Shakespeare's sonnets are very different from Shakespeare's plays, but
they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each of the
poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on its own or
in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of
autobiographical poems, but we don't know whether they deal with real events or
not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare's life to say whether or not
they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of
the sonnets as. “the speaker" as though he were a dramatic creation like
Hamlet or King Lear.
There are certainly a number of intriguing
continuities throughout the poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be
addressed to an unnamed young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the
rest of the poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to
the rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman, whom the
speaker loves, hates, and lusts for simultaneously. The two addressees of the
sonnets are usually referred to as the "young man" and the "dark
lady". Within the two mini-sequences, there are a number of other
discernible elements of "plot": the speaker urges the young man to
have children; he is forced to endure a separation from him; he competes with a
rival poet for the young man's patronage and affection. At two points in the
sequence, it seems that the young man and the dark lady are actually lovers
themselves--a state of affairs with which the speaker is none too happy.
Themes
Shakespeare's dominant theme is the power of Time.
Time is depicted as the great destroyer. "Devouring time" is the
theme used by Ovid. Shakespeare personifies time and his attitude to time is
one of hatred. All things in this world, including youth and beauty are subject
to the destructive power of time. But Shakespeare believes that his sonnets are
more powerful than Time as the sonnets would preserve his friend's youth and
beauty.
Lyricism
Shakespeare's sonnets are an amalgam of
the lyrical and the dramatic. Music is one of the indispensable qualities of a
lyric. The use of rhyme in the quatrains and in the final couplet contributes
to the musical effect of these sonnets. To add to the lyrical effect is the
appropriateness of words and phrases employed by Shakespeare.
The intensity of the
emotion lends a lyrical charm to the sonnet. The eloquence and the metaphorical
use of language adds to the lyrical quality of the sonnet. In sonnet 18
Shakespeare glorifies and idealizes the beauty of his friend. The poet believes
that the eternal verse will make his friend eternal. In this sonnet the
imagery, the emotion, the music, the melancholy and the personal element, all
combine to make of it one of Shakespeare's most exquisite lyrics. The mingling
of lyricism and the general truths of human existence is one of the most
marvelous achievements. The subjectivity enhances the lyrical character of
sonnets that deals with the dark lady. Shakespeare grows most lyrical in the
last two sonnets of the sequence. ,
Imagery
The abundance of imagery is one of the
most conspicuous features of Shakespeare's sonnets. The principal features of
Shakespeare's imagery are variety, vividness, realism and brevity. The imagery
is relevant to the theme and are closely interwoven with the theme. There is an
enormous variety in Shakespeare's imagery. Sonnet 7 opens with lines containing
a picture of sunrise; and it is one of the finest pictures in the sonnets of a
natural phenomenon. Sonnet 19 presents vivid pictures. Time is regarded as a
lion equipped with paws and having the power to devour everything on earth and
fanciful picture of the mythical bird called "phoenix" burning itself
at the end of its long life of five hundred years. All the images have been
clothed in metaphorical language. The aesthetic value of the words used also
contributes to the beauty of the imagery. A series of vivid and forceful
pictures can be seen in Sonnet 65 and 66. The pictures in Sonnet 144 are
abstract and suggestive rather than concrete and vivid.
Symbolism
A substantial use of symbolism can be seen
in Shakespeare's sonnets. According to G. Wilson Knight the use of symbols by
Shakespeare in his sonnets makes the sonnet throb and vibrate with a greater
vitality, and imparts to them greater vigour and appeal. Rose as a symbol is
used in Sonnet 109, 67 and 95. In Sonnet 109 the rose symbolizes truth and the
true rose of the beauty of Shakespeare's friend is contrasted with the false
beautifications of society (Sonnet 67). The beauty of Shakespeare's friend
encloses his sins as the rose may hide a canker (Sonnet 95). Another dominant
symbol is that of kingship. In Sonnet 26 Shakespeare addressed his friend as
"lord of my love." In several sonnets, Shakespeare implies that his
love having been accepted by his friend, he himself has become royal too. Gems
and pearls are used as symbols. In Sonnet 131 dark lady is "the fairest
and the most precious jewel." Sonnet 27 describes the image of
Shakespeare's friend as a jewel that hangs before Shakespeare's soul at might.
