Shakespearean Sonnets

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS

Well, William Shakespeare scarcely needs an introduction. Born in 1564, he was an English
playwright, poet, actor, favorite dramatist of queens and kings, inventor of words, master of
drama, and arguably the most famous writer of all time. In his 36 plays and 154 sonnets, he left
behind the evidence of a brilliant mind, a wicked sense of humor, a deep sensitivity to human
emotions, and a rich classical education. We know all about his work.

Shakespeare came of age during the Renaissance, a flourishing of arts, culture, and thought that
took place in the middle of the last millennium. All across Western Europe, ideas on everything
from God to the nature of the universe were shifting. In England, it was a time of great literary
and dramatic achievement, encouraged by Queen Elizabeth I and her successor James I. It was
the perfect environment for a gifted dramatist to thrive.

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET ( EXPLANATION)
What is a Shakespearean Sonnet?
A Shakespearean Sonnet is a poem expressive of thought, emotion or idea. It is usually 14 lines

which are formed by three quatrains with a rhyming couplet for the last two lines.
A sonnet is a 14-line poem that rhymes in a particular pattern. In Shakespeare's sonnets, the
rhyme pattern is abab cdcd efef gg, with the final couplet used to summarize the previous 12
lines or present a surprise ending. The rhythmic pattern of the sonnets is the iambic pentameter.
An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable — as in
dah-DUM, dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM dah-DUM. Shakespeare uses five of these in each line,
which makes it a pentameter. The sonnet is a difficult art form for the poet because of its
restrictions on length and meter.
Although Shakespeare's sonnets can be divided into different sections numerous ways, the most
apparent division involves Sonnets 1–126, in which the poet strikes up a relationship with a
young man, and Sonnets 127–154, which are concerned with the poet's relationship with a
woman, variously referred to as the Dark Lady, or as his mistress.
SONNET XVIII
This is the eighteenth poem in William Shakespeare’s huge series of sonnets published in 1609.
By that time, Shakespeare was already a hot shot, with his most famous plays behind him. So,
over a couple of years, Shakespeare sat down and wrote (get this) 154 of these little poems. All
of them are sonnets, but Sonnet 18 is probably the most famous and widely read.
Why? First, it’s the perfect example of the sonnet form, so it’s great for teaching, but it’s also a
great point of access for one of the major issues in all of Shakespeare: the weird relationship
between an author, his subject matter, and his audience. Shakespeare’s really into messing with
how stories are told, and how different kinds of storytelling can affect the content of the stories.
He brought his A-game to this sonnet
So how come Sonnet 18 is probably the most easily recognizable poem in the English language?
Well, there’s the cynical answer: the poem lends itself really well to a poetry class, so every high
schooler in the English-speaking world has to read it.
SONNET XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The speaker begins by asking whether he should or will compare "thee" to a summer day. He
says that his beloved is more lovely and more even-tempered. He then runs off a list of reasons
why summer isn’t all that great: winds shake the buds that emerged in Spring, summer ends too
quickly, and the sun can get too hot or be obscured by clouds.
He goes on, saying that everything beautiful eventually fades by chance or by nature’s inevitable
changes. Coming back to the beloved, though, he argues that his or her summer (or happy,
beautiful years) won’t go away, nor will his or her beauty fade away. Moreover, death will never
be able to take the beloved, since the beloved exists in eternal lines (meaning poetry). The
speaker concludes that as long as humans exist and can see (so as to read), the poem he’s
writing will live on, allowing the beloved to keep living as well.

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What is a Shakespearean Sonnet?

What is a Shakespearean Sonnet?

What is the rhyme and meter structure of Shakespearean Sonnets?

What is the rhyme and meter structure of Shakespearean Sonnets?

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET ( EXPLANATION)

What is a Shakespearean Sonnet?

A Shakespearean Sonnet is a poem expressive of thought, emotion or idea. It is usually 14 lines

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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