Within these two broad sets there are smaller groupings.
However, the dedication to the sonnets, which some consider to be a code, may contain the youth’s identity (see this article by amateur Shakespeare scholar, John Rollett). The real-life identities of both figures are not known. The last 28 are mostly addressed to or about a woman: “the dark lady”. The bulk of the sonnets (1-126) are addressed to a young man, often referred to as the “fair youth”. Because of this, according to poet and essayist Anthony Hecht, young lovers make up the most substantial readership of the sonnets. The sonnets speak, often in the most raw fashion, of jealousy ( 61), fear ( 48), infidelity ( 120) and love triangles ( 41, 42), but also of the simple happiness that love can bring ( 25). Keeping to the tradition, Shakespeare’s sonnets are about love. The sonnets were likely written and revised throughout Shakespeare’s adult life (though there is debate). When we talk about Shakespeare’s sonnets, we are usually referring to the 154 sonnets published in 1609 when Shakespeare was about 45. The couplet packs a certain punch that turns the sonnet on its head or provides the key to the sonnet or something similar. The sonnet has three “quatrains” - stanzas with four lines - and a final rhyming couplet - two lines that rhyme. Try it out with the most famous line from the sonnets: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” ( 18) There are 14 lines, each with five “beats”.Įach beat has two syllables, with the second being stressed.
The “English” or “Shakespearean” sonnet has a standard form. What is a sonnet?Ī sonnet is a short poem, traditionally about love. We begin to ponder how much of himself Shakespeare reveals in the sonnets, and, if he is in there, how one of the most remarkable humans could be so like the rest of us. This Shakespeare is frail (sonnets 29 and 145), obsessed ( 28), judgmental ( 130), fickle ( 110) and self-pitying ( 72). Thus it is a shock to meet the Shakespeare of the sonnets.
#Shakespearean love sonnet examples by students how to
If I had to take a punt, I’d say he was wise, wry - the kind of person who knew how to do life right. The Shakespeare of the plays is god-like: he is everywhere in his creations as a masterful and unifying presence, and yet he is aloof.
Fortified with a familiarity with the plays, a virgin journey into the sonnets is as good a literary adventure as anyone could hope for.