In sonnets of Shakespeare we find a substantial use of symbolism. The use of a
symbol is an indirect method of conveying an idea which can literally also be
expressed or stated.
Historical Mysteries
Of all the questions surrounding
Shakespeare's life, the sonnets are perhaps the most intriguing. At the time of
their publication in 1609 (after having been written most likely in the 1590's
and shown only to a small circle of literary admirers), they were dedicated to
a "Mr. W.H," who is described as the "onlie begetter" of
the poems. Like those of the young man and the dark lady, the identity of this
Mr. W.H. remains an alluring mystery. Because he is described as
"begetting" the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the
speaker's financial patron, some people have speculated that the young man is
Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be Henry Wriothesley, the
Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in theories of
his history. But all of this is simply speculation: ultimately, the
circumstances surrounding the sonnets, their cast of characters and their
relations to Shakespeare himself, are destined to remain a mystery.
SONNET 1
From
fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never
die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his
memory: But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light'st
flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself
thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world's fresh
ornament And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy
content And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding. Pity the world, or else
this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
The first sonnet takes it
as a given that "From fairest creatures we desire increase"-that is,
that we desire beautiful creatures to multiply, in order to preserve their
"beauty's rose" for the world. That way, when the parent dies
("as the riper should by time decease"), the child might continue its
beauty ("His tender heir might bear his memory"). In the second
quatrain, the speaker chides the young man fie loves for being too
self-absorbed to think of procreation: he is "contracted" to his own
"bright eyes," and feeds his light with the fuel of his own loveliness.
The speaker says that this makes the young man his own unwitting enemy, for it
makes "a famine where abundance lies," and hoards all the young man's
beauty for himself. In the third quatrain, he argues that the young man may now
be beautiful-he is "the world's fresh ornament / and only herald to the
gaudy spring"-but that, in time, his beauty will fade, and he will bury
his "content" within his flower's own bud (that is, he will not pass
his beauty on; it will wither with him). In the couplet, the speaker asks the
young man to "pity the world" and reproduce, or else be a glutton
-who like the grave, eats the beauty he
owes to the Whole Word.
The first sonnet
introduces many of the themes that will define the sequence- passage
of human life in time. Change his ways and obey the moral premise, because
otherwise his beauty will wither and disappear; and the couplet summarizes the
argument with a new exhortation to "pity the world" and father a
child. Some of the metaphors and images in the poem, however, are quite
complex. The image of the young man contracted to his own bright eyes, feeding
his "light's flame" with "self-substantial fuel," for
instance, is an extremely intricate image of self-absorption.
SONNET
14
Not
from the stars do I my judgment pluck; And yet me thinks I have astronomy, But
not to tell of good or evil luck, Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell, Pointing to each his thunder, rain and
wind, Or say with princes if it shall go well, By oft predict that I in heaven
find: But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, And, constant stars, in them I
read such art As truth and beauty shall together thrive, If from thyself to
store thou wouldst convert; Or else of thee this I prognosticate: Thy end is
truth's and beauty's doom and date.
In Sonnet 14 the poet first reveals that
it is not through science (astronomy), or his own judgment, or personal
experience that he obtains his knowledge about life and love - all that he
knows comes simply and only from his lover. ("But from thin eyes my
knowledge I derive"). And the primary lesson the poet learns from his
lover's eyes is that, if his lover refuses to focus on creating a child to
carry on his (or her) lineage, all the ideals embodied by his lover will cease
to exist. This is yet another variation on Shakespeare's theme of the necessity
of procreation that dominates the early sonnets.
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.
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The next eleven lines are
devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly
differentiates the young man from the summer's day: he is "lovelier and
more temperate." Summer's days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by
"rough winds"; in them, the sun ("the eye of heaven") often
shines "too hot," or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too
short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as "every fair from fair
sometime declines." The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved
differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever
("Thy eternal summer shall not fade...") and never die. In the
couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved's beauty will accomplish this feat,
and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it
will live "as long as men can breathe or eyes can see."
