false subtleties

Yesterday at school, I saw a boy riding a unicycle. I'm told this isn't all that rare a thing to see on college campuses, but it was my first time.

Today I have to give my class a presentation on one of Shakespeare's sonnets — number 138:

When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told.
Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to end up giving way more information than my classmates can handle, because this is a goddamn complex sonnet and I don't do concise. I also have a significantly different interpretation of it than any critic I was able to find, and two things about that make me worried: (1) maybe I'm stupid and wrong; and (2) maybe my professor will think I'm stupid and wrong, and give me a bad grade.

Wish me luck? Please?

eine kleine photobloggery

Today's accidental poetry:


I went out to find this book, which I need for a project, and which of course neither Borders nor Chaucer's had. So instead I got this. Which I'm figuring must contain at least one poem about Shakespeare somewhere. Totally relevant, yes?

On my way home the moon looked — well, not at all like this, because everything I take a picture of comes out looking blurry and about one tenth of its actual size. But here's a white circle on a black background. Use your imaginations.

Also, I saw this crazy glowing cloud that looked like a UFO this morning. Early, early this morning. So early. I took a picture of it, too, but you might as well ignore it because it just doesn't begin to accurately represent the creepiness.


Okay, so this is a pretty crappy post, but I felt like talkin'. Deedle deedle deedle.