The stars, the selfsame sky, [all] for [my] love of you.

                Nets by Jen Bervin is a collection of erasures. Her canvas are a collection of about 150 sonnets by William Shakespeare. The erasures, as Bervin says, “make the space of the poems open, porous, possible – a divergent elsewhere” (151). They make reading the poems truly a unique experience. In this essay, I will discuss the relationship of the erasure to the sonnet while focusing on one of these erasures. The erasure I chose comes from Skaepeare’s sonnet 15.

the stars

                                                     the selfsame sky

                                                for love of you.

                The above erasure is a short  poem of three equally short lines. Most of the erasures follow this pattern and I was tempted to call some of them haikus, and I actually believe they are. According to Shadow Poetry, a haiku does not necessarily mean that there has to be a 5/7/5 syllable structure. Actually, the other definition as mentioned here (http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html), defines a haiku as a poem that contains seventeen syllables or less. Furthermore, the page goes on to outline the structure of the haiku where the first line is the setting and the remaining two lines are the subject and the action. So in a sense, Bervin’s erasures, as seen in this case, can be argued to be haikus. What I find most convincing is that the erasures do not have more the seventeen syllables.

                However, the setting, subject and action do not necessarily appear in that order. I would say the setting is the sky; the subject is the stars; the action is the love. I guess this is the restriction of dealing with erasure but clearly, Bervin did try to achieve a form similar to that of a haiku.

                The meaning of Bervin’s erasure, to me, is quite straight forward. But there seems to be something lacking. It speaks of the stars, and sky that the stars are in. Yet, somehow, they are related to the love of someone, as if something about the stars and the sky, dictate or influence the love. I think, this is where Bervin’s erasures begin to relate to the sonnets, and this is why I chose this particular one.

                In this sonnet, Shakespeare talks about how time ages someone, taking away their youth (“Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,/ To change your day of youth to sullied night”).  And the stars seem to flaunt their youth in the face of men and plants. And on seeing this youth, they decide that they too want to grow with Time under the same sky as the stars (Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;/ When I perceive that men as plants increase,/ Cheered and checked even by the selfsame sky”). Unfortunately, men fall prey to this mockery of the stars and Time takes away their youth. But Shakespeare believes that that even though his love grow old, he will immortalize this person, possibly in the form of the sonnets. I would probably say it is seen in the following two sonnets where Shakespeare continues his discussion of Time and aging(16), and continuing in Sonnet 18 to describe a young maiden.

                It can be seen, that standing alone, Bervin’s erasures seem so, “open.” The erasure clearly sets up the subject, setting and action yet does not give the relationship between the three. This leaves the poem very much up to how the reader will interpret it, rather than how Shakespeare intended.