![]() ![]() ![]() ‘Palm to palm’ prayer is an innocent, entirely religious image that we are invited to equate with lip to lip kissing, when Romeo says ‘let lips do what hands do’. ![]() What is worth noting is the way in which Shakespeare subverts imagery. That said, prayer does also involve the recipient of that prayer, suggesting that both positions are intimate in different ways. The latter is an act of shared intimacy between two people. The former is carried out in isolation, seeking personal enlightenment. The audience knows this already (thanks to the Prologue) and are reminded in this initial exchange.Īs discussed above, the sonnet is replete with images of prayer and kissing – two very contrasting actions. Here, Shakespeare is making reference to the tragedy that will befall the couple – the ‘prayer’ of their sacred kiss will ultimately lead to ‘despair’ and grief. ![]() Key words are linked by rhyme, one example being the rhyming of ‘prayer’ and ‘despair’ in the third quatrain. The rhyme in this poem is more than simply out of necessity. (Romeo immediately calls this kiss a ‘sin’, playfully perhaps, but also in acknowledgement of the inappropriateness of snogging on a first date). This label validates his love and tells her, and the audience, that he is worthy of a kiss. On this note it is telling that Juliet repeatedly calls Romeo (a hard-headed romantic from a rival tribe) a ‘Pilgrim’. A kiss is a prayer and vice versa, so they can kiss without problem. Romeo clearly has his work cut out for him.īy the end of the poem, they have reached an understanding. Juliet, coy and intelligent, picks up on this and extends the metaphor, using her own metaphor to describe the act of prayer (joined palms) as a ‘kiss’. Yes he wants to get physical, but he is overtly spiritual in his request. In his metaphorical description of his lips as ‘blushing Pilgrims’ he is attempting to convince Juliet of the purity of his intentions. Romeo, the bold lover, kicks off the sonnet with a sly conflation of physical and religious language. We are meant to take them and their love seriously. Their love is not limited to physical attraction – it transcends into the realms of agape. This religious language also attests to the seriousness of their relationship. Our young lovers are seething with physical desire and lust whilst simultaneously discussing their religious concerns. You get two semantic fields with the vocabulary of the body (hand, lips, kiss, palm et cetera) meeting the vocabulary of religion (holy, shrine, sin, Pilgrims, saints, devotion et cetera). The conflict in this sonnet is basically between sex and religion – the body and the spirit. The fact that the sonnet so naturally fits into the dialogue of the scene highlights just how compatible these two are – they speak in shared verse, complementing each other to create a fixed meter and rhyme scheme. Why? Well, what we get is a gradual intermingling of speech, a conversational to-and-fro that culminates with two people perfectly in sync, speaking in a shared rhyming couplet. Romeo takes the lead with the first quatrain, Juliet the second, they share the third (Romeo taking three lines and Juliet one) and the final couplet is split evenly between the two. As you know, the sonnet is traditionally associated with love, so it’s no surprise that Shakespeare chose this form to detail the first exchange of words between our young lovers. Shakespeare goes to pains to write the encounter as a sonnet. This is the first meeting between Romeo and Juliet at the Capulet ball. Easy to miss when seen/ heard and even quite subtle when read. The 14 lines in question form a sonnet, a perfect Shakespearean sonnet in fact, with three ABAB quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end. Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?Īy, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,įor saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: Romeo and Juliet’s first kiss, Act One, Scene Four ![]()
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