A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.
Sonnet StructureThe Shakespearean Sonnet or also commonly called the English Sonnet, consisted of fourteen lines. The first twelve lines are divided into three verses with four lines each. The poet with the three verses establishes a theme or problem, then resolves it in the couple – the final two lines.
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Shakespeare's Sonnets
William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets although, his sonnets were not formally published until 1609. The term “Shakespearean Sonnet” refers to a specific form, not just the sonnets that Shakespeare wrote. Furthermore instead of William’s Sonnets having titles, his sonnets were numbered so you couldn’t judge them. Sonnets were considered to be a high art form through which artists showed off their talents and Shakespeare was paid to write sonnets for patrons, who are wealthy people who pay for artwork. Whenever theatres were closed either due to a black plague or even the government, writers had to make a living in some other way and writing sonnets were one of those ways.
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Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate; Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wonder’st in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee |
Analysis |
Notes |
Shall I compare you to a good summer’s day
You are more lovely and more endless Rough winds shake the darling buds of May Summer is far too short It’s far too hot sometimes Sometimes covered with clouds Sometimes doesn’t come up By misfortune or by nature’s unplanned weather But your youth shall not fade Nor lose your beauty Nor will death claim you Because in my eternal verse you will live forever As long as men live This poem will go on |
Temperate: evenly tempered:
Not overcome by passion The eye of heaven: The sun Every fair from fair sometime declines: The beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will fade (declines) Nature’s changing course: The natural changes age brings That fair thou ow’st: That beauty you possess In eternal lines to time thou grow’st: The poet using a grafting metaphor. Grafting is a technique used to join parts from two parts so that they grow as one. |