Tags
Sol, n. [L.]
1. The sun.
2. (Alchem.) Gold; — so called from its brilliancy, color, and value. –Chaucer.
Today is Shakespeare’s 445th birthday. Here is one of my favorite sonnets written by Shakespeare:
CXXX
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, –yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go, —
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground;
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any she bely’d with false compare.
Next to this sonnet, I wrote some notes, apparently from a literature class I once took. I wrote: “Starts at top of head to bottom of feet. Satirizes the conventions of describing a lover at the time.”
I never replaced my favorite album from Sting, which I only have on cassette, named Nothing Like the Sun. I should buy the CD one of these days. In the liner notes, Sting describes how he gave this album its name:
I was accosted late one night on Highgate Hill by a staggering drunk…[he] demanded of me threateningly, “How beautiful is the moon?”… Thinking quickly and not wishing for an early toxic death, I fixed him with my eye and declaimed, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” Shakespeare is always useful I’ve found for calming down violent drunks if only because it gives them the impression that you’re crazier then they are….
My mother made the picture that hangs on the wall in the photo below. It was in their Houston apartment when they were newly married; many years later it was banned to the basement TV room; now it no longer exists, having made its way to the garbage dump when my parents ruthlessly cleaned house before moving to a new destination. My siblings and I loved this sun; it was so vintage; so…pink! At least it is still preserved in our photo album, and now as part of Funky Foto Flashback!
Bex is hosting Funky Foto Flashback over at Adventures of the Grigg Boys. Go see what funky foto she has this week!
