Art of Melancholy

 To start off this article I think their is a general synopsis that the common theme depicts religious states of being and sexuality seeming to be very common for this time period. Behn writes the story with a love story in mind between two characters. Isabella confesses her love to Henault but no matter how both of them feel, their are constraints and limitations present of what could be a relationship. Hanault suggests that they run away together to get away from such boundaries but Isabella quickly turns this proposition down as she knows the consequences that may come with it. The constraints and limitations are due to virtues and surrounding of what cannot be changed nor disobeyed. So, it makes sense why Isabella feels so compelled to say no to the idea of running away even though her feelings of love may drive her in the other direction. It seems like a lose-lose situation that has gotten them into a rut no matter what. Not only does the reader get this sense of melancholic f...

 Robert Burton explored melancholy deeply in all areas of expertise. With multiple editions to research and exploration, Burton became an expert on what we now know as depression. Then, melancholy was both from the source of love and religion and are closely explained in Burton's text. From a wide range of years engrossed in this genre of feeling, Burton studied melancholy such that it would be peeled back in layers in a way. Three sections of the comprehensive text explain, "nature, symptoms, and diverse causes of melancholy" which range from "God to witches and devils, poverty and imprisonment, parents and 'overmuch study', 'desire of revenge', or 'overmuch use of hot wines". Through this perspective, melancholy was thought of as a result from the environment or surrounding to on person. This perspective can be viewed a bit differently than some of the others we had looked at thus far. Sure, most people assume melancholy comes from an uncon...

 Mary Wroth was one to be the first ever female sequentialist of sonnet writing. Her approach to her writing is not only fascinating to look at but easy to analyze and dive deeper into. Her writing tells a story, specifically in sonnet 7 but so do all of her sonnets chronologically. I find it so interesting how she would approach, edit and revise her work. Wroth was one to be shaped by Mary Sidney, her godmother. Many poets, scientists, and theologians would gather together in an estate. I cannot help but wonder if work was revised, depicted, initiated, or inspired by these other resources of people. Wroth was creative, by with helping hands her work was remarkable. In sonnet 7, it specifically tells a story about love with a common theme running throughout it; she will not be forced into love. With this being said, it means that Wroth would not love someone just because it was necessary, the true feeling needs to be elicited, not by obligation. Her writing has extra letters in spe...

 As exploration of technique, hidden meaning, and style of sonnet writing pursues and continues, John Donne is a notable and creative writer to highlight. His work covers a variety of feelings and events during the time period he lived in while coinciding with important meanings behind each. In the selection of his Holy Sonnets, Sonnet 5 is one I found interesting and took upon to analyze a bit deeper than surface level. The first line "I AM a little world made cunningly Of Elements, and an Angelike spright" establishes this feeling of personal belittlement but can be extract from the world. The writer is in his own small world with elements both physically and what seems to be spiritually as well. But again to connect to it, it comes from the overall world around him. To further explain, the two topics of elements is curated throughout the sonnet leaving the reader to believe the world outside of the small world the writer is in is entirely composed of such elements. The wor...

 William Shakespeare whom we all know was one to write in a variety with his word choice and extravagance in tone. He was one to dip his toes in much of writing and became well known for risks he had taken within his writing alongside the incredible detail and introduction of methods to write. Sonnets by Shakespeare were in more than one direction. He wrote in great feelings and all of which were not the same. In Sonnet 21, Shakespeare writes poetically about a beloved but this was not to impress others to for sales of his creativity. Instead, he was one to resonate with truth and sincerity over all else and to be one with true feelings of which is reflected in this sonnet. Additionally, in Sonnet 54, truth is mentioned again alongside with the idea of beauty mentioning a rose as a comparison. Virtue coincides with beauty as it is not enough to be truly appreciated as Shakespeare depicts in this sonnet. Lastly, Sonnet 4 dives into the physical beauty of a person accompanied by resp...

 I went through the poems and Astrophil and Stella 15: You that do search for every purling spring struck me. I read this sonnet and found a few patterns but the meaning behind it was also key. Throughout the sonnet, the last word of each line seemed to rhyme with the previous one while also including the first and fourth line rhyming like of the "abba" approach. Words such as "flows" and "grows", "such" and "touch", "wring" and "bring" are a few that are included very closely together instead of being split up by other lines in between. Additionally, the sonnet has words at the end of phrases such as "light" and "endite" , or "spring" and "wring". Aside from the structure, the sonnet has meaning that readers should grasp. We know that during this time period there was a normal "set up" per say of the backstory that many readers would think of before running their eye...

 While reading through the sonnets, there were a few that truly stuck out to me with their intertwinement of words and almost acted as a juxtaposition. This comparison created a spin giving off a new approach to what we may think of topics normally. It is truly poetic the way this piece is written about a melancholic relationship about giving someone your all and not receiving the same in return. In the section, "because I have thee still kept from lies to blame" the writer explains that no matter the efforts and abilities put forth, unfair and poor treatment is elicited by the other person. Going further, this feeling is described as the person (I am assuming who Wyatt is talking about) standing cold yet incomplete when asked for help by Wyatt. Personification is brought into the portion by describing salty tears being present as if they are a person when he instead wants to be alone rather than accompanied. Fear and hope burn and freeze like ice even though these are feelin...

 During the Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino beleive music was a core influence to people around the world. This string of notes assembled together brought balance to human souls with the act of healing imbalances. When we think of imbalances, this is mostly mental such as melancholic feelings of which music was the escape to return to a normalcy in Ficino's philosophy. He thought of music as a way of practice in spirituality of which is capable of bringing people to greater alignment with rhythms and harmonies of the universe. It brought therapy to many because music itself had  and evokes a lot of emotion which brought the emotion out of the soul. If we think about this technique in modern day, it seems fair. We listen to sad songs when we are feeling down, upbeat happy songs when we are full of life, and calming songs when we just need a moment to relax. In our world now, maybe this is because we feel the emotion from the song as it is brought out in us. Or maybe the music allo...

 In class, we were able to watch two different version of the theatrical, passionate play, Hamlet . The first version had Hamlet being portrayed crude and a man fully hating the world. He is young, and within his youthful life leaving out that strong directed emotion seen in the second version. Additionally in the second version, Hamlet is portrayed to be more of a manic character and you can see him spiraling down a hole even though the storyline is still the same between both. This is portrayed through the strong verbiage and emphasis on certain phrases as well as the increase in emotion when dialogue is elicited. He was one to experience multiple instances through many unfortunate deaths. One being his father, followed by Ophelia and many beloved characters close to him. To touch on Hamlet's father, in the first version he was a real person being seen. But, in the second, he is a light representing more of a soul and maybe even a figment of the imagination (reference to spiralin...

 So here we are, back to the four humours. As we know, this methodology or idea was heavily believed in ancient times. It is almost like they were pulling things from thin air (literally and metaphorically) to find reasonings for all of the detrimental and sorrowful situations happening in front of their eyes. Even though people of this time didn't know what was happening, they tried to pull a reason to explain it. To be fair, they really didn't have many advances so their imagination and provoked thoughts were the best they had. Something also predominantly believed was supernatural possession or witchcraft. Could this have been deemed because they didn't have any other reasoning for such happenings? Or could it have been because they saw something bad and put a negative connotation around it for the person to be socially persecuted or undesired? I, as I am sure many people today, am grateful Shakespeare had a different way or thinking. In Macbeth, Shakespeare alluded to ...