This past Saturday, April 23, 2016 marked the 400th anniversary of one of the world’s most renowned poets and playwrights’ deaths—“The Bard” himself, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s genius riveted the world not only in which he lived, but the one we exist in as well. Movies and plays are continually being performed or modified to fit the modern screen. It is often said that at any given point in time, "Hamlet" is being performed somewhere in the world.

Shakespeare’s life is full of curiosity. His father’s life before him was filled with success and failure, much of which seemed to have been transposed to his most famous son. Shakespeare’s fame during his time was overwhelmingly due to his success as a playwright, as his poetry was most likely written during an interim between 1592 and 1594 while the theaters were shut down by the plague. During this period of time, it is theorized that he wrote his most famous poems and the 154 sonnets that are attached to his name.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are renowned for numerous reasons as well as the depth and breadth at which they capture humanity’s essence. W.H. Auden wittily remarks, “Probably, more nonsense has been talked and written, more intellectual and emotional energy expended in vain, on the sonnets of Shakespeare than on any other literary work in the world.” So if you haven’t read them, by all means this alone should usher you into the world of literary snobbery.

My personal favorite, and the reason for this blog, is Sonnet VIII. In reading it for the first time a few summers ago (yes, I’m a nerd, I read over the summer), I asked my literature professor for some insight and he agreed it is a difficult one to understand. So, here it is:

Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lov'st thou that which thou reciev'st not gladly,
Or else reciev'st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing;
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee, “Thou single wilt prove none.”

Shakespeare’s sonnet is so rich I couldn’t help but relish in agreement with the melodic poetry he penned. The sonnet is one that pairs love with music. The musical language used is well-played indeed, Shakespeare. For example, the visual imagery of a lute would have resonated with his audience as the strings, like a guitar or mandolin, were "husbanded" in pairs reverberating in harmonious synchrony. Likewise, the holy family (Joseph, Jesus, and Mary) would have been depicted to his audience with "sire, and child, and happy mother," singing in harmony as the archetype of love personified in family.

But Shakespeare is crotchety in this poem. He accusingly asks the reader why they are bitter about the state of their love life, relinquishing that "joy delights in joy" (with much serendipity). Shakespeare is trying to convince the reader that even though they may have an excuse to "hear’st thou music sadly," one ultimately has no reason to be sad because the melody of love’s cadence should gently remind them their state of being is "confounded" because it is not "the parts that thou shouldst bear."

Though Shakespeare is chastising this person because of the state of singleness in their life, I think whether one is single or not, his message is the same. Be delighted at what state you are in, "Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy." Or learn from your predicament by hearing what is being sung to you and change.

So, Great Bard, sing on.