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.
To me Shakespearean sonnets are not the most interesting of all things probably because I can not understand or relate to them. ... The first sonnet that I chose was Sonnet number 130. ... The next sonnet I chose was sonnet number 3. ... The last sonnet that I chose was Sonnet 57. ... Comical in my opinion, this sonnet in a way represents all of men. ...
Few poets have ever truly mastered the art of writing a sonnet. ... This form later became known as the Shakespearean sonnet, named after its greatest practitioner. ... Shakespeare uses both Petrarchan and Shakespearean structure in his sonnets. ... The structure of the Shakespearean sonnet, its rhyme pattern, and meter are all faithfully illustrated in this work, as three successive quatrains of iambic pentameter verse leading lyrically to a concluding rhymed couplet and a high note. ... Although Shakespeare seems to be conforming to the classic standards of sonnet writing in Sonnet 18, he...
The Sonnet has been a popular form in Western literature for five centuries. ... The first person to write sonnets was Francis Petrarch. ... Sonnets were also written during the height of classical English verse by for example Pope and Dryden, and the sonnet form outlived even the Romantic period when they emphasized freedom and usually did not prefer a very strict form like sonnets. Two kinds of sonnets have been the most popular: Shakespearean sonnets and Petrarchan/Italian sonnets. ... One reason for the sonnet form's popularity can be that the writing of sonnets has become almost a ...
Research Essay: Sonnet 29 William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 29- is a plea for help. ... Sonnet 29 reflects a time in his life. ... "Sonnet 29- is not written to a particular person. ... Sonnet 29 uses the original Shakespearean structure. ... (Jordan) "[ ] the sonneto spread to England where Elizabethan poets developed a new form called the English sonnet or else the Shakespearean sonnet named after the greatest practitioner, William Shakespeare.[ ]- He expresses his wonder towards why he is so lonely and misfortunate. ...
Sonnet 98 The Shakespearean sonnets are considered to be some of the most beautiful and powerful poems in English literature (Magill 6170). Shakespeare's Sonnet 98 has a 4-6-2-2 pattern. ... Sonnets 1-126 relate to a young man. ... Sonnet 98 is a simpler version of Sonnet 97. It is thought that maybe Sonnet 98 was written before Sonnet 97 (Vendler 418). ...
The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet form consists of two parts: an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines), between which there is a distinct change in the poet's tone/subject whereas the English or Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains and a couplet. ... The main difference between their sonnets is their rhyme schemes. The Shakespearean sonnet rhymes alternately for three quatrains and concludes with a couplet. The Petrachan sonnet's rhyme scheme changes as the sestet's focus in view does. The structure of "On his Blindness" is different in that it is made up o...
In this way, what Don Paterson could be saying is that the sonnet is a product of a poet's meaning behind their individual observation of what a sonnet means to them. ... More recently than Petrarchan, Shakespearean sonnets have taken a different approach on sonnet writing that blur the intentions of the sonnet itself and make us question the idea of love as a whole, something that Fineman calls a "mock encomium." ... In an entirely different context altogether, "On the Sonnet" by John Keats takes an unheard of approach to sonnet writing, that adhere to neither the conventional context o...
Sonnet 73 Shakespeare's sonnet # 73 is written in the Shakespearean sonnet style consisting of three quatrains and one couplet.Each quatrain,written in iambic pentameter has it's own rhyme scheme;rhyming in alternating lines.The couplet usually summarizes the preceeding twelve lines. In Sonnet 73 one will realize Shakespeare follows the classic pattern of the iambic pentameter with a slight variation; the poet utilizes the "spondaic foot" or heavey stress in the beginning of the fourth line in each of the quatrains. .....
The season fall becomes the sonnets most general metaphor in respect to the addressers aging body in the first quatrain of sonnet 73. ... The effort of stating the speakers beleaguered souls conflict with his decaying body is finished; in typical Shakespearean sonnet form, the poet saves the couplet for a conclusion that reveal himself and his audience. ... As with majority of the Shakespearean sonnets, the couplet is comprised of monosyllabic vocabulary, which concludes Shakespeares point with conclusiveness. Shakespearean sonnets in sequence touch on various themes as you progress reading:...
Petrarchan sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets differ in rhyme pattern and theme presentation, their structural similarities are the fourteen lines, consisting of three quatrains and the ending couplet. Shakespeare wrote a collection of fifty sonnets, all connected by his thoughts and desires. It is sometimes difficult to understand who or what the poet is talking about in a single sonnet. ... In sonnet number 5, "When I consider everything that grows", the poet seems to be pondering mans place in the universe. ... The couplet in this sonnet is a statement of his devotion. ...
