The Art-A-Thon event I attended focused on the structure and interpretation of Sonnets. At the end of this event, I was able to comprehend how Shakespeare organized his 20th Sonnet and was able to appreciate the meaning behind it. I learned that each line was composed of 11 syllables which was a special number when it comes to Shakespeare. Most interestingly- I learned that words can have “genders” depending if they’re stressed or not.

Sonnets are a beautiful form of poetry that usually are about love. Shakespeare’s 20th Sonnet is both beautiful and mysterious in nature. It is composed of a specific pattern of rhyming and as stated previously, syllables. This Sonnet speaks about a person whom Shakespeare was intrigued by. As you read it, you wonder whether this person is either a male or female. The gender of the person in question is not revealed. Shakespeare describes them as having a beautiful and natural face (of  a woman). Later on however, he claims that the person does not have the heart of a woman because it does not “shift” around too easily. In addition to the woman, a boy is mentioned in the poem as well.

Spoiler alert: The person in question is both a man and a woman. Many scholars have tried to decipher whether Shakespeare is heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. His poetry, not just Sonnet 20 has many hints that leave people wondering.

I attended “How to read a Sonnet,” which was facilitated by Professor Laura Kolb. This was a very interesting and surprising experience because I am not a fan of Literature, especially Shakespeare. However, I did enjoy being there and learning how to understand and deconstruct a sonnet like Shakespeare’s sonnets.

For general information, I learned that a sonnet, which derives from the Latin word sonetto sueno, means little sound. A sonnet consist of 14 lines with 10 syllables per line, however, this sonnet had 11 syllables per line. A sonnet is composed of three quatrains with one couplet. I learn that a feminine rhyme has two or more syllables while a masculine rhyme has one syllable. I also learned about a sibilance and fricatives. Professor Kolb gave us three guidelines for how to read a sonnet:

1. What does it Sound Like?
2. How does it mean?
3. How does the sound affect the Meaning?

For the sonnet that we read, it had a mixture of fix rhyme, such as “passion”, “fashion”, “gazeth” and “amazeth”, and slight rhymes, such as “created”, “defeated”, “nothing” and “a-doting”. Lines 1-8, Shakespeare is complimenting this beauty. The sonnet is about a man who nature intended to be a woman, because of its beautiful features, but “by adding one thing” which is a penis, prove to be not beneficial to Shakespeare. Shakespeare admired this man because of his woman features. For example, “A woman’s face, with nature’s own hand painted,” which describes his natural beauty, in addition to his gentle heart which is not subject to change like a women’s fashion. Shakespeare highlighted that the man attracts everyone with his beauty, “which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.” However with the addition that characterise him as a man, Shakespeare ended suggesting that the man gives him his heart and the woman the use of his treasure.

1. How does the author’s skin color (and its associated stereotypes) affect her experience at her college orientation? Both negatively and positively.
2. What does Dina’s first conversation with Heidi say about Dina’s view in terms of labels? How does she react to them throughout the story?
3. How does her relationship with her parents affect her relationship with others around her?

How To Read a Sonnet was a very interesting experience. I learned that although sonnet’s are small in size, they are very complex. It took us almost two hours to break down what Shakespeare really meant in Sonnet 20. We went back and forth on whether he was talking about a woman or a man. We found out that it was a combination of both a man and a women whom Shakespeare was really attracted to. I learned about the basics of a sonnet. A sonnet literally means “little sound”. It contains a hidden story which the reader tries to find the meaning of. Sonnets are roughly all the same size. They have fourteen lines with ten syllables in each line. They are usually about love and romance and come in groups which we call a sonnet sequence. Another important aspect sonnets is that they are addressed to one person. Sonnets are like detective work where the reader tries to find out the meaning through sounds and the vocabulary used. What I appreciated the most about this workshop is how passionate the instructor was about the poem and finding out what it was about. It kept me engaged and focused on the hidden meanings in Shakespeare’s language.

