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Shakespearean Sonnets

 

            During Elizabethan times, 1550-1625, a great writer's explosive way of writing brought forth a new life to poetry. This outstanding poet, author and playwright, was William Shakespeare. These highly subjective sonnets are wonderful tales full of love, deception, and betrayal. Although it is presumable that Shakespeare did write these sonnets about his own life, some experts are still puzzled by the possibility of the poetry being based in fiction. However, if one man can so exquisitely write fictional stories about love and still include a controversial issue in them, then where do we draw the line between fact and fiction? The answer to this question is that Shakespeare's sonnets were not fiction. In fact, the Bard's famous 14-line poems were subjective, highly autobiographical accounts of his life. .
             As the Black Death was making its voyage from Sicily to conquer the European countries, an eager Shakespeare might have been contemplating whether or not to write a comedy or a drama. However, as soon as the plague did reach Europe, theaters closed and there was nowhere for Shakespeare's plays to be performed. This posed a problem for the young author. Shakespeare had to somehow exert his ability in another area of writing. What better way to fulfill his urge than to write sonnets? At the time, the sonnet was being repopularized as a common way for expressing one's love for another. Shakespeare thought of this common way of writing as an outlet to do just what everyone else was doing, subjectively expressing themselves through poetry. .
             One prime example of Shakespeare's use of subjectivity is present in Sonnet number three. This poem is about a husband's attempt to convince his wife to have children. In the sonnet, Shakespeare relies on his wife's fear of mortality in order to try to convince her to have children, achieving immortality. The argument of this sonnet is if his wife does not want children, then not only does she deny herself immortality, but she also denies it to the family name.


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