Literatura de los Pueblos de H. Inglesa I – Lic.

Romina Piñeyro 1
Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

*Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets which were collected together and published posthumously in
1609.

Many critics segment the sonnets into three groups as follows:

1. The Fair Youth Sonnets (Sonnets 1 – 126)

At first the sonnets are addressed to a young man with whom the poet has a deep friendship.

2. The Dark Lady Sonnets (Sonnets 127 – 152)

In the second sequence, the poet becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman. Her relationship
with the young man is unclear.

3. The Greek Sonnets (Sonnets 153 and 154)

The final two sonnets are very different and draw upon the Roman myth of Cupid, to whom the
poet has already compared his muses.

Sonnet Characteristics

A sonnet is simply a poem written in a certain format. You can identify a sonnet if the poem has
the following characteristics:

•14 lines. All sonnets have 14 lines which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.

•A strict rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF /
GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).

•Written in iambic Pentameter. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10
beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

A sonnet can be broken down into four sections called quatrains. The first three quatrains contain
four lines each and use an alternating rhyme scheme. The final quatrain consists of just two lines
which both rhyme.

Each quatrain should progress the poem as follows:

1.First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the sonnet.

(Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: ABAB)

2.Second quatrain: This should develop the sonnet’s theme.

(Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: CDCD)

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Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

3.Third quatrain: This should round off the sonnet’s theme.

(Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: EFEF)

4.Fourth quatrain: This should act as a conclusion to the sonnet.

(Number of lines: 2. Rhyme Scheme: GG)

History of The Shakespearian Sonnet in Print

It wasn’t until 1609 that the sonnets first appeared in print in an unauthorized edition by Thomas
Thorpe. Most critics agree that Shakespeare’s sonnets were printed without his consent because
the 1609 text seems to be based on an incomplete or draft copy of the poems. The text is riddled
with errors and some believe that certain sonnets are unfinished.

Shakespeare almost certainly intended his sonnets for manuscript circulation, which was not
uncommon at the time, but exactly how the poems ended up in the hands of Thorpe is still
unknown.

Who was “Mr. WH”? The dedication

The dedication in the frontispiece of the 1609 edition has sparked controversy among
Shakespeare historians and has become a key piece of evidence in the authorship debate. It reads:

To the only begetter

of these ensuing sonnets

Mr. W.H. all happiness and

that eternity promised by

our ever-lasting poet wisheth

the well-wishing adventurer

in setting forth.

T.T.

Although the dedication was written by Thomas Thorpe the publisher, indicated by his initials at
the end of the dedication, the identity of the “begetter” is still unclear.

There are three main theories regarding the true identity of “Mr. W.H.” as follows:

1. “Mr. W.H.” is a misprint for Shakespeare’s initials. It should read either “Mr. W.S.” or “Mr.
W.Sh.”
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Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

2. “Mr. W.H.” refers to the person that obtained the manuscript for Thorpe

3. “Mr. W.H.” refers to the person that inspired Shakespeare to write the sonnets. Many
candidates have been proposed including:

• William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke to whom Shakespeare later dedicated his First Folio

• Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton to whom Shakespeare had dedicated some of his
narrative poems

It is important to note that although the true identity of W.H. is of importance to Shakespeare
historians, it doesn’t obscure the poetic brilliance of his sonnets.

What is Iambic Pentameter?

Iambic Pentameter has:

• Ten syllables in each line

• Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables

• The rhythm in each line sounds like:

ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM

Most of Shakespeare’s famous quotations fit into this rhythm. For example:

If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on

Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

Each pair of syllables is called an iambus. You’ll notice that each iambus is made up of one
unstressed and one stressed beat (ba-BUM).

Rhythmic Variations

In his plays, Shakespeare didn’t always stick to ten syllables. He often played around with iambic
pentameter to give color and feeling to his character’s speeches. This is the key to understanding
Shakespeare's language..

Feminine Ending

Sometimes Shakespeare added an extra unstressed beat at the end of a line to emphasize a
character’s sense of contemplation. This variation is called a feminine ending and Hamlet’s famous
question is the perfect example:

To be, / or not / to be: / that is / the ques- / -tion

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Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

Inversion

Shakespeare also reverses the order of the stresses in some iambi to help emphasize certain
words or ideas. If you look closely at the fourth iambus in the Hamlet quote above, you can see
how he has placed an emphasis on the word “that” by inverting the stresses.

Occasionally, Shakespeare will completely break the rules and place two stressed syllables in the
same iambus, as the following quote from Richard III demonstrates:

Now is / the win- / -ter of / our dis- / content

In this example, the fourth iambus emphasizes that it is “our discontent,” and the first iambus
emphasizes that we are feeling this “now.”

Why is Iambic Pentameter Important?

Shakespeare will always feature prominently in any discussion of iambic pentameter because he
used the form with great dexterity - especially in his sonnets, but you must not be tricked into
thinking that he invented it. Rather, it is a standard literary convention that has been used by
many writers before and after Shakespeare.

Historians are not sure how the speeches were read aloud - whether delivered naturally or with an
emphasis on the stressed words. In my opinion, this is unimportant. What really matters is that
the study of iambic pentameter gives us a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Shakespeare’s
writing process.

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, Rough winds shake the beloved buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: And summer is far too short:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, At times the sun is too hot,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; Or often goes behind the clouds;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, And everything beautiful sometime will lose its
beauty,
By chance, or nature's changing course, By misfortune or by nature's planned out course.
untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his Nor will death claim you for his own,
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Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long as there are people on this earth,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. So long will this poem live on, making you
immortal.

Notes

temperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.

the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun.

every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will fade
(declines). Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's compass come."

nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings.

that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess.

in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a technique used
to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the beloved becomes immortal, grafted
to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For commentary on whether this sonnet is really "one long
exercise in self-glorification", please see below.

_____

Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward
in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject of the poet's verse is the
theme.

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. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the start of the third
quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the standard by which true beauty can and
should be judged. The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be
forever in human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his
verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final couplet reaffirms the
poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will live on, and ensure the immortality of
his muse.

Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem. As
James Boyd-White puts it:
What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloved’s form or height or hair or
eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really. This 'love poem' is actually
written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the
poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all;
surely not suitable for earnest recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. (142)
Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted by scholars
that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126.
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Shakespearean Sonnets, an overview

SONNET 29 PARAPHRASE

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, When I’ve fallen out of favor with fortune and men,
I all alone beweep my outcast state All alone I weep over my position as a social outcast,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And pray to heaven, but my cries go unheard,
And look upon myself and curse my fate, And I look at myself, cursing my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Wishing I were like one who had more hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, Wishing I looked like him; wishing I were surrounded
by friends,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, Wishing I had this man's skill and that man's freedom.
With what I most enjoy contented least; I am least contented with what I used to enjoy most.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, But, with these thoughts – almost despising myself,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, I, by chance, think of you and then my melancholy
Like to the lark at break of day arising Like the lark at the break of day, rises
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; From the dark earth and (I) sing hymns to heaven;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings For thinking of your love brings such happiness
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. That then I would not change my position in life with
kings.

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