:07:00
that is inauthentically punctuated.
:07:02
- In the Gardner edition...
- That edition was checked out...
:07:05
- Miss Bearing?
- Sorry.
:07:08
You take this too lightly.
:07:09
This is metaphysical poetry,
not the modern novel.
:07:13
The standards of scholarship
and critical reading...
:07:15
which one would apply to any other text
are simply insufficient.
:07:19
The effort must be total
for the results to be meaningful.
:07:24
Do you think that the punctuation
of the last line of this sonnet...
:07:28
is merely an insignificant detail?
:07:32
The sonnet begins with
a valiant struggle with death...
:07:35
calling on all the forces
of intellect and drama...
:07:37
to vanquish the enemy.
:07:40
But it is ultimately about overcoming
the seemingly insuperable barriers...
:07:44
separating life, death and eternal life.
:07:49
In the edition you chose,
this profoundly simple meaning...
:07:53
is sacrificed to hysterical punctuation.
:07:57
"And Death" capital D...
:07:59
"shall be no more;" semi-colon.
:08:03
"Death," capital D, comma...
:08:05
"thou shalt die!", exclamation mark.
:08:10
If you go in for this sort of thing
I suggest you take up Shakespeare.
:08:14
Gardner's edition of the Holy Sonnets...
:08:16
returns to the Westmoreland
manuscript source of 1610.
:08:20
Not for sentimental reasons,
I assure you...
:08:22
but because Helen Gardner is a scholar.
:08:26
It reads:
:08:29
"And death shall be no more," comma...
:08:33
"Death thou shalt die."
:08:36
Nothing but a breath, a comma...
:08:38
separates life from life everlasting.
:08:42
Very simple, really.
:08:43
With the original punctuation restored,
death is no longer something...
:08:47
to act out on a stage
with exclamation marks.
:08:51
It is a comma. A pause.
:08:55
In this way, the uncompromising way...
:08:58
one learns something
from the poem, wouldn't you say?