Poetic Justice
Wednesday, March 5th by scott malia
If Shakespeare was a poet first, why do we remember him more as a dramatist? This is the question posed in a recent article about Shakespearean scholar. For this writer, it seems that far too much attention has been paid to Shakespeare’s career as a dramatist while not enough writing has been devoted to his poetry. For this writer, Shakespeare started out as a poet first and later found his way into theatre. Additionally, he points out that Shakespeare had a poetic career beyond the Sonnets. Two of Shakespeare’s most famous and masterful poetic works are Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. While both works have received significant attention in literary circles, they don’t receive the same attention as King Lear.
If this assertion is true, why don’t both of his efforts receive equal attention? One issue may be accessibility. For those who regularly read poetry for study and/or enjoyment, this isn’t a problem, but how many people read poetry for leisure? Has poetry inadvertently become a victim of educational classism? In other words, is poetry something only studied by wealthy intellectuals?
Forum may have also played a role in the shaping of Shakespeare’s reputation. Theatre’s role as popular entertainment (both in Shakespeare’s time and especially in the 1800’s) has ensured that his plays reach a wide audience. His poetry, unfortunately, has not enjoyed the same level of exposure. Yet, there is one other factor that arguably is the biggest contributor to the disparity at hand. Shakespeare’s dramatic writing has always been celebrated and analyzed for its poetic quality. In essence, audiences and readers have been getting two forms in one. Shakespeare didn’t stop writing poetry; he simply incorporated it into new forms. In doing so, he may have cast a shadow over his earlier, equally important work.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I love the poetry argument primarily because it has to stop the “Shakespeare was meant to be performed!” people dead in their tracks.
http://www.shakespearegeek.com
March 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Shakespeare’s plays are definitely much more accessible these days than the sonnets are. In a bookstore you’ll see several editions of the plays next to each-other but you’ll have to look behind some books to find the sonnets. In a complete works the poems are contained in the back. They are only occasionally referenced.
English classes in several countries require that some of Shakespeare’s plays are read in class. Very rarely are the sonnets mentioned except as a footnote (”Shakespeare also wrote sonnets”). Even more rare is study, let alone a mention of his other poetry in a classroom situation. The classroom, of course, is one of the largest outlets for people to be exposed to Shakespeare’s works and really only a handful of his plays are studied.
Shakespeare was a poet. That’s what playwrights were called back then, that’s what poets did - they wrote plays. Most of the works heard onstage were in verse. It’s rather silly to praise him for the poetic quality his plays often have, that was the norm… except his verse’s quality was, indeed, well above average.
It is a shame that the other poems are not given more attention, but reading poetry aloud or to one’s self doesn’t seem to be a “big deal” these days. Maybe if TV disappeared…
-G
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