Next week I’m in the wedding of one of my dearest friends on the planet. She has asked me to read Sonnet 116, during the service – her favorite sonnet. It’s one of my favorites too.
I am honestly frightened. I “rehearsed” it this weekend, by myself. I went through it, a couple times and found that I was unable to get through the first two lines without feeling an alarmingly huge lump of tears rise in my throat.
I mustn’t be a crying bridesmaid.
It’s not that I’m sad or anything. It’s just those damn words.
“it is an ever-fix-ed mark…”
It feels more like a visceral response (the tears) rather than anything connected to a specific circumstance … Merely SAYING the words brings up this durn lump in the throat.
So my project for this week? To repeat Sonnet 116 (which I know by heart anyway) over and over and over and over … and cry if I need to … but perhaps by the 54th time I recite it, I will no longer feel this scary urge to weep. Repetition breeds familiarity which breeds calmness.
Breathe. Breathe.
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments…”
sniffle, sniffle …
Repetition will save my ass. This is my hope.
hey, for fun, why not read ‘jabberwocky’ instead?
’twas brillig, and the slithey toves…
O frabjous day! Callou, callay!!
beats the heck out of corinthians, in my book.
It’s good to know that I’m not the only person dorky enough to get throat lumps when reading poetry aloud, although it’s usually Shelley, Stevens, and H. Crane that do it for me.
Maybe you could try reciting the poem over and over in a flat monotone as fast as you can. It might ruin your final delivery, but it would probably keep you from choaking up. :)
Choaking = Choking.
Dang it, I hate it when I make stupid errors like that.
Monotone repetition is indeed the way to go. (All my acting training finally coming to fruition).
Did you even think that maybe they WANT you to cry? If you’re a bridesmaid, they must know you well enough to realize you’re a fairly emotional person. Maybe the bride and groom got together and said, “Hey, let’s have Sheila read Sonnet 116. She’ll bawl like a baby! It’ll be a hoot!”
Some people have jugglers or magicians at their weddings; they’ll have the Amazing Weepy Sheila.
When I was in high school my best friend had the rather disgusting ability to commit outrageous amounts of poetry to memory, which he would then recite at top speed in a monotone that would leave one unsure whether to laugh or to slap him and to tell him to shut up. Listening to Tennyson’s “Ulysses” in this way was quite an experience.
Mark,
I was thinking the same thing. It sounds like a plot.
Amazing Weepy Sheila…
Now that’s funny. Sounds like one of the Mystery Men.
I know I came late to this thread, but as you know (and Mr. Bingley might not), “Jabberwocky” is indeed the one poem I can recite from memory. I’d do so now, except it’s already in your archives somewhere.
It certainly is, Dave J – and the funny thing is – I believe it is in the comments section to a post that has NOTHING to do with Lewis Carroll or Wonderland … which, I believe, is perfectly fitting for such a poem.
I think it might have been in a serious post about moral scolds or something … heh heh heh
“…so we were all the beach totally naked, and…”
;-)
dave, you rascal!
It’s a quote, Mr. B, invoked as representational of all random statements having nothing to do with the surrounding conversation.
Don’t get TOO excited.
DaveJ – exactly!
As I recall it was like – all this NOISE about “moral scolds” and “republican vs. conservative”, etc. – and in the middle of all of it was you:
TWAS BRILLIG AND THE SLITHY TOVES
heh heh heh
Janice the Muppet. Immortalized in all her pot-hazed beach-bum wonder.
aw, shucks…and here i was figuring that you were on the beach neekid with some flighty inebriated coeds who were awfully impressed with the way your vorpal blade went snicker-snack…
Not today, but I must certainly admit that FSU girls are the silver lining to the otherwise dark cloud of being in Tallahassee. ;-)
Repetition will save my ass.
i thought reps were supposed to tone your, um, oh never mind…