Disagreement

Don Paterson's commentary Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets is of such surpassing excellence that it was a relief today to find some grounds of disagreement with one of the finest of our contemporary poets. He thinks Sonnet 27, Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, is a bit of a yawn and he's just plain wrong. It's a gently beguiling little gem. Yes, it's conventional with its too regular scansion, but sometimes, especially as night approaches, you don't need the fireworks any more.

The truth is, I got to it just after finishing Hopkins's Deuschtland, sorely in need of something that wasn't so utterly dazzling, so wonderfully overwrought - and the Bard is terribly good at the underwrought conventional stuff. The idea of the Beloved, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, is quite good enough for me, thank you. I suppose the echo of R & J helps.

But, as I say, it felt good to disagree for once with the good Don. If ever you find yourself in complete accordance with a critic you know something is going badly wrong with your reading.