SEd Eng 324‫ ׀‬Survey of English

and American Literature

Lesson 3: Shakespeare’s Sonnets
 Meet William Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare is the most celebrated English poet and
dramatist of all time. Nearly four centuries after his death, his
works continue to delight readers and audiences around the
world. In fact, Shakespeare’s writings are more widely read
and more often quoted than any other works ever written,
except the Bible. Yet, while Shakespeare’s literature endures,
we know very little about the man himself. The meager
information we do have about Shakespeare’s life has been
pieced together from anecdotes, gossip, clues found in his
poems and plays, legal documents, entries in the public
record, and the memorials and reminiscences by his fellow
writers.
Early Life
• Shakespeare was born in the small town of Stratford-
upon-Avon. His father, John Shakespeare, was a
prosperous glove maker, butcher, and tradesman who
also filled several local government positions, including
high bailiff (the equivalent of mayor). His mother, Mary
Arden, was the daughter of a wealthy landowner.
William Shakespeare was the third of at least eight
children born to this well-to-do couple. He was their
first son and their first child to survive past childhood.
As a young boy, Shakespeare likely attended the local
grammar school, studying Latin and classical literature.
• When Shakespeare was about thirteen, however, his father
started to lose his social standing and to have serious financial
problems. Shakespeare was forced to leave school in order to
work to help support his family. Just what type of work he did
remains unknown, but he may have apprenticed as a butcher.
Shakespeare may also have served for a time as a schoolmaster
in the country, where he would have acquired the familiarity
with outdoor sports, such as hunting, hawking, and falconry,
that manifests itself throughout his literary works.
• At the age of eighteen, Shakespeare married a twenty-six-year-
old local woman named Anne Hathaway and began a family of
his own. The couple had a daughter, Susanna, and twins,
Hamnet and Judith. Sadly, Hamnet died at the age of eleven.
The London Theater Scene
• Shakespeare moved to London to pursue a career in the
theater, but, according to poet William Davenant, he arrived
without friends or money. His first “theater job” actually
consisted of tending the horses of theater patrons—the
equivalent of parking cars at a theater today. Nevertheless,
his wit attracted the attention of the actors, who apparently
thought him clever enough to improve a few of their plays
(revising plays to add scenes or to bring them up to date was
a common practice at the time), and the actors eventually
recommended him for a job. If Davenant’s tale is true, this is
how Shakespeare got his chance to write for the stage—and
to act in small parts as well.
Dramatic Success
• The production of Henry VI in 1592 appears to have been
Shakespeare’s first theatrical success. Later, he wrote and
published two long narrative poems, which became immediate
favorites: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He
dedicated these works to a newfound patron and friend, the
young Earl of Southampton.
• The earl, upon reaching maturity and thereby gaining access to
his fortune, expressed his thanks for these dedications by
giving Shakespeare a large sum of money, which enabled him
to become partial owner of a theatrical company, the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men. As part owner, Shakespeare became the
main playwright for the troupe.
• The playhouse in which they had been performing, called
simply the “Theatre,” was torn down and rebuilt in a larger,
more splendid form south of the Thames River. This new
playhouse, opened in 1599, was called the Globe, which is the
name still associated with Shakespearean theater today.
Building a Career and an Estate
• By the time the Globe opened, Shakespeare had
earned enough money to enable him to purchase
several properties and a large estate for his family
in Stratford, although he continued to live
primarily in London. By 1599 the thirty-five-year-
old playwright was producing two plays a year and
drawing tremendous audiences as well as critical
acclaim. A literary handbook of the time calls
Shakespeare “most excellent” in both comedy and
tragedy and “the most passionate among us to
bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love.”
The Pinnacle of Genius
• Shakespeare’s greatest creative period had just begun in 1599.
Between 1601 and 1607, he wrote the tragic masterpieces
Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. He also wrote
comedies that were darker and more complexthan his
previous works. As well as performing in the Globe, the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men performed several times at the courts of
Elizabeth I and James I. In fact, James’s patronage enabled the
troupe to call itself the King’s Men. Besides their
performances at court, the King’s Men also performed after
1609 in an indoor, heated, and candle-lit playhouse called the
Blackfriars Theatre. Their performances in this aristocratic
venue proved much more profitable than those in the Globe.
• Shakespeare’s finest plays, though much admired by his
contemporaries, achieved less literary status than his
narrative and lyrical poems in his lifetime. During
Shakespeare’s career, his reputation as a great writer was
based mainly on his nondramatic poems and on his sonnets.
Shakespeare published his sonnets in 1609, although he had
actually written and circulated the bulk of them in
handwritten form in the 1590s.
• In 1610, for reasons not known to us today, Shakespeare
moved back to Stratford, where he lived comfortably as a
semi-retired gentleman, writing fewer plays than before.
Among these was a supreme romance, The Tempest, in
which the main character’s farewell speech is generally
regarded as Shakespeare’s farewell to writing and perhaps
to life. He died in Stratford on his fifty-second birthday.
 Building Background
Sonnet Subjects
• Although sonnet sequences had long been fashionable by
Shakespeare’s time, his poems explored more than the typical
theme of a young man pining for love. For example, Sonnet 116
describes true love as a permanent feeling that does not lessen
when the physical beauty of one’s beloved begins to fade.
Shakespeare’s sonnets fall into three groups. Sonnets 1–126
concern a handsome young man whom the speaker urges to
marry and have children. Sonnets 127–152 concern a “dark lady,”
a woman who attracted both the poet and the young man. The
final two sonnets are English versions of Greek poems and have
no real connection to the rest of the sequence. No one knows for
certain who the handsome youth and dark lady were, although
many scholars have made guesses. In reality, the characters
might simply have been figments of Shakespeare’s fertile
imagination.
Shakespeare’s Songs
• Shakespeare’s plays contain some of the finest songs
ever written. Music was important to Elizabethan
audiences, so Shakespeare used songs to help
heighten the mood in his plays. “Fear No More the
Heat o’ the Sun” is a song from the play Cymbeline
(act 4, scene 2). Two princes recite the dirge over the
body of their sister Imogen, whom they believe to
be dead. “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind” is from
the comedy As You Like It (act 2, scene 7). It is sung
by Amiens, an exiled courtier. As You Like It contains
more songs than any of Shakespeare’s other plays.
 Summary
• Both of these sonnets deal with aspects of
love. In Sonnet 116, the speaker focuses on
the constancy that results from “the marriage
of true minds.” The speaker of Sonnet 130
finds that figurative language fails to capture
the beauty of his beloved.
 Purposes for Reading
• Big Idea A Bard for the Ages Shakespeare was a deep
thinker and a learned man as well as a great poet. As
you read, ask yourself, How does Shakespeare use the
sonnet form to express his ideas about love?
• Literary Element Simile and Metaphor Simile and
metaphor are figures of speech that make comparisons
between two seemingly unlike things or ideas in order
to suggest an underlying similarity between them. In a
simile, the words like or as are used to express the
comparison explicitly. The comparison in a metaphor is
implicit. As you read, ask yourself, What purposes do
these devices serve in the sonnets?
 Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come,
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be
taken.

