“Fragile” - Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 is a poetry film single
Eric Roffman of the QPORIT blog (“Quick Previews Of Random Interesting Things”) has started a new blog that he intends to fill with text, performances, films and analyses of the 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare: Sonnets by Shakespeare. Better yet, he has made a film of Sonnet 65 & posted it online at Google Video: “Fragile.”
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o’ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O! how shall summer’s honey breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time’s best jewel from Time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O! none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Life is short, beauty fleeting, art is long... but there is the age-old tension between words & pictures to consider here, the recurring debate sparked by every filmed book. Does the film do justice to the words? Do the pictures & sounds add dimension to the poem, or are they distractions? What do you think? Come back & post a comment here after you’ve seen “Fragile” & read Hoffman’s notes on Sonnet 65 at Sonnets by Shakespeare.
Related resources:
Criticism & analysis of Shakespeare’s sonnets, links from Shakespeare.about.com
Our library of sonnet links
Multimedia poetry, poetry films & recordings
Comments
Mr. Roffman’s attempt at a film version of the sonnet were clever, but Shakespeare’s words are more clever still. In his analysis he points to the problem of filming the Bard’s poetry. It can evoke far more than one set of images. His choice for “my love” was certainly a beautiful woman!