![]() ![]() 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. 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. ![]()
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