Shakespeares Sonnets Shakespeares Sonnets A collection of 154

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Shakespeare’s Sonnets �A collection of 154 poems (sonnets) �Themes include: The passage of time, love, morality, beauty �Published in 1609 by – Thomas Thorpe �The sonnets are proceeded by a poem titled “A Lover’s Complaint” (written in Rhyme Royal)

Shakespeare’s Sonnets �The first 17 poems : procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. �Other sonnets express the speaker's love for a young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life �The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the “little love-god” Cupid.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets � Allegory: a device used to present an idea, principle or meaning, which can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel � Epigram: a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising or satirical statement � Stanza: a unit within a larger poem which consists of lines � Quatrain: four lines of rhyming verse � Couplet: two lines of rhyming verse � Iambic Pentameter: the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg (this form is now known as the Shakespearean Sonnet)

Shakespeare’s Sonnets �Characters: � The Fair Youth: the unnamed young man to whom sonnets 1 – 126 are addressed � The Dark Lady: this sequence (sonnets 127– 152), distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual in its passion � The Rival Poet: a mystery in the literary world , we do know the speaker sees the Rival as competition for fame, “coin” and patronage