I recently watched 10 Things I Hate About You and I wanted to do the assignment that their English class was assigned. The class was assigned to rewrite Shakespeare's Sonnet 141:
"In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote.
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone.
But my five wits, nor my five senses, can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be.
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain."
This sonnet is where the movie gets its title. The really cool thing about Shakespeare was that he wrote about topics that people could relate to and transform into their own. Although his plays were written in the 1600's, the lessons that can be taken from them still apply today. The Taming of the Shrew was the comedy that 10 Things I Hate About You was based on, and they hint at this in their English class. When their teacher assigns them to rewrite the sonnet, he is trying to make them realize how ahead of his time Shakespeare was and how he shows this in his work. Kat Stratford completes the assignment, presents it to the class, and ends up showing her true feelings for Patrick Verona. Then and now, people are able to relate his writing to personal situations, and that is art.
I'm no Shakespeare, but now for my version of Sonnet 141 rewritten as a poem:
"My eyes see flaws,
But my heart is blind to them.
The relationship that we have
Is as frail as a dying flower stem.
The words that you speak
Lead me into false hope,
And your constant presence
Doesn't allow me to cope.
I constantly crave you,
But seeing you feels cruel.
My head will not listen to my heart,
For I loved you like a fool.
You and me are a constant battle
But I'll stop because I'd hate to prattle."
I believe the best way to understand Old English is to relate it to something else that you are familiar with. Shakespeare wrote on topics, like love and war, that have been around for ages and will continue to be around for many years to come. As much as high school students hate reading his writings, they have some valuable lessons in them if you give them a shot.
