William Shakespeare's Sunrise
Contemplations
Early one recent morning, on my way into school, I saw one of the most vibrantly beautiful sunrises driving over the Sebastian Inlet Bridge that I have seen in a long time. I was so impressed by all the vivid colors—pinks, oranges, and blues—that I stopped at Wabasso Beach to take a photo. Are you an early riser? Do you enjoy the dawn? One of the best places to catch the sunrise is at one of our beautiful beaches. For your next nature journal, catch the sunrise and record your impressions.
Literary Connection
Sonnet 33 by William Shakespeare
Full many a glorious morning I have seen
Flatter the mountainous tops with sovereign sky
Kissing with golden face the meadows green
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alcumy.
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage rise,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morning did shine
With all-triumphant splendor on my brow,
But out, alack, he was but one hour mine
The region cloud hath mask’d him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdainth
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven’s suit staineth.
The Elizabethan sonnet is a 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. The first three stanzas pose some type of “problem” while the final couplet offers a solution to that problem. Here, Shakespeare is using an extended metaphor to compare the problem of the betrayal of a dear friend, perhaps a lover, to the clouding of the sun. Shakespeare’s answer to the dilemma is that despite his lover’s moral lapse, the poet’s love for the young man remains unchanged.
From Stephi’s Poem:
Sunlight escaped from the early morning fog
As the night sky disappeared with gentle grace.
Faint splatters of pink and orange hue
Softly bleeding into the vast blue space.
Sunset It’s easy, you imagine,
To present my brilliance.
I don’t shine or dance like
atoms and particles in quantum physics.
Do you admire my colors?
When you look at me I die,
manipulating galaxies, space, and time.