Our group decided that Shakespeare’s Sonnet 8 falls into Vendler’s category of the Perceptual: the speaker observes the subject from on high, and draws a metaphor between the subject’s dislike of the music he listens to and his desire remain single. Shakespeare employs the conceit of music to encourage—as in the other sonnets we have read thus far—the subject to gain a partner.  The auditory experience here works on several levels: the second quatrain, describing the “offend[ing]” and “confound[ing]” of the subject and listener, sounds choppy, and contains hard “c” sounds. The third quatrain, in which Shakespeare remarks that music played in harmony trumps that of a single note, the “o”  and “i” vowels stand out more: “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,” giving that section of the sonnet a more open and enjoyable sound. We had trouble deciphering the logic of the sonnet. For one, why would someone listen to music if not enjoying it? Is this about indulgence in unhappiness? We did wonder about Shakespeare’s perhaps homosexual connotations in including the line concerning mutuality: “Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.”

 Alex and Mariam, please step in!