Simile and Metaphor Explain the metaphor in

this line. What is being compared?
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

A Bard for the Ages: What ideas about love

does Shakespeare express in this poem? How
does that compare with ideas about love you
fi nd today?
 Sonnet 130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

A Bard for the Ages What philosophical insight

is Shakespeare expressing in this couplet?
 Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret
1. (a)In your own words, summarize the two main
points the speaker makes about the nature of
love in Sonnet 116. (b)What is the speaker
implying about failed relationships?
2. (a)How does the speaker in Sonnet 130
describe the woman he loves? (b)Does his
description tell you his real opinion of her?
Support your answer with lines from the poem.
Analyze and Evaluate
3. (a)What is the speaker’s main point in lines 1–
12 of Sonnet 116? (b) In your opinion, is the
couplet a convincing conclusion to the poem?
4. (a)What sort of poetry does Sonnet 130 mock
or criticize? (b)What message about love is
implied in this criticism?
Connect
5. What can you infer about Shakespeare’s
philosophy of life from Sonnets 116 and 130?
 Literary Element
Simile and Metaphor
• Sonnet 116 makes its points through a series of implicit
comparisons, or metaphors. Sonnet 130 parodies a
series of explicit comparisons, or similes. The word like
appears in the first simile of Sonnet 130 and is implied
in all of the similes that follow.
1. Explain the metaphor in lines 5–6 of Sonnet 116.
2. (a)List the “negative similes,” or what the speaker says
his beloved is not, in Sonnet 130. (b)Identify the sonnet’s
only metaphor.
 Summary
• In Sonnet 73, the speaker characterizes
himself as old and near death but rejoices in
the strength of his beloved’s love for him. The
speaker of Sonnet 29, whenever he envies
others’ qualities, remembers that he is loved
and therefore rich indeed.
 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 ruin’d 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 death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
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 ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.

What conclusion about himself does the

speaker state in lines 1–4? Explain.
 Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate,
For thy sweet love rememb’red such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,

Simile: Are lines 5–6 an example of a simile?

Explain. Which lines do include a simile?
 Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret
1. (a)To what three things does the speaker compare himself in
Sonnet 73? (b)What do you
think these three things symbolize, or represent?
2. (a)What does the speaker complain about in
the first part of Sonnet 29? (b)Based on the
early lines of the poem, what kind of person
would you say the speaker is?
Analyze and Evaluate
3. (a)How would you describe the tone of
Sonnet 73? (b)What details create that tone?
4. (a)What reasons does the speaker in Sonnet
29 give for his change in mood? (b)Do you
find the transition in the speaker’s mood
convincing? Explain.
Connect
5. Based on these two sonnets, how would you
describe the
value Shakespeare puts on human relationships?
 Literary Element
Literary Element Simile
1. (a)What is the simile in lines 9–12 of Sonnet
29?
(b)What understanding of the speaker and his
“state” do you gain from this comparison?
2. Write a simile that expresses the speaker’s
attitude toward himself in lines 1–4 of Sonnet 73