Introduction

Shakespeare’s gift for understanding human nature and the human heart is readily apparent in each of his works. The complexity of Shakespeare’s poems and plays requires the reader to delve through their layers of meaning to truly understand his writing. Shakespeare used a wide range of broad themes in his writing. The themes that he chooses are universal ones, dealing with the human experience.

For this exercise, you will explore some of Shakespeare’s sonnets and a poem by a current writer. Then you will identify the themes of each of the sonnets and the poem, and explain whether or not you think these themes are pertinent for today’s world.

Destination Titles

Shakespeare’s Sonnets
(http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/)
Stephen Dobyns’s “The Gardener”
(http://www.cosmopoetica.com/cpb/library/2005/08/14/dobyns-from-the-gardener/)

Directions

Start with “Shakespeare’s Sonnets.” Scroll down and click on the link for “Sonnets 1-50.” Then click on the links for “18” and “30” and read those sonnets. After you have finished reading them, go to the Cosmopoetica Web site and read the selection from Stephen Dobyns’s poem “The Gardener.”

1.	Once you have finished exploring the Web sites, write down the themes of each of the two Shakespeare sonnets that you read as well as the Dobyns poem. Explain whether these themes relate to today’s world.