I don't entirely understand Cope. If she is trying to be whimsical, as you said, and ends up in nihilism, doesn't really seem funny, but somewhat ridiculous. I might give a pity chuckle... 'Ha' Or maybe she is poking at Shakespeare. Regardless, doesn't she then defeat herself by that very fact? If in fact everything will outlast her verse and everything else worth mentioning by her (Your beauty and my name), what is the point of trying to say something about it in the first place?
I don’t know if I would go so far as to say it’s nihilistic. Certainly temporal, but just because something ends doesn’t mean it’s meaningless. Being lost in the “vault of time” isn’t so bad.
I think the real key is to read it is half of the story. It only makes sense as a response to Shakespeare, and although yes the pendulum is perhaps swinging too far, we as readers can find the virtuous middle.
I don't entirely understand Cope. If she is trying to be whimsical, as you said, and ends up in nihilism, doesn't really seem funny, but somewhat ridiculous. I might give a pity chuckle... 'Ha' Or maybe she is poking at Shakespeare. Regardless, doesn't she then defeat herself by that very fact? If in fact everything will outlast her verse and everything else worth mentioning by her (Your beauty and my name), what is the point of trying to say something about it in the first place?
I don’t know if I would go so far as to say it’s nihilistic. Certainly temporal, but just because something ends doesn’t mean it’s meaningless. Being lost in the “vault of time” isn’t so bad.
I think the real key is to read it is half of the story. It only makes sense as a response to Shakespeare, and although yes the pendulum is perhaps swinging too far, we as readers can find the virtuous middle.