The University of Salford has reportedly removed sonnets and other “pre-established literary forms” from a creative writing course assessment. The university is seeking to focus on thematic writing but also stated that sonnets and other traditional forms “tend to be the products of white western culture.”Sonnets are, of course, one of the major poetic forms that have shaped creative writing for centuries. The structure of a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter has challenged students throughout education from high school to university level classes. While associated with Western literature, it is a major form associated with such great writers as Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, John Milton and others. Even Michelangelo wrote in sonnet form.
The last word should be left to Shakespeare in sonnet form who warned that “other strains of woe, which now seem woe, Compared with loss of thee will not seem so”:
“Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah, do not, when my heart hath ‘scoped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer’d woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite
But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might,
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.”
We all know that the man who discovered a cure for polio did it because he was a privileged colonial white guy. The woke theology has every characteristics of a religion. In the Bible it says to tell people about Christ but if the person you ate talking too will not hear you should shake the dust from your feet and move one. In contrast the People of the Woke religeon demand not only that you hear but that you must comply or suffer the consequences. If you do not comply like Shakespeare you too will be cancelled.
Huh dur, ENGLISH is a product of “white” western culture, salford. Drop that while you’re at it.
Jonathan: I still enjoy reading Shakespeare. It was required reading when I was in school. In fact all the poets I was required to read were white. Not one Black poet on my class reading list. I never thought to question the teacher’s selection of poets. That what happens when you accept white privilege as a given. Black poets weren’t even on the radar at the time in creative writing classes I signed up for. My have times changed–and for the better. Apparently not for you. No, for you white western culture is under attack everywhere–even at little Salford University in the UK–and it must be defended.
‘
I can understand your alarm over the “cancel culture” that you think wants to marginalize white western literature and culture. But get real. In many schools today in creative writing classes Black and queer poets are often required reading: Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, WEB DuBois, etc. Diversity in required reading is not a threat to Shakespeare or Milton.
But don’t be too pessimistic. White people are fighting back. They are banning the discussion of race or LGBTQ issues in public schools. Books are banned that contain Black or gay themes. Even math books that are deemed to contain “diversity” content are banned. White racist politicians around the country are busy trying to assure the perpetuation of white culture. They are making it harder for Black people to vote to perpetuate white control of the levers of power. They are even making it easier for an 18yr. old white racist to buy an assault weapon and then slaughter 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket.
But the prospects for continued white rule are not good. The demographics show by 2050 people of color will constitute the majority in the US. That is causing angst and fear among some whites that is being fueled “The Great Replacement Theory” pushed by right-wing white politicians and Tucker Carlson at Fox. That’s also why Trump is still the favored candidate for white racist voters in 2024. They pray he will rush in on his white horse and save them from a mongrel society.
I’d be happy to know of a black poet on a par with Shakespeare.
Uncle Remus and that can help with the ebonics part?
DennisMcIntire continues to tell us that books are being banned. Has anyone noticed that Dennis is never specific about what books are being banned. Some books are being banned from middle school libraries because they present pornography to adolescents. Dennis forgets to mention that all of the so called banned books are available on Amazon. They told Dennis to say “Oh no books are being banned” so he repeats what he has been told to say.
WHOEVER YOU ARE, your narrow-mindedness is missing the point. This is NOT about colour supremacy….except to you… This is about the reality of the evolution of writing… all of the poets you mention are recent ones.. they did not exist back in the times when sonnets were created… the recent ones became part of the evolution of the English language… and so what if this language was started by whites…? why is it such a big deal to you to ‘CANCEL’ this fact..? WHY can’t the continuum of History simply continue to evolve without you making a big deal out of the natural progression, which is other voices get added as part of the natural evolution..??? Your obvious feelings of Hate and Revenge instead of brotherly love for the Human Race are.. PATHETIC.
WHY are you still using the English Language since it was invented by whites? as was Spanish, French, German, etc……..it is also sad that you drank the kool-aid of MSNBC, et al about Trump being a rabid racist, etc… what a bunch of lies…. your feelings of hate and revenge are misguided… you need to learn Chinese since people with your kind of thinking are opening the door for their dominance by 2050.. end of story.
And Willowbrook is an advanced African base on Mars, right?
What end “white guilt?”
What end Western suicide?
Erase history in the [African] Kingdom and the United States of [Africa].
Goodnight, America, only 61.6% of the U.S. population is American, the balance illegally imported.
Is it a “hate” crime to hate the winners because they won the battle of history?
Is the earth guilty of stealing native rocks from the universe to form itself?
Thou Shalt Not Covet
_________________
“Those who stand for nothing fall for everything.”
– Alexander Hamilton
________________
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
– Sir Edmund Burke
_______________
“Make them believe, that offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence”.
– George Washington, 1799
If black people had written Shakespeare, we would not be having this conversation. People are people, humans are humans. With words on a page, it just doesn’t f****** matter beyond provincial butthurt. The racist colonialists are not the people the media would have you believe they are. There is no modern appropriation or forced colonialism. That is a figment that exists solely in the minds of delusional children that have very forcefully been taught that there is something other than being a human being, and that the past has any bearing whatsoever on what they intend to do in the p sent. I have never seen a generation of parents, educators, or government that is so hell bent on dragging our enlightenment back to the dark ages. i used to say, heaven help these fragile people if they ever have to deal with a real crisis – i would seem that time is upon us. Do not count on them. What is at the end of mom and dad’s bank account? We are about to find out.
Those applauding the move to omit western white culture from their lives should omit all of it from their lives. They can start with a 1st degree of separation. If they benefit from something directly attributed to white western culture, then to avoid being a hypocrite, remove it from their life. Once they’ve cleansed themselves of the 1st degree connections, then move on to 2nd degree and so on. Then we’ll see how many degrees of cleansing before they’re fighting for survival in some remote jungle.
Indeed. Start by burning those wretched iPhones and the rest of the tech Steve Jobs created or envisioned. Same with BIll Gates and Windows. Same with that interweb thingy Al Gore created. Get rid of the analog phone system Bell developed and Gray invented. Dump the New Your Times and the rest of legacy media for being owned or created by Caucasians. Fox, too if you wish. Tear down every institution of higher learning that was started by Whitey. Remember to rid yourselves of every known firearm by Samuel Colt and his kind. Automobiles? All must go. Supermarkets, too.
By golly, Ollie, I think you’re on to something there. Let the Lefties start practicing what they preach for a change. We can keep popping the corn.
Jafo,
Let’s just remove the racial component and see what their lives would be like if they eliminated everything in their lives that had its origins in western culture.
👍 Even better.
(🎶 No phones, no lights, no motor car. Not a single luxury. 🎶)
Olly: A post-apartheid Sub-Saharan Africa, where up on they killed the whites who would not leave, and now the exports of produce, commodities, etc., have stopped, and famine, crime and killings deeper than Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, etc Be Like Muhammed Ali said when first visiting Africa, “Thank God my Great, Great Grandaddy got on that boat”.
“in some remote jungle”
That would require a very long walk since planes, trains, and automobiles would be already excised.
They can always make their own boats, or swim.
Yep.
“. . . then to avoid being a hypocrite, remove it from their life.”
Sure, that’ll happen. Right after Kerry sells his private jet, and the de-fund types stop using private security.
Exactly.