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of
Shakespeare's sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English.
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the
beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and
heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally
personified as the "eye of heaven" with its "gold
complexion"; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the
"darling buds of May" giving way to the "eternal summer",
which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively
unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and
nearly every line is its own self-contained clause-almost every line ends with
some punctuation, which effects a pause.
An important theme of the sonnet (as it is
an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the
speaker's poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the
beloved down to future generations. The beloved's "eternal summer"
shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: "So long as
men can breathe or eyes can see," the speaker writes in the couplet,
"So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
SONNET
19
Devouring
Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet
brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, And burn the
long-lived phoenix in her blood; Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, To the wide world and all her
fading sweets; But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: 0, carve not with thy
hours my love's fair brow, Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen; Him
in thy course untainted do allow For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. Yet,
do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live
young.
The theme, as with so many of the early
sonnets, is the ravages of Time. Shakespeare expresses his intense fear of Time
primarily in the sonnets that involve his male lover, and his worries seem to
disappear in the later sonnets that are dedicated to his 'dark lady'.
Specifically, the poet is mortified by the thought of his lover showing
physical signs of aging. There is no doubt that his relationship with his male
lover is one built upon lust - more so than his relationship with his mistress,
which is based on love and mutual understanding.
SONNET
29
When,
in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse
my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him
with friends possess'd, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, With what
I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day
arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love
remember'd such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Sonnet 29 shows us the poet at his most
insecure and troubled. He feels himself unlucky, disgraced, and jealous of
those around him. What is causing the poet's anguish one can only guess, but an
examination of the circumstances surrounding his life at the time he wrote
sonnet 29 could help us to understand his depression. In 1592, the London theaters closed due to a severe outbreak of the plague. Although it is possible that
Shakespeare toured the outlying areas of London with acting companies like
Pembroke's Men or Lord Strange's Men, it seems more likely that he left the theater entirely during this time, possibly to work on his non-dramatic poetry.
The closing of the playhouses made it hard for Shakespeare and other actors of
the day to earn a living. With plague and poverty threatening his life, it is
only natural that he felt "in disgrace with fortune". Moreover, in
1592 there came a scathing attack on Shakespeare by dramatist Robert Greene,
who wrote in a deathbed diary: "There is an upstart crow, beautified with
our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide supposes he is
as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an
absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a
country." Shakespeare was deeply disturbed by this assault, feeling
disgraced in "men's eyes" as well as fortune's.
The poet is so forlorn that even the passion for his
profession as an actor seems to have died. But the sonnet ends with a positive
affirmation that all is not lost - that the poet's dear friend can compensate
for the grief he feels.
SONNET 30
When
to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear
time's waste: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, For precious friends hid
in death's dateless night, And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe, And
moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight: Then can I grieve at grievances
foregone, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of
fore-bemoaned moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I
think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end.
Sonnet 30 is a tribute to the poet's
friend -- and likely his lover -- whom many believe to be the Eairl of
Southampton. Sonnet 29 proclaims that the young man is the poet's redeemer and
this theme continues in the above sonnet. The poet's sorrowful recollections of
dead friends are sparked by the lover's absence and can be quelled only by
thoughts of his lover, illustrating the poet's dependence on his dear friend
for spiritual and emotional support. This sonnet is based on the metaphor of
court sessions. In this sonnet the poet summons his memories of past. Words
like 'dates,' 'accounts,' 'cancel,' 'pay,' 'losses,' 'restored'-clearly suits
the court sessions. The poet thinks about his dear dead friends and fee\s very
sad, miserable and moans for them again. Long forgotten sorrow wells up again
and he shed tears and is almost at: the point of dejection. Suddenly in his sad
heart flashed the thought of his dear friend 'W. H.' and his grief disappears
and is restored to peace. According to G. Wilson Knight "the whole sonnet
is given to the poet's summoning up of remembrance of his past." According
to critics it is not an inspired sonnet. It is a labored one.
