William Shakespeare Sonnets

Although he is best known for his tragic plays, these writings do not provide the best display of the poetic talents of William Shakespeare. Sonnets, though, allowed the bard a freedom to explore themes like love and change in a more experimental and abstract way than his dramas, which unlike Shakespeare's sonnets were written for the public.

Form

In the time of William Shakespeare, sonnets, in England, were already the fourteen line poems we are familiar with today, though the rhyme scheme would be changed up from time to time. Shakespeare's sonnets nearly always followed a standard abab cdcd efef gg rhyme pattern that has come to be known as the Shakespearian sonnet.

Lines of the sonnets are generally written is iambic pentameter, which consists of ten syllables that follow an unstressed/stressed pattern. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter employed by William Shakespeare. Sonnets as well as plays employ it frequently, though in the case of the plays it is often written as unrhymed blank verse.

Of the 154 sonnets published in Shakespeare's Sonnets, only three significantly deviate from the standard Shakespearian sonnet form.

Mysteries of the Sonnets

Scholarship on William Shakespeare, sonnets in particular, has been exhaustive. Even so, there are numerous unresolved puzzles that generate ongoing analysis. First among these is the mysterious W. H. whose initials appear in the dedication that reads: "To the onlie begetter of these insuing sonnets Mr. W.H. All Happinesse and that eternitie promised by. Our ever-living poet wisheth..."

Numerous scholars have advanced theories about the identity of this individual and what exactly the phrase "onlie begetter" is intended to convey. The two major branches of debate center around another predominant question contained in the sonnets, which is the identity of the young man identified commonly as the "Fair Youth".

Some assume that the mysterious W.H. and the "Fair Youth" are identical, while others suggest possible candidates or explanations of the initials apart for this figure.

On one side, it is argued, that because 126 of the sonnets are addressed, or are apparently addressed to a specific person, the "Fair Youth," it is reasonable that Shakespeare might easily have dedicated the collection to him, and it would be fair to say that he was, in some sense "begetter" of them.

On the other, it is pointed out that the sonnets were probably published without Shakespeare's permission, so there is little or no good reason to suspect that he is even the author of the dedication.

The "Fair Youth", subject of sonnets 1-126, has also been the key figure in discussion of Shakespeare's sexuality, specifically a possible homosexual relationship that may have existed between them.

Interestingly, this dedication to W. H. has added fuel to other controversies surrounding Shakespeare as well. The reference to an "ever-living poet" has been used to suggest either that the poet was dead by the time these sonnets were published, a full seven years before Shakespeare's death, or that the "poet" is not a single individual, but a committee that can have immortality, as a single person cannot.

Two other characters that occur on several occasions within the sonnets are the "Rival Poet" (sonnets 78-86) and the "Dark Lady", so called because of her dark hair, which dominates the sonnets from 126 through the end. Each of these characters is interesting, and speculations abound as to whether or not they are depictions of actual people, or metaphorical entities with symbolic attributes.

It is also possible that focusing too heavily on such literary mysteries detracts from appreciation of the quality of the poetry itself.

Examples

Below are three of the most recognizable of William Shakespeare Sonnets.

Sonnets 18 and 116 concern the “Fair Youth”. The first expresses a deep appreciation for the fleetingness of youth and beauty, while the second seems to be advice concerning love and constancy. Sonnet 130, in contrast, epitomizes the portrayal of the “Dark Lady”.

William Shakespeare 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 owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare Sonnet 130

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.

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 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:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.