Shakespeare’s Sonnets

William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and he died on the 23 April 1616.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are known to have been circulated amongst “his private friends” and sent to his patron before a collection of 154 were published in the 1609 Quarto.

The English sonnet is a poem form consisting of 14 lines, each with 10 stressed and unstressed syllables known as iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme of: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g.

Now I am going to talk about six Shakespeare’s sonnets.

In sonnet 18 I think Shakespeare tries to describe the Dark Lady as a perfect being and that the Dark Lady is eternal.

“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.”

In sonnet 21 I think he talks about his friend whom he adores. He wants to say that he must not praise his friend too much because his friend is already great.

In sonnet 66 I think he dislikes the corruption and dishonesty of the world and he desires to be released from the world.

In sonnet 73 the poet prepares his young friend, not for the approaching literal death of his body, but for the death of his youth and passion.

In sonnet 90 he talks about the Dark Lady and he tells that all the troubles would seem small when he would his loved one.

In sonnet 130 I think Shakespeare is showing the Dark Lady as an uglier woman than she is. I think he wants to say that it does not matter how the Dark Lady looks like because he will always love her.