For the Art-A-Thon event, I went to “How to Read a Sonnet” with Professor Laura Kolb. The event fit my schedule perfectly so I decided to go to this one to fulfill my assignment. I didn’t have any expectations of learning anything new and I’d be really bored. However, the event was the total opposite. It was a very insightful and enjoyable. From the event, I learned the true meaning and how beautiful Shakespeare’s sonnet was. The fourteen lines were explained so in depth and clear that it made reading the words off the paper so understandable. I really enjoyed the event and gave me a different view of poetry. I used to hate poetry but it never, made sense to me, I never understood what the intentions of every line in a sonnet. It was amazing to know how clever simply fourteen lines could be and were. I was truly amazed by learning how to read, interpret and understand the sonnet. I had a great experience at this event because it really changed my mind and view on really poems. I enjoyed this great learning experience because it was very helpful to know the technical things about a sonnet and finally udnerstand and enjoy a sonnet. After going to this event, I am more interested in reading other sonnets to see if I can interpret and try to understand the sonnet on my own.

I attended the How to Read A Sonnet taught by professor Kolb. I really didn’t know what to expect going into it. Once there I was welcomed by Professor Kolb who was quite welcoming. We first introduced ourselves by stating our name and intended major. Then she handed out the sonnet that we would be working on which was Sonnet 20 by William Shakespeare. Before we began analyzing the Sonnet she gave us the basics of sonnets. First,  sonnets usually have one speaker who is speaking about love or romance. All sonnets have 14 lines which are roughly the same length. Each line has 10 syllables for a grand total of 140 syllables in any given Sonnet. Professor Kolb mentioned that there are a few exceptions to this and Sonnet 20 was one of these exceptions. Sonnet 20 was unique in that it had 11 syllables per line. Professor Kolb went on to tell us that the first 126 Sonnets are written to a young male. Sonnets 127 and onward are all written to a woman with dark hair which many refer to as the dark lady. After giving us the basics Professor Kolb had us read the poem aloud 5 times. She taught us how to read the Sonnet correctly taking into account what syllables were stressed and unstressed. The last thing we did before we actually analyzed the poem was go over three questions that would help us do so. What does it sound like? What does it mean? How does the sound affect the meaning? We first looked at the poem by going line by line. This helped us wrap our heads around the meaning of the Sonnet easily. As a whole Sonnet 20 was quite confusing but once we broke it down line by line it came with much ease. We found that the Sonnet spoke of someone who had both masculine and feminine features. Everyone couldn’t help but be attracted to this person. Overall this workshop was quite enjoyable. I feel as if I have a better understanding of what a sonnet is. I also feel that I’ll be able to correctly analyze a sonnet on my own. Before I was quite confused but through this engaging class I was able to successfully read and analyze a sonnet. 

Arnet Flores

English 2250

Prof. Sylvor

Event Review

How to Read a Sonnet?

The Art-A-Thon event that I went to was How to read a sonnet. At first I thought that it would be boring because I always thought that a sonnet was read like any other piece of literature. When I arrived professor, Kolb went over the basic rules of a sonnet. She introduced things that I never knew. From this event, I learned that most sonnets have 14 lines and that the ones that have more or less lines are categorized as “rebellious sonnets”. I also learned that sonnets have 10 syllables per line which would be 140 in total. As we got into reading Shakespeare’s sonnet 20 professor Kolb told us that most sonnets are about love and romance. She also informed us that some poets can write 100 or more sonnets for only one person. As we began reading I did not think much of the sonnet. It all seemed like just words on the paper, I was unsure of what to look for until she gave us guiding questions. Prof. Kolb told us that when analyzing a sonnet, it is helpful to use these questions:

1. What does it sound like?
2. What does it mean?
3. How does the sound affect the meaning?

These questions are to figure out who the sonnet might be for. These questions were helpful when reading sonnet 20. The first couple of reads I was unsure of who the sonnet was for, if it was for a man or a woman. However as we kept reading and breaking down each line it seemed to give a sense of gender but then again threw me off. Finally she told us that what we may think of as clues aren’t really clues. Sonnets usually leave the reader wondering who is who? While we broke down this sonnet we noticed that Shakespeare used different rhyme patters in his sonnets and that he added an extra syllable to each line.

