SONNET 130

 

Here and here you can read a short commentary on this sonnet.

SONNET 18

It is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most direct in language and intent.

The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of his friend into that of a perfect being. He is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the beginning of the third quatrain (line 9), the speaker states with a renewed assurance that “thy eternal summer shall not fade” and that his friend will preserve his beauty and even cheat Death and Time by becoming eternal. He achieves this through his sonnet. The final couplet reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his lines too will live on, and ensure the immortality of the “fair youth”.

Here  and here you can read a short commentary on this sonnet.

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

In the late 16^th century  it was fashionable for English gentleman authors to write sonnets, lyric poems composed of 14 lines. The sonnet is composed with a formal rhyme scheme, denoting different thoughts, moods, or emotions, sometimes summed up in the last lines of the poem.

The two main forms of the sonnet are the Petrarchan (Italian) and the Shakespearean (English).

Sonnets had been glorified by Petrarch in Italy more than 200 years before English poets even knew about them. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were among the first to introduce the sonnet into England. William Shakespeare's first and second years in London were spent writing in the Petrarchan style. The Petrarchan sonnet has an eight-line stanza, or octave, and six-line stanza, or sestet. The octave has two quatrains, rhyming abba, abba, but avoiding a couplet; the first quatrain gives the theme, and the second develops it. The sestet is built on two or three different rhymes; the first three lines reflect on the theme, and the last three lines bring the whole poem to an end.

The English sonnet  is divided into three quatrains, each rhymed differently, with an independently rhymed couplet at the end. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Each quatrain takes a different appearance of the idea or develops a different image to express the theme. In his lifetime William Shakespeare composed 154 sonnets  which  were in this form and can be divided into three groups:

1. twenty-six sonnets written mostly to a young man, seventeen  of them urging marriage;

2. one hundred and one sonnets, also written to a young man (probably the same young nobleman as in the first twenty-six). These have a variety of themes, such as the beauty of the loved one; destruction of beauty; competition with a Rival Poet; despair about the absence of a loved one;  and reaction toward the young man's coldness;

3. the remaining twenty-seven sonnets are written mainly to a woman, popularly known as  "the Dark Lady." Seemingly Shakespeare had a love affair with this woman.

Most Elizabethan sonnets were written about joys and sorrows of love. Some of Shakespeare's sonnet arrangements are thought to be autobiographical. This is why scholars have tried to learn about William Shakespeare's life from his sonnets. But some of the critics view the sonnets as "purely literary exercises."  

DISCOVERING SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS

Here you my can find my previous post about  William Shakespeare's works.

ANALYSING SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

Shakespeare’s sonnets are some of the most fascinating and influential poems written in English. First published in 1609, in a small quarto edition (roughly the size of a modern paperback), almost nothing is known about the poems’ composition. Read more here.

All the sonnets are provided here, with descriptive commentary attached to each one, giving explanations of difficult and unfamiliar words and phrases, and with a full analysis of any special problems of interpretation which arise.

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

The Sonnets are Shakespeare's most popular works, and a few of them, such as Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day),  Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in me behold) and Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds),  have become the most widely-read poems in all of English literature. Here you will find the text of each Shakespearean sonnet with commentary for most.

SONNET 60

Here and here you can find a text analysis of Sonnet 60 in which the poet warns about the destructive power of time and ponders on the role of art.

SONNET 15

When I consider everything that grows

Holds in perfection but a little moment,

That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows

Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;

When I perceive that men as plants increase,

Cheered and check'd even by the selfsame sky,

Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,

And wear their brave state out of memory;

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay

Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,

Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay

To change your day of youth to sullied night;

And all in war with Time for love of you,

As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

Here and here you can find a text analysis of this sonnet.

SONNET 130

Sonnet 130 is Shakespeare's realistic tribute to his unattractive mistress, commonly referred to as "the dark lady" because of her dun complexion; nevertheless the poet ends the sonnet by proclaiming his love for his mistress despite her lack of adornment.

Click here to find a detailed analysis of this sonnet.

SONNET 116

Here and here you can find a detailed analysis of this beautiful Shakespearean sonnet.

IN SEARCH OF SHAKESPEARE'S DARK LADY

Here you can read an interesting and informative article about Shakespeare's "dark lady", the seductive and elusive woman who inspired some of his most famous sonnets.

A GENERAL VIEW OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS

It is generally believed by both scholars and students that reading Shakespeare is a difficult task  ...  but there are a few ideas that can help make it easier.  Read here.

William Shakespeare  wrote  both  dramatic and  non-dramatic works. The  plays  attributed to him  are 37.  It  is  possible  to  divide  them  into  three  chronological  periods,  each  one  with  clear  characteristics  of  its  own. 

The  first  period (1590-1599)  includes  comedies (e.g.  The  Comedy  of  Errors, A  Midsummer Night’s Dream,  The  Merchant  of  Venice),  history  plays (Richard III) and  tragedies  (Romeo  and  Juliet,  Julius Caesar).  In  this  period  Shakespeare  showed  great  sympathy  for  human  nature  and  a  positive  attitude  to  life. Even  when the  play  has  a  tragic  conclusion,  life  is  still presented  positively  as  worth  living.  Romeo  and  Juliet,  for  example,  is  a  celebration  of  love  in  spite  of  its  tragic  ending. These  plays  are   characterized  by  complicated  plots and increasing ability  in  characterization; great  experimentation in the use of poetic  imagery  which  is  often  influenced  by  the  language of  courtly  love;  mixture  of  rhyme,  blank  verse  and  prose.  The  central  themes  are  love  and  appearance  and  reality,  especially in the  comedies,  the  restoration of  order  in  the  histories  and  tragedies.