SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS

SONNET:  Italian for "little song" – originally used to convey deep and intense amorous feelings, often expressed idealistically in the typical courtly love of the Middle Ages

LENGTH: / 14 LINES / Blank Verse / 14 LINES / Blank Verse

Blank Verse - Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter  Iamb – "foot" – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable  Penta – 5 / 10 syllables per line, alternating unstressed and stressed  Iamb – "foot" – unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable  Penta – 5 / 10 syllables per line, alternating unstressed and stressed

/ Let me/ not to/ the mar/riage of/ true minds / Admit/ imped/iments/. Love is/ not love / Which al/ters when/ it al/terna/tion finds / Or bends/ with the/ remov/er to/ remove / Let me/ not to/ the mar/riage of/ true minds / Admit/ imped/iments/. Love is/ not love / Which al/ters when/ it al/terna/tion finds / Or bends/ with the/ remov/er to/ remove

Shakespearean Sonnet / Sonnets add a specific rhyme scheme to Blank Verse / Three Quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and a rhyming Couplet / Sonnets add a specific rhyme scheme to Blank Verse / Three Quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and a rhyming Couplet

1 St Quatrain – introduces the situation (abab) My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red; / If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red; / If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

2 nd Quatrain – explores the situation (cdcd) / I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, / But no such roses see I in her cheeks; / And in some perfumes is there more delight / Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. / I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, / But no such roses see I in her cheeks; / And in some perfumes is there more delight / Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

3 rd Quatrain – often has a shift in thought (efef) / I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound; / I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: / I love to hear her speak, yet well I know / That music hath a far more pleasing sound; / I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

Couplet – resolves the situation – think of the couplet as the "punch line" that gives meaning to the whole (gg) / And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare. / And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.

Shakespeare ’ s Sonnets  154 poems, written over a period of several years in the 1590s.  First published in  Deal with themes such as Love, Beauty, Politics & Morality.  154 poems, written over a period of several years in the 1590s.  First published in  Deal with themes such as Love, Beauty, Politics & Morality.

Sonnets 1 – 17:  Written to a young man, urging him to marry and have children, thereby passing down his beauty to the next generation. These are often called the procreation sonnets.

Sonnets :  Addressed to a young man expressing the poet's love for him.

Sonnets :  Written to the poet's mistress expressing his love for her.

Sonnets are allegorical.  The final thirty or so sonnets are written about a number of issues, such as the young man's infidelity with the poet's mistress, self-resolution to control his own lust, beleaguered criticism of the world, etc.

THE FAIR YOUTH:  An unnamed young man to whom sonnets are addressed. The poet writes of the young man in romantic and loving language, a fact which has led several commentators to suggest a homosexual relationship between them, while others read it as platonic love.

 The earliest poems in the collection do not imply a close personal relationship; instead, they recommend the benefits of marriage and children. With the famous sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day") the tone changes dramatically towards romantic intimacy.

 Sonnet 20 explicitly laments that the young man is not a woman. Most of the subsequent sonnets describe the ups and downs of the relationship, culminating with an affair between the poet and the Dark Lady. The relationship seems to end when the Fair Youth succumbs to the Lady's charms.

 There have been many attempts to identify the friend. Shakespeare's one- time patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is the most commonly suggested candidate, although Shakespeare's later patron, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, has recently become the popular choice.

The “ DARK LADY ”  Sonnets are addressed to a woman commonly known as the “ DARK LADY ” because her hair is said to be black and her skin dusky. These sonnets are explicitly sexual in character, in contrast to those written to the "Fair Youth".

 It is implied that the "I" of the sonnets and the Lady had a passionate affair, but that she was unfaithful, perhaps with the "Fair Youth". The poet self-deprecatingly describes himself as balding and middle- aged at the time of the affair.

 Many attempts have been made to identify the "Dark Lady" with historical personalities, such as Mary Fitton or the poet Emilia Lanier. Some have suggested that the reference to her “ dusky' ” skin suggests that she may have been Spanish, or even African.

 Many people, however, continue to maintain that the Dark Lady is merely a work of fiction and never really existed in real life; they suggest that the “ darkness ” of the lady is not intended literally, but rather represents the “ dark ” forces of physical lust as opposed to the ideal Platonic love associated with the "Fair Youth".

THE RIVAL POET  Sometimes identified as Christopher Marlowe or George Chapman. However, there is no hard evidence that the character had a real-life counterpart.