COMPLETE: Weekly Poetry - Sonnet XXIII, by Shakespeare

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » November 28th, 2005, 11:59 am

all audio files can be found on our catalog page:
http://librivox.org/sonnet-23-by-william-shakespeare/

I am so glad that Kara has asked me to be the team leader for this week's poetry slam. I have selected our old friend Will, sonnet XXIII.

Here is the full text of the sonnet:

XXIII

As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharg'd with burthen of mine own love's might.
O! let my looks be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love, and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.
O! learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

Here is a link to the Gutenberg version:

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/wssnt10.txt

Kara has requested that all readings be in by 5:00 Pacific time on Saturday, December 3rd. That's Sunday morning for Chris, Kristen, and others on the other side of the International Date Line.

Please post a link to your version here in the forum in this thread.

File name: sonnet_23_shakespeare_[your initials].mp3

ID-3 tags:

Title: sonnet_23
Artist: shakespeare
Album: librivox_weekly_poetry

Enjoy!

Post by **hugh** » November 28th, 2005, 5:26 pm

http://www.westmountrugby.com/misc/sonnet_23_shakespeare_hm.mp3

ScottM · Post by **ScottM** » November 28th, 2005, 6:50 pm

http://kyuzo.home.comcast.net/sonnet_23_shakespeare_sm.mp3

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » November 29th, 2005, 3:18 pm

Lovely readings by Hugh and Scott!! I'm just wondering why both of you have the exact same errors in your ID-3 tags, or is it that stupid Real Player playing tricks on me again? Both of the files say that Robbie Shakespeare is the artist.

ScottM · Post by **ScottM** » November 29th, 2005, 4:27 pm

pberinstein wrote:Lovely readings by Hugh and Scott!! I'm just wondering why both of you have the exact same errors in your ID-3 tags, or is it that stupid Real Player playing tricks on me again? Both of the files say that Robbie Shakespeare is the artist.

Must be Real Player, because I don't know who Robbie Shakespeare is.

kayray · Post by **kayray** » November 29th, 2005, 4:34 pm

Just Say No to RealPlayer! ;-)

(you should run a spyware/adware/malware checker after you install it, seriously, you'll be shocked)

kara

Post by **hugh** » November 29th, 2005, 11:21 pm

robbie shakespeare is a reggae producer (famously teamed with sly dunbar as sly & robbie) ... real player must have "interpreted" shakespeare as robbie shakespeare ... not maleware, but mal-education!

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » November 30th, 2005, 9:00 am

Well that is really annoying, Hugh. I hate software that makes decisions for me. I must get rid of that stupid Real Player. It must be set up as my default, for it comes up every time I click on an MP3 file. Anyone who uses it to listen to our files is going to have problems, though.

GordMackenzie · Post by **GordMackenzie** » November 30th, 2005, 11:53 am

Paula,

You might want to look into the Freeware "RealPlayer Alternative":

http://www.codecguide.com/about_real.htm

No spyware, but plays RealMedia files...

pberinstein · Post by **pberinstein** » November 30th, 2005, 12:21 pm

Thanks, Gord. I have no great attachment to Real Player and use Windows Media Player much more often. Doesn't hurt to have a variety for testing, though. I'll check it out.

GordMackenzie · Post by **GordMackenzie** » November 30th, 2005, 1:22 pm

Windows Media Player doesn't play .rm files ... but if you don't care about those, then just get rid of RealPlayer!

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » November 30th, 2005, 5:05 pm

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the text of the sonnet is incorrect. According to my book of Shakesperean sonnets and a couple sources on the internet, the text is as follows:

Sonnet XXIII
As an unperfect actor on the stage
Who with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart.
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense
More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.
O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I just thought I'd let everyone know! I'll be submitting my version soon.

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » November 30th, 2005, 5:36 pm

Okay, kinda scary putting my first recording out here, but here goes...

http://www.anniecoleman.com/resources/sonnet_23_shakespeare_ac.mp3

I hope I did everything right with the intro and the tags and all that.

GordMackenzie · Post by **GordMackenzie** » November 30th, 2005, 7:08 pm

LibraryLady wrote:According to my book of Shakesperean sonnets and a couple sources on the internet, the text is as follows:

Sonnet XXIII
...
O, let my books be then the eloquence
...

The key difference being "books" versus "looks".

Apparently the 1609 Quarto has "books" (you can find an image of the 1609 Quarto here: http://www.shu.ac.uk/emls/Sonnets/c1v.jpg), but many editors feel that this was a typographic error of the printers, and that "looks" was intended. I don't know all the aspects of the controversy, but you can find more info here:

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/xxiiicomm.htm

So, in short, either is probably acceptable.

LibraryLady · Post by **LibraryLady** » November 30th, 2005, 8:50 pm

Right, the other difference is burden vs. burthen. I guess there's no way of knowing what Shakespeare intended!