Analyzing and Interpreting Literature / Unit 3 AIL 0226 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Rude" in the Modesty Formula
Captions available
The idea
Sonnet thirty-two calls its own verses "These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover". The poet is calling his work unpolished, a conventional self-deprecation of the period. Recognising the formula stops you reading an insult to the reader where the writer is disparaging himself.
In practice
The poet is disparaging his own verse.
Where people slip
The modesty is conventional, not sincere.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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