour and Glory?
- The Dungeon - A Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales
- Shakespeare's Hamlet and his 'Foils' - Fortinbras and Laertes.
- Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' - What do the soliloquies reveal about Hamlet's true feelings and thoughts?
- Shakespeare's Hamlet - The Sources of Hamlet's Tragedy
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' - Are they "half men"?
- Shakespeare's Hamlet - Did Gertrude Know that Claudius had Murdered her Husband?
- Shakespeare's Presentation of the Theme of Colonisation in The Tempest'.
My Shakespeare Hubs
- Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' - What does each Soliloquy, in Acts 1, 2 and 3, reveal about Hamlet's true Feelings? (To be ...)
Soliloquies in Hamlet ~ what can we learn from Hamlet's soliloquies?
- Shakespeare's Presentation of Colonialism and Colonisation / Colonization in ‘The Tempest' - Theme Analysis
William Shakespeare wrote 'The Tempest' in around 1610.
- Hamlet and his 'Foils' - Fortinbras and Laertes.
Who are Hamlet's foils in Shakespeare's play?
- Does Gertrude ~ Hamlet's Mother ~ Know that King Claudius has Murdered her Husband?
Does Gertrude know that Claudius killed Hamlet's father?
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' - Are they "Half Men"?
The characters, 'Rosencrantz' and 'Guildenstern', are something of a double-act in William Shakespeare's play, 'Hamlet', but is there any justification for describing them as 'half-men' ~ and, if so, why?
- William Shakespeare ~ Did He Hate Christmas?
What did Shakespeare have to say about Christmas?
- Hamlet's Last Long Soliloquy (How all occasions do inform against me) - Shakespeare Analysis and Commentary
'How all occasions do inform against me' [Act 4 Scene 4 Audiences can access Hamlet's thoughts, emotions and feelings via a soliloquy.
- 'Hamlet', by William Shakespeare - DVD Play Reviews
Of all the plays by William Shakespeare, Hamlet remains one of the most intriguing and popular.
In 'Hamlet', Is Claudius a careful ruler, a good king and loving husband; or a hateful, lying villain?Is Claudius a good king?