Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's Sonnets

  Critics agree that these are the greatest sonnets in any language. Although the sonnets have generally been minimized in comparison to his famous dramas, yet it has to be affirmed that no other sonneteer in all literature has brought to the sonnet form such breadth and depth in treating universal human experiences in masterful language.

·        One of the characteristics of Shakespeare's sonnets is the epigrammatic close (wise commentary) in the couplet at the end of the sonnet e.g.

           Sonnet 3:  "But if thou live rememb'red not to be ,

Die single, and thine image dies with thee"

·                    In addition to the new form, Shakespeare in his sonnets introduced new themes.

·               The major themes in Shakespeare's sonnets  are:

v Shortness of life .Time is described as a clock and a scythe (knife) that reaps lives. The following quotations illustrate this theme;

         1. " When I do count the clock that tells the time

              And see the brave day sunk into hideous night,"(sonnet 12)

       2.  " and nothing 'gainst Time's scythe (knife) can make defense,

    Save breed (offspring) to brave him when he takes thee hence."

   (Sonnet 12) 

v   How to gain immortality is a major theme in Shakespeare's sonnets. Some of his answers to this question are:

          -  Immortality through offspring e.g.:  (as in quotation 2. above)

        -  Immortality of love through memories e.g. :

                 " For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

                  That then I scorn to change my state with kings."(Sonnet29)

      -  Immortality through verse e.g.:

                "So, till the judgment that you yourself arise,

                 You live in this (the poem) and dwell in lovers' eyes.(Sonnet 55)

Sonnet 18                                                                                                                                                         

  He compares the girl he loves to a summer’s day.Yet, he concludes that she is more beautiful than the summer’s day because summer has many defects. It is sometimes short, not moderate, windy and cloudy. He also says that every thing loses its beauty by age, chance or death but his girl’s beauty is immortal because it will be immortalized through his verse .

So the main ideas in the sonnet are the praise for his beloved's beauty and for his poetry which he says is immortal.

   The Theme : His  immortal poetry gives immortality to his girl's  beauty as he states in the couplet:

        "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see ,

         So long lives this and this gives life to thee."

Sonnet 29:

  The poet is sad and depressed. He is envying others for their happiness with friends and relatives. Yet suddenly he remembers his beloved and he is suddenly full of happiness "more than king" through these memories.

 The Theme: Memory of love gives pleasure and relief from pain.

             " For thy Sweet love remembered, such wealth brings,

             That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 116 :

  This sonnet dramatizes the nature of love. Shakespeare says that love should not be changeable. This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and what it is not. The ideal romantic love, for the poet, never changes, never fades, outlasts death and admits no flaws. He refers to it as" the marriage of true minds" What is more, he insists that this ideal is the only love that can be called "true"--if love is mortal, changing, or impermanent, the speaker writes, then no man ever loved.

The Theme: Immortality of true love against time as he states in the following lines:

         " Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

            But bears it to the edge of doom.

Sonnet 130 :

  The poet compares the beauty of his girl to the beauty of many things. He compares her lips to coral with its red color but concludes that its redness is more beautiful than her lips. Snow is whiter than her body’s whiteness as her skin is dark.  Her hair is not beautiful, her cheeks are not red like red roses; her smell is not as nice as perfumes and music is more enchanting than her voice. It is certainly a strange and unfamiliar way of a lover to talk about his beloved. 

 The Theme: A lover does not see the negative qualities of his beloved. To him, she is the most beautiful thing. She is true and everything else is false. So when you are in love with somebody, you cannot see his faults.  And even if you see them you don't mind them He states this in the couplet:

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

                 As any she belied with false compare."