William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 found on page 1182 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume1B: The Sixteenth Century‚ The Early Seventeenth Centry‚ 2nd edition(New York: W.W. Nortion‚ 2000) is one of his most famous sonnets to conquer the subject of love. While there is much debate concerning the tone of this sonnet‚ Shakespeare’s words speak of transcendent love not very commonly considered in popular poetry at the time. He used the Petrarchan sonnet style in Old English popular
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William Shakespeare—Sonnets The first 17 poems of Shakespeare’s 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. The subsequent sonnets (18 to 126) express the speaker’s love for a young man; brood upon loneliness‚ death‚ and the transience of life. The remaining sonnets (127 to 152) focus on Dark Lady. Dark Lady sonnets are about desire and lust. In this paper‚ I will discuss how William Shakespeare’s
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William Shakespeare’s poetry entails complex language and hidden meanings. Shakespeare is famous for his ability to author a web of images that creates layers of interpretations and understandings. In Sonnet 138 however‚ Shakespeare is more direct in describing his relationship with his lover by avoiding imagery and metaphors‚ explaining to the reader that this seemingly unconventional relationship is indeed justified. Shakespeare constructs a persona of the speaker in a way that establishes a casual
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Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 20’ This sonnet has been the subject of much debate as academics theorise for and against the possible homosexuality of Shakespeare‚ as per the sexual connotations present in the sonnet and the way Shakespeare plays with gender. However‚ the way in which one interprets poems of any kind is highly subjective. Consider‚ for instance‚ a poem on love: the poet cannot be claimed as being an expert on love and its merits‚ and oftentimes a poem is not necessarily based on a personal
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Sonnet 18 Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 is a poem written to his beloved comparing him/her to a summer’s day. What was the purpose of this poem and what is its true meaning behind the obvious? What is he saying exactly? For me this is almost hieroglyphics seeing as it is in old English text but I will attempt to extract some of the true meaning and thoughts of this poem. Who speaks in this poem? Shakespeare was obviously quite fond of this person. I will attempt to explicate this poem. The writer
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man that he must perceive these things‚ and that his love must be strengthened by the knowledge that he will soon be parted from the speaker when the speaker‚ like the fire‚ is extinguished by time. Commentary Sonnet 73 takes up one of the most pressing issues of the first 126 sonnets‚ the speaker’s anxieties regarding what he perceives to be his advanced age‚ and develops the theme through a sequence of metaphors each implying something different. The first quatrain‚ which employs the metaphor
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Sonnet 129 is an interesting poem in Shakespeare’s set of sonnets‚ supposedly‚ addressed to his dark mistress. This sonnet is full figurative language and other poetic devices that let the reader know exactly how the poet feels about the emotions and dangers associated with lust. He also uses interesting punctuation choices that create the flow and tone of the poem. As the readers‚ we do not know who this poem is addressed to due to the lack of thou‚ he