Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Brian Boyd

Published by Harvard University Press 2012

Why Lyrics Last

Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Brian Boyd

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674064843

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Why Lyrics Last, the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is “universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind.” An evolutionary perspective— especially when coupled with insights from aesthetics and literary history—has much to tell us about both verse and the lyrical impulse.

Boyd places the writing of lyrical verse within the human disposition “to play with pattern,” and in an extended example he uncovers the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Shakespeare’s bid for readership is unlike that of any sonneteer before him: he deliberately avoids all narrative, choosing to maximize the openness of the lyric and demonstrating the power that verse can have when liberated of story.

In eschewing narrative, Shakespeare plays freely with patterns of other kinds: words, images, sounds, structures; emotions and moods; argument and analogy; and natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal, and life cycles. In the originality of his stratagems, and in their sheer number and variety, both within and between sonnets, Shakespeare outdoes all competitors. A reading of the Sonnets informed by evolution is primed to attend to these complexities and better able to appreciate Shakespeare’s remarkable gambit for immortal fame.

Author / Editor information

Boyd Brian :

Brian Boyd, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, University of Auckland, is the world’s foremost authority on the works of Nabokov.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Story and Verse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Lyrics Unlinked
1. Poetry, Pattern, and Attention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. Lyric and Sonnet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
3. A First Shakespeare Sonnet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
From Sonnet to Sequence
4. Love The Mistress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
5. Love and Time The Youth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Beyond Love
6. Status Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
7. Death Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Shake-speares Sonnets, 1609
8. Lyric and Narrative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Envoi Verse and Aversion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Notes. Bibliography. Index
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 240

eBook

Published: April 19, 2012
ISBN: 9780674064843