There are 154 sonnets attributed to
Shakespeare. And of these 126 are dedicated to a handsome young man. In most of
these 126 sonnets Shakespeare praises the beauty of this young man and requests
him to get married and have an heir to carry on his line:
o
Sonnets
127 to 152 are dedicated to a Dark Lady, possibly a Lady in Waiting to
Elizabeth I
o
Shakespeare
was in love with her but she had an affair with the ‘young man’ and said to
have a child by him
o
The above
mentioned love triangle had provided Shakespeare with insight to human nature
and relationships the sonnet sequence deals with themes such as mortality,
deception and the eternal power of the written word
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do
hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the
cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet
birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in
rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourished
by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy
love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave
ere long.
When you look at me, you can see an image
of those times of year when the leaves are yellow or have fallen, or when the
trees have no leaves at all and the bare branches where the sweet birds
recently sang shiver in anticipation of the cold. In me you can see the
twilight that remains after the sunset fades in the west, which by and by is
replaced by black night, the twin of death, which closes up everyone in eternal
rest. In me you can see the remains of a fire still glowing atop the ashes of
its early stages, as if it lay on its own deathbed, on which it has to burn
out, consuming what used to fuel it. You see all these things, and they make
your love stronger, because you love even more what you know you’ll lose before
long.
Sonnet 130 - My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the
Sun – William Shakespeare
Themes
o
Sincerity
of the poet’s love depictes the absence of conventional beauty in the mistress
o
Questions/satirizes
the stereotypical idea of beauty found in contemporary poetry
Analysis
o
In this poem the poet satirizes
the conventional courtly poems (Petrachan love sonnets)that put women on
pedestals and treated them as goddesses
o
Sonnet 130 is a parody of the
Dark Lady, who falls too obviously short of fashionable beauty to be extolled
in poetry.
o
The poet, openly contemptuous
of his weakness for the woman, expresses his infatuation for her in negative
comparisons.
o The
poet expresses his passion for the Dark Lady in negative comparisons:
"black wires grow on her head."
o Shakespeare names and rejects many things in the natural world that
appear in love poems:
o the sun = bright eyes = “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
o coral = the colour of the lips = “Coral is far more read than her
lips”
o snow = colour of the breasts = “If snow be white, her breasts are
dun”
o hair is golden = “If hair be wires, black wire grows on her head”
o perfume = the odour of the breath = her breath “reeks”
o music = the voice = I love to hear her speak but I know/That music
hath a far more pleasing sound
o a goddess = “My mistress when she walks threads on ground”
o To the Renaissance reader who wanted to see women as dainty and
idealized creatures, this should have been shocking
o
Despite
her flaw Shakespeare is still attracted to her and he tries to understand why
he is attracted
o
Her
greatest weakness is her rashness. She has been false to Shakespeare. When
Shakespeare offered her true love the lady has taken it and compared it with
the love of her other lover
o
Yet,
Shakespeare accepts her as she is despite her weaknesses
o
The poet must be very secure in
his love for his mistress — and hers for him — for him to be as disparaging as
he is, even in jest — a security he did not enjoy with the young man.
o
Although the turn "And
yet" in the concluding couplet signals the negation of all the disparaging
comments the poet has made about the Dark Lady, the sonnet's last two lines
arguably do not erase the horrendous comparisons in the three quatrains.
Techniques
o
Parodies
the Petrachan tradition – subvert the conventions used in traditional love
poetry
o
Use of
clichéd imagery – eyes like the sun, cheeks full of roses, musical speech –
overturns the clichés in the end
o
Meaningful
and well developed argument
o
Use of
satire
Sonnet
138 - When My Love Swears That she is Made of Truth- William Shakespeare
o
This too
is dedicated to the Dark Lady
o
Sonnet 138 presents a candid
psychological study of the mistress that reveals many of her hypocrisies.
o
Certainly she is still very
much the poet's mistress, but the poet is under no illusions about
hercharacter: "When my love swears that she is made of truth, / I do
believe her, though I know she lies."
o
He accepts without protest her
"false-speaking tongue" and expects nothing better of her.
o
Cynically, he too deceives and
is comforted by knowing that he is no longer fooled by the woman's charade of
fidelity to him, nor she by how young and simpleminded he presents himself to
be.
o
In a relationship without
affection or trust, the two lovers agree to a relationship based on mutual
deception.
o
Both agree never to voice the
truth about just how much their relationship is built on never-spoken truths:
"But wherefore says she not she is unjust? / And wherefore say not I that
I am old?"
o
Note that the sentence
construction in these two lines is identical, similar to how both the poet and
the woman identically feign lying when each knows that the other knows the
truth.
o
The main theme of the
concluding two lines is lust, but it is treated with a wry humor.
o
The poet is content to support
the woman's lies because he is flattered that she thinks him young — even
though he knows that she is well aware of just how old he is.
o
On the other hand, he does not
challenge her pledges of faithfulness — even though she knows that he is aware
of her infidelity.
o
Neither is disposed to unveil
the other's defects.
o
Ultimately the poet and the
woman remain together for two reasons, the first being their sexual
relationship, the second that they are obviously comfortable with each other's
lying.
o
Both of these reasons are
indicated by the pun on the word "lie," meaning either "to have
sex with" or "to deceive": "Therefore I lie with her and
she with me, / And in our faults by lies we flattered be."
Themes
o
Appearance
and reality in romantic relationships
Form and language:
o
Shakespeare
uses the 14-line sonnet form of Petrach imported to England
by Wyatt and Surrey
o
However,
he divides his sonnets into a three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet.
o
He also
uses independent rhyming schemes for each of the quatrains as well as for the
couplet – abab, cdcd, efef, gg
o
He employs
iambic pentameter – ten-syllable lines - for all his sonnets
o
Shakespeare
uses Anglo-Saxon monosyllabic words which makes his language both phonetically
and semantically
o
There is a
certain rhythm and musicality when monosyllabic words are put together
o
They are
also semantically rich – the poet seems to say a lot in few words –economy of
language
o
The use of
Anglo-Saxon words make Shakespeare’s work more ‘English’ – earlier courtly love
poetry used more Latin and French polysyllabic words
Techniques
o
Use of
figurative language
o
Use of
personification – love’s best habit
o
Punning –
various meanings of ‘lie’, ‘made’
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