This week in my Milton class we’re studying sonnets, though my favorite isn’t from Milton, but from Shakespeare:
Sonnet XXIX*
When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least, Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
*As a side note, I think it's sad that schools no longer teach kids how to read roman numerals. Like handwriting, it's going the way of the dodo. Public education in this country is a joke.