Shakespeare, as well as writing many famous plays is also noted for his sonnets. A sonnet is traditionally a fourteen-line poem, Shakespeare mostly wrote his sonnets about love. It was traditional during the Elizabethan age, for gentlemen to write love sonnets about their lover and give it to her. It was the way men used to woe women they liked.
Shakespeare wrote one hundred and fifty four sonnets and due to the number and their consistent quality, his particular style became known as the Shakespearean sonnet form. A Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines, broken down into three quatrains and ending with a rhyming couplet. In each quatrain a different subject is discussed and described, the subject is then changed at the start of each new quatrain. A Shakespearean sonnet has the rhyming pattern ABABCDCDEFEFGG. For example in Shall compare thee, the first quatrain shows this rhyming pattern, it is at the beginning so is the A BAB part. Shall I compare thee to a Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie, And Sommers lease hath all too short a date: The rhyming couplet, i.
e. GG, often finishes a Shakespearean sonnet, for example the last two lines of Let me not. This type of ending often ends the poem with a satis factory conclusion, as below illustrates. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor man ever loved. This essay will explore and explain how Shakespeare expressed his feelings about love and eternity through his sonnets. Two of Shakespeares most famous sonnets will be used to illustrate the findings.
These will be Shall I compare thee. Sonnet XVII (18) and Let me not sonnet CXVI (116). Shall I Compare thee is probably Shakespeares most famous sonnet The sonnet is written by Shakespeare about and to a woman he loves. In the sonnet he describes the beauty of the woman and he debates whether or not to compare her to a summers day.
Shall I compare thee to a Summers day The poem opens with the question above and follows with two quatrains debating whether she is as lovely as the summertime. These lines express the feelings he has for the woman and show how beautiful he thinks his lover is. Shakespeare wants to compare the woman to a perfect summers day, where it is warm, sunny, gentle and fair. However he finds fault with his comparison. The summers day is found to be less than perfect. In lines 2, 3 and 4 he compliments the woman by saying that her beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summers day, as her beauty is more temperate than an English summer.
An English summer is often windy and short. Thou art more temperate: Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie, And Sommers lease hath all too short a date: With the beginning of the second quatrain he describes how the sun in the summertime is less than perfect. He uses a metaphor to describe the sun; he calls it the eye of heaven. Shakespeare tells of how the sun can be too hot in the summer and its light can be dimmed by clouds and overcast weather. Sometimes too hot the eye of Heaven shines And often his gold complexion did, In Line 6 he uses personification to describe the sun.
Shakespeare refers to the sun as he, giving the sun human qualities. The suns colour and light is referred to as a gold complexion. This is also personification, as complexion is a word used to describe a humans skin. Shakespeare writes that summer can be beautiful but at some point it declines from its previous beauty and perfection. And fair from fair some-time declines, After complementing his sweetheart by contrasting her beauty with summers flaws, he suggests that she is more beautiful than a summers day, as she will not lose her beauty or perfection. This compliment is backed up by Shakespeare saying that her perfection and the love he has for her will live on through death and never fade, like a summers day does.
This is due to this sonnet. Shakespeare is saying in the last two lines, that, as long as people are alive, these verses will live on celebrating her beauty and the love he has for her. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. Shall I compare thee shows how strong Shakespeares feelings were for his lover.
His emotions really come over through his disguised and obvious compliments and contrasts. He thinks she is beautiful and, unlike a summers day, her perfection will not fade, as this very sonnet is written to illustrate and capture the womans beauty and the love he has for her. Let me not… is another sonnet written by Shakespeare. This sonnet is not praising a loved one, it is written to teach people about love. In fact the content of the sonnet may even be written to warn people about love, which may not be real, as Shakespeare seems more bitter than in love.
He begins by saying he doesnt want to hinder the marriage of like-minded people, but to take note about what he has to say. The poem is written in a negative context to emphasise the positive aspects of love. Let me not to the marriage of true windes Shakespeare explains that people must admit that there are certain barriers, which prevent love being real love. His next two lines make their point by having a repetitive word, such as alter and alteration. Admit impediments, love is not love Which alters when it alteration windes, Or bends with the remover to remove.
Shakespeare means by these lines that love is not love if one person is changed by the other, or because of the love, they both change. He wants to make his point clear that love is to be kept the same; it must never change, as it is an everlasting thing. In the second quatrain, lines 5, 6, 7 and 8, a theme develops. These phrases explain his thoughts on love and how even the biggest problems cannot change real love. He uses metaphors in the shape of old nautical terms to show this. The use of nautical terms as metaphors is quite fitting for the time in which Shakespeare wrote his sonnet.
The Elizabethan age was a time of great exploration by famous seafarers, such as Sir Francis Drake, who notoriously circumnavigated the globe and pirated Spanish ships. Also during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, was another great adventurer. From his travels, Raleigh introduced potatoes and tobacco to England. He also helped to fight against the Spanish Armada. To represent love he uses marke, to represent the problems he uses tempest. A marke is a fixed guide, which helps sailors to navigate their course correctly.
A tempest is a storm, so like a marke, being unshakable against even the strongest storm; love is also unshakable by problems. The mariner theme is also used again to represent and reinforce the permanence of real love. Stars were used to help guide sailors. A star is fixed in the sky, in the same position and it follows a fixed course. This use of permanence again is to reinforce the idea that real love is unshakable. O no, it is an ever fixed marke That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering marke, Whose worth’s unknown, although his high th be taken.
After making his point that problems cannot change real love, in this quatrain he explains how time cannot change real love. He explains that the beauty may go due to time, but real love does not alter, it continues right up until death. Love not Times fool e, though rsi e lips and cheeks Within his sickles bending compasse come, Love alters not with his breeze hours and weekes, But bears it out even to the edge of do ome: Shakespeare explains that two people who are in real love dont change because of it, problems cannot change their love for each other and although time may change beauty, time will not hinder real love and it will continue until the death of both partners. Shakespeare is convinced that this is true and to show how strongly he believes this, he makes two important statements: If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. By this he means that if he is wrong and it is proved against him, he has never written anything and no man has ever loved. We know that neither of these statements is wrong, as Shakespeare wrote many famous plays and sonnets and falling in love is part of the human nature, so Shakespeare must be right.
The two passages also convey a certain smugness Shakespeare has, due to his social and literary skills. In both Shall I compare thee and Let me not Shakespeare communicates passion and feeling. In Shall I compare thee it is the passion for a woman, and how beautiful and perfect she is. In Let me not he is passionate about warning people about love which is not true; to prove this he shows what true love is like. Shakespeare effectively uses metaphors to represent ideas and story comparisons. These help to enforce ideas in the mind of the reader and they communicate how passionately Shakespeare feels about certain subjects.
Shakespeares love sonnets communicate feelings through language and his obvious experience, through being in love.