How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time;
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seemed to me
But hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:
     Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,
     That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

Analysis

Billy’s separation from his love has plunged him into winter, since their love makes the year pleasurable. He’s felt cold, dark days, and the world seems as bare as trees in December. This is even more of a surprise because the time of year they’ve spent apart was actually summer, then fall, the most plentiful time of the year, and the fruit of a spring– like a widow giving birth after her husband has died. And these abundant fruits of nature seemed like hopeless orphans to him, because summer’s pleasures all depend on being with his beloved, and alone, even the birds are silent. Or if they sing, it is with a note that makes the leaves grow pale with fear, dreading winter’s approach.

Will’s Wordplay

Willy personifies the spring as a dead father because the season, like his lover, is gone while the crops planted during its duration remain.

Scholar’s Corner

In his book On the Literary Genetics of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, T. W. Baldwin notes a resemblance between this poem’s trope for the seasons and the “childing autumn” of A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.1.112; he traces the figure to Ovid.

Francis Lewis Park, Queens

“American merchant, patriot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Born in Llandaff, Wales, Lewis became an orphan at a young age. He completed a merchant apprenticeship in London and then traveled to America in 1738. The entrepreneur established a successful trading company in both New York City and Philadelphia, and grew rich by supplying goods to British troops during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). In 1745, Lewis married Elizabeth Annesley, the sister of a business partner. Having accumulated great wealth, Lewis retired from trade in 1765 and moved to Whitestone, New York.

Lewis’s political career began in 1774, when he served as a New York delegate to the Provincial Convention. The convention elected Lewis to the Continental Congress, where he served from 1775 to 1779. On July 4, 1776, Lewis signed the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed the colonies forever absolved from allegiance to the British crown. In the fall of 1776, the British destroyed Lewis’s Whitestone property and abducted his wife Elizabeth. After her release, Annesly died prematurely in 1779, perhaps due in part to the harsh conditions of her captivity. During the course of the Revolutionary War (1776-1781), Lewis served on two powerful committees: the Secret Committee, which imported munitions, and the Marine Committee, which administered naval affairs. Defeated for re-election to the Continental Congress in 1779, Lewis nevertheless was appointed to the Board of Admiralty, which replaced the Marine Committee. In the years before his death, Francis Lewis served as a vestryman for Trinity Church in New York City.

The Whitestone community that Lewis made his home has a long and rich history. Dutch farmers founded Whitestone in 1645, naming the area for a large white boulder that broke the tides along the shore. The Dutch purchased the land from the Matinecock Native Americans at the price of one ax per fifty acres. In 1735, the discovery of clay deposits stimulated the widespread growth of pottery manufacturing. During DeWitt Clinton’s tenure as New York State Governor (1817-23, 1825-8), the community referred to itself as Clintonville. The discovery of a hot spring on 14 Street and Old Whitestone Avenue during the mid-19th century brought the area renown as a sanctuary for anemic patients. During this period, New Yorkers referred to the town as Iron Springs.

Francis Lewis Park is bounded by Third Avenue, 147 Street, the East River, and Parsons Boulevard. In 1937, Parks acquired the property from the private estate of Edwin H. Brown. The park consists of 9.231 acres above water and 7.631 acres below water. The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge (1939) designed by Othmar H. Ammann crosses over the western side of the property. The park consists of winding paths that lead to two scenic overlooks equipped with benches and game tables. Both overlooks feature spectacular views of the bridge and the East River, while the lower overlook provides beach access.

In 1992, Francis Lewis Park received a $466,000 renovation. The project reconstructed the shoreline, overlook, and embankment areas of the park in order to correct a severe erosion problem, prevent future degradation, and improve views of the river. Additionally, the flagpole on the upper overlook received a decorative granite base. In 1999, through the efforts of former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, the park received the addition of a bocce court.” [1]

References

1. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/francis-lewis-park/history

ACTOR – Robert Manning Jr.

Robert is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Professional Acting Training Program, MFA. Television: Southland, The Unit, Criminal Minds. Film: Frogtown, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Theatre – Broadway: Magic/Bird. Regional: Sterling in Two Trains Running, Cassio in Othello, Banquo in Macbeth. 2008 NAACP Theatre Award Nomination: Defiance – Pasadena Playhouse. 2010 NAACP Theatre Award Nomination: Battle Hymn – Ford Theatre. 2012 NAACP Theatre Award Win: Blues for an Alabama Sky – Pasadena Playhouse. Robert recently completed the original production of How I Learned to Become a Superhero.
For more information and full credits, please visit robertmanningjr.com.

DIRECTOR – James Elliott

James Elliott: BA – Williams College, MFA – University of Texas at Austin.
Director, Teacher, Producer. Directing credits include Three Graces Theatre Co (His latest production, Dissonance, was just published by Applause in Best Short Plays of 2011-12), ABC-TV Diversity Showcase, off-off-Broadway, and regional theatres and colleges around the country. Instructor and Resident Director at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Also teaches at Cooper Union, NY Film Academy and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Was Producing Director for the NY Theater Co. Urban Empire where he helped premiere Evolution by Jonathan Marc Sherman. Founder of Cricket Pictures and co-producer of two films. Screenwriter and director of the award-nominated short film Helen at Risk with Didi Conn. He is the co-creator of the Podcast series The State of Shakespeare.
www.stateofshakespeare.com