Critical Review of Professor Crawford's lecture, 10/12

In today's lecture, Professor Crawford introduced the sonnet in its traditional form, and explored how authors have "overgone" the conventions of the sonnet to convey their message. Prof. Crawford grounded her presentation in last week's discussion of the blazon, drawing on the theories of women in traffic and triangulation, as well as on the OED as a resource.

Prof. Crawford began her discourse with a fairly detailed review of her last lecture on the convention of the blazon. She reiterated where the tradition come from, as well as the three theories (traffic in women, homosociality, and triangulation) that may help illuminate the underlying intentions of the writers of blazons. Prof. Crawford then progressed quickly through each of the blazons we read for last class, focusing on how each author not only nods to Petrarch's convention, but "overgoes" it, in the sense of both skill and audacity.

After reminding the class of these works, Crawford delved into sonnets with Billy Collins' piece. She described how Billy Collins' both mocks Petrarchian convention in style and in content, a theme that would reappear again and again throughout the sonnets at hand. Prof. Crawford then entered a more in depth analysis of Sidney's 'Sonnet IX', references two schools of critical thoughts on Sidney, and relying on an OED definition for "front" to further the class's nuanced understanding of the poem. Crawford then moved to Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 130,' Donne's 'Sonnet XVIII' and Milton's political sonnets, all the while prompting the class to really focus on how each of these authors works within and "overgoes" tradition. In these discussions, Prof. Crawford brought in some historical information, but remained highly focused on each poem and its diction, with reference to the OED.

From the beginning, I questioned Prof. Crawford's detailed reiteration of last class's material. However, it quickly became apparent how closely tied the blazon and the sonnet are. As well-established conventions, both are subject to both mimicry and reworkings. By drawing our minds back to how blazon-writers reworked or "overwent" conventions, she established her argument that sonnet-writers do the same. However, Prof. Crawford's preoccupation with last class's material meant that much of this material's class received less attention. While she made a clear argument for how Collins and Sidney overcame Petrarchan convention both in style and content, she was not able to lead the class to a clear consensus on the last line of Shakespeare's sonnet before rushing onto Donne. By Milton, each of the poems' relationship with Petrarch had to be glossed over without delving into diction in any meaningful way.

Granted, we cannot fault Crawford for her rushed final points--if her argument were truly an essay and not a lecture, she would have undoubtedly given due attention to every aspect. Even with a shortage of time and some redundant class contribution, Crawford's interaction with last week's collection of poetry and its focus on "overgoing" convention allowed her to a very clear for how writers of sonnets related to convention in much the same way as writers of blazon.