Lee Ji Min Korean
Sonnet by shakespear
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,
Featured 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 remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
–William Shakespeare
Structure of Sonnet 29
Sonnet 29 follows the same basic structure as Shakespeare's other sonnets, containing fourteen lines and written in iambic pentameter, and composed of three rhyming quatrains with a rhyming couplet at the end. However, it does not follow the traditional English rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Rather, the scheme is ABAB CDCD EBEB FF. As noted by Bernhard Frank, Sonnet 29 includes two distinct sections with the Speaker explaining his current depressed state of mind in the first octave and then conjuring what appears to be a happier image in the last sestet[1]
In his criticism of Stephen Booth’s analysis of the work, Murdo William McRae explains two characteristics of the internal structure of Sonnet 29 that Booth failed to mention that make the work distinctly unique from any of Shakespeare’s other sonnets [2]. The first unique characteristic is the lack of a “when/then” pattern. Traditionally, the first eight lines of a sonnet produce a problem (a “when” statement”) that is then resolved in the last six lines (a “then” statement). McRae points out, however, that the Speaker in this sonnet fails to produce a solution possibly because his overwhelming lack of self-worth prevents him from ever being able to state an actual argument, and instead
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,
Featured 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 remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
–William Shakespeare
Structure of Sonnet 29
Sonnet 29 follows the same basic structure as Shakespeare's other sonnets, containing fourteen lines and written in iambic pentameter, and composed of three rhyming quatrains with a rhyming couplet at the end. However, it does not follow the traditional English rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Rather, the scheme is ABAB CDCD EBEB FF. As noted by Bernhard Frank, Sonnet 29 includes two distinct sections with the Speaker explaining his current depressed state of mind in the first octave and then conjuring what appears to be a happier image in the last sestet[1]
In his criticism of Stephen Booth’s analysis of the work, Murdo William McRae explains two characteristics of the internal structure of Sonnet 29 that Booth failed to mention that make the work distinctly unique from any of Shakespeare’s other sonnets [2]. The first unique characteristic is the lack of a “when/then” pattern. Traditionally, the first eight lines of a sonnet produce a problem (a “when” statement”) that is then resolved in the last six lines (a “then” statement). McRae points out, however, that the Speaker in this sonnet fails to produce a solution possibly because his overwhelming lack of self-worth prevents him from ever being able to state an actual argument, and instead