1. How has Dina’s parents relationship effected Dina’s ability to have relationships with others?
2. Why do you think Dina stopped talking to Heidi after Heidi “came out?”
3. What does  Dina choosing to be revolver reveal about her?

The event, tought by Professor Abby Anderton, was a hands-on experience on how to play the blues on a piano. Personally, I had a really good time learning some fundamentals of piano playing since I don’t really have the time to do so myself. Professor Anderton showed us how to coordinate our hand and fingers on the piano so that we could have a more fluent “touch”. Watching her I realized that having the piano “touch” requires a lot of time, patience, and skills. She made playing the piano seem so easy and finally when I got the chance to play the notes on the sheet music, I could really feel the excitement people have playing an insturment. Even more so, the theme of our music genre was the blues so the music itself was really exciting. It was interesting to see how the blues has its own rhythm and culture. For instance, when she played the “12 bar blues song” one could definietely tell that it has an old, southern feel to it. This specific song, is called a 12 bar blue song because it is the foundation of all blues music. Artists use the 12 music bars to conduct a 4/4 time signature, and in this way, it is easier to play and distinguish the first (I), fourth (IV), and fifth (V) note.

Ironically, I took a music class last semster and did not enjoy it at all, mostly becuase I had no idea how to play or talk music. Professor Anderton actually teaches a music course called, “Music in Western Civivlization” at Baruch, and through her methods I was finally able to understand more clearly what a chord was, or what a note was. Most importantly, I was finally able to hear the many different sounds that each term meant like a “12 bar”. What was also interesting was how Professor Anderton showed us that the piano itself can be another instrument simultaneously, like a harp (by plucking the strings behind the keys). It made me realize that an instrument is not only a single playing tool, but that through creativity, it could also be something else. I belive that’s something very important to think about, especially as a musician.

During the Art-A-Thon event, I decided to go to the sonnet workshop, held by Professor Laura Kolb,  because it fit perfectly in my schedule. If I’m honest, I went into the event with low expectations because I already had small ideas of what sonnets were, so I thought that the workshop was not going to be so interesting. However, to my surprise, the workshop helped me realize that I am naive for thinking that my “small ideas” were enough to help me fully understand a sonnet. I found this out when Prof. Kolb asked questions about the basics of sonnets , and I knew the answers to almost none of them.

Theres a lot of new information that I learned about, that I did not know about before. For example, I didn’t know that sonnets were usually about romance and that sonnet meant “small sound.” One of the most surprising facts was that Rhymes have genders in sonnets, feminine rhymes have 2 or more syllables and masculine rhymes have only 1 syllable, and that stressed and unstressed syllables play a huge part in how we read the sonnet out loud. Even though sonnets are riddles, where peoples identities are meant to be hidden and not found out, they should be experienced physically first before mentally. This meaning sonnets should be read out loud first, before being interpreted.

The actual sonnet that was reviewed by Prof. Kolb and the class was Shakespeare’s sonnet 20. At first I had no idea as to what the sonnet meant, but with Prof. Kolb’s guidance it slowly became clear what the sonnets meaning was. I thought that the sonnet was for a woman, with Shakespeare expressing his love for her. However, by the end of class it became clear that the sonnet was for a man and Shakespeare was expressing both his satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the person. Shakespeare loved how the man was very feminine, but hated how the man was a man so they couldn’t love each other. Shakespeare was upset that the man had male genitalia, so they could not properly love each other in those times. I was shocked by the meaning because at first glance, the sonnet did not seem like it was written for a man.

Overall my experience with the sonnet workshop was very positive, because I learned new things and had a great Professor who guided us along the way. The professors passionate and enthusiastic way of teaching, I believe, helped make the experience more enjoyable for me. Before the workshop, I would not have known that some sonnets can take over an hour to analyze and they can be extremely complex. I am grateful to Prof. Kolb for helping me gain new knowledge regarding sonnets.

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