In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom says he will write a sonnet or poem about his experience with Titania. What kind of things would he write?

Nick Bottom is the actor whose head is changed into that of a donkey in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is done to distract Titania while Oberon steals the boy she is protecting. Bottom is clueless as to the reason for his transformation, though, and therefore decides it was all a dream. He is so mystified with wonder that he says, "I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called 'Bottom's Dream' because it hath no bottom" (IV.i.215-217). This shows that Bottom wants the dream to be turned into a song, which he eventually says he could sing at the end of a production. But he also says that it has no bottom, which could mean that there is no reasonable explanation for what he experienced or what it meant. That being the case, Bottom would have to recall events that took place in order to provide a topic for Quince to write lyrics.

First, Bottom would probably have the song discuss his transformation and Titania's beauty. Many songs sing the praises of the women they are written for, so her beauty, as well as her voice, gentleness and kindness would be mentioned. Then, he might sing about how deeply and quickly she fell in love with him even though his head looked like a donkey's. And finally, he might sing about the lovely words that she spoke to him, such as the following:

"I am a spirit of no common rate.

The summer still doth tend upon my state,

And I do love thee; therefore, go with me.

I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,

And sing while thou on pressed flowers does sleep.

And I will purge thy mortal grossness so

That thou shalt like an airy spirit go" (III.i.133-141).

In this passage, Titania not only speaks about her love for Bottom, but also applies iambic pentameter, which would work really well in a song. The bouncy rhythm and rhymed endings not only are a perfect fit for a song, but also describe her love and what happened to Bottom in his "dream."