Though he is most often discussed as a dramatist, William Shakespeare considered himself a poet first and foremost, who turned to play-writing as a way to make money, and as a natural extension of his acting career. In addition to producing the language’s most respected corpus of plays and of poetry, the bard’s work has also been an inspiration to hundreds of artists in genres as diverse as painting, ballet, opera, film-making sculpture, architecture, and many others. This class will consider Shakespeare’s poetry, with an emphasis on the sonnets; we will read descriptive passages and speeches from nearly all the 36 plays, with an ear tuned to his unique language and image-making. We will also consider him as a cultural touchstone, reading adaptations, listening to symphonies, and criticizing paintings inspired by his work. In order to understand his composite gifts of characterization and narrative structure, we will read, in addition to principle selections from the major plays, three in their entirety.
The goal is not to read all the Shakespeare we’ll ever need to read in the span of one class, but to qualify ourselves as readers of his poetry, that we might open any of his plays, at any later date, with appetite and comprehension.

Required Texts:

A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Tempest
King Lear
Sonnets

I have ordered some copies of the above plays at the UW bookstore, as well as a Complete Shakespeare, should you rather have them altogether. Be advised though, you may do just as well in used bookstores around the city: any copy you find will suit our purposes.

Required Work:

Weekly blogging
Two short papers
Memorization