Shakespeare's sonnets

Collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare first published in 1609. The collection ends with the narrative poem "A Lover's Complaint". While the first 17 sonnets of the collection are dealing with the topic of procreation and are addressed to a young man, and sonnets 18-126 are dealing with the writer's love to the young man, the last sequence (sonnets 127-154) is dedicated to the Dark Lady. Due to its internal separation of addressees, the collection highly differs from other sonnet sequences making use of traditional Petrarchan features such as the sequences of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney.

Whereas the traditional concepts of Elizabethan (love) sonnets dealt with courtly love in the manner of Petrarch, Shakespeare changed some fundamental aspects such as addressing a young man and his beauty as well as contradicting the Petrarchan sonnet tradition with the sexually oriented sonnets about the Dark Lady. The sonnet collection is considered to be the end of a long sonnet tradition, particularly regarding the English and Elizabethan love sonnet.

Structure and style

Shakespeare makes use of Surrey's sonnet form with an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. Its metrical structure is iambic pentameter.

The sonnets usually consist of two quartrains which emerge in a thematical octave, followed by a cesura in thought, a quartrain and a final rhyming couplet. Exceptions are sonnets 126 (which consists of rhyming couplets) and 145 (which makes use of 4 feet in one line instead of 5). The couplet is often set against the previous thoughts or else it is used for emphasis - it serves as a new form bringing reversal, new ideas or a conclusion. (Schabert, p. 653)

Though the sonnet collection seems to follow a certain chronology of sonnets, on closer consideration it is obvious that there are some irregularities. Thus, sonnets 76-86 deal with the poet's rival concerning the Fair Lord's love, but apparently sonnet 77 and sonnet 81 seem to be out of place. So, sonnet 81 offers itself to be a thematic and linguistic counterpart to sonnet 32 which itself functions as a thematically and linguistically foreign matter in its series of sonnets 29-35. According to that it is doubtful that Shakespeare's sonnets were written in the more or less precise order they appear in the collection.

Themes and motifs

Shakespeare highly uses metaphors, symbols and conceits. A conceit is an extended mteaphor, which gives the whole sonnet its content. In Renaissance poetry often hyperbolic comparisons to nature were made in order to admire the Sonnet Lady. Shakespeare repeatedly makes use of eye-conceits, which emphasise due to its ambiguity (homophone: eye - I) the rising importance of subjectivity and individuality in the Renaissance. This accompanies Shakespeare's preference for new ideas and contradicting traditional literary forms.

Besides Shakespeare applies to symbolism, for instance referring to colours. In his sonnets, the colour yellow is embedded in the context of passing time, whereas black is associated with the Dark Lady.

Due to its mere structure, one of the sonnet collection's main themes in the twist between platonic love and cardinal desire, between reason and lust. This is illustrated by the addresssees, the Fair Lord, who stands for platonic love, and the Dark Lady, who is connected to cardinal desire.

During the collection one aspect recurs all over again: the ravages of time. Specifically the decay and mortality of human body and the immortality of the soul (especially by art and writing) are central elements. Time is personified as the personal enemy which one cannot escape from, except letting the individual live on in descendants (as in the procreation sonnets) or being immortalised by art and poetry.

Sonnets 1-126: Fair Lord sequence

Sonnets 1-126 are addressed to an unnamed young man, referred to as “Fair Lord”. Here the poet expresses his love and admiration for the Fair Lord, praising his beauty, while later on having an affair with the Dark Lady.

In the sonnets, the Fair Lord stands for an idealised platonic love. It differs from the Petrarchan ideal since the poet addresses a young man instead of a traditional inapproachable Sonnet Lady. The Fair Lord is praised for his beauty, which was usually considered to be a female feature. Scholars tend to ascribe the poet's admiration towards a man as a hint to Shakespeare's supposed homosexuality. Indeed, the admiration could also refer to Neo-Platonic ideals, in which real love without sexual lust (as chastity is one of the ideals of the Petrarchan Sonnet Lady) is possible between men only. This ideal however is highly platonic.

Furthermore, the Fair Lord contradicts the Petrarchan ideal by being depicted as a human being. Though he is praised for his beauty, he is not wholly idealised by being criticised for being selfish and doing hurtful things to the poet (sonnet 94) such as having another friend – the Rival Poet which appears in sonnets 78-86.

Sonnets 1-17 build a sequence called “procreation sonnets”. A change in tone is given with sonnet 18, which moves expressed urge to marry to the announcement that the poet's Fair Lord will be immortalised in his verses. It is clear move to romantic intimacy, which continues in the following sonnets that depict the ups and downs of the relationship between the poet and the Fair Lord.

Sonnets 1-17: Procreation sonnets

The sequence of “procreation sonnets” begins with the first sonnet and ends with sonnet 17. They address the Fair Lord and try to persuade him to marry and start a family in order to save his beauty with an heir.

Here, the sonnets are dominated by imagery of the world of finances and law, which ascribed the assumption that Shakespeare wrote the first sonnets on commission for a young aristocrat, whose family wanted him to marry. Aspirants for the position of the friend were Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton (to whom Shakespeare's Epics are dedicated) and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke (to whom the folio edition is dedicated). Both men were young when Shakespeare wrote the sonnets, and both could not decide to marry for a long time, so that they possibly required the admonitions of the procreation sonnets. (Suerbaum, p. 326)

The sonnets are less poetical, what nonetheless vanishes with time when the friend is praised more by imagery of nature, which was typical for love poetry. The change find its peak with sonnet 18 and a total change in tone, going on with romantic intimacy.

Sonnets 127-154: Dark Lady sequence

The Dark Lady sonnets begin with sonnet 127 and end with the last one, sonnet 154. The topics of desire and physical attraction build the centre of the sonnets. Hence, cardinal lust serves as an antithesis to the platonic love the poet illustrated in the previous 126 poems and marks once again the separation Shakespeare's from traditional sonnet concepts.

The style of the sonnets is highly Anti-Petrarchan, since the admired Sonnet Lady here does not stand for chastity, virtue, elusiveness and is even by her looks (blond hair, blue eyes, pure skin) upheaved to a divine, angel-like creature. Instead, the Dark Lady is depicted differently in behaviour and appearance:

This sonnet is an example for a contre-blazon: Shakespeare mocks the traditional Petrarchan conceits (for an example according to Petrarch's concept see Spenser's sonnet 64), which idealise the Sonnet Lady and compare each of her body parts to beauties of nature. These typical idealisations are negated here – the Dark Lady is no goddess at all. The couplet makes clear that the poet does not need any false or exaggerated comparisons to distore his beloved's attractions since he is in love with a real woman.

With the contruction of the "unusual" Sonnet Lady in contrast to Petrarchan concepts, Shakespeare was able to bring forwards topics of sexual dependence, subjectivity and blindness of the lover, as well as the inner conflict between desire and reason. (Suerbaum, p. 325)

Sources

Puschmann-Nalenz, Barbara. Loves of comfort and despair. Frankfurt: Akad. Verl.-Ges., 1974.

Schabert, Ina. Shakespeare-Handbuch. 4th ed. Stuttgart: Kröner, 2000.

Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. Katherina Duncan-Jones. London: The Arden Shakespeare, 2007.

Suerbaum, Ulrich. Der Shakespeare-Führer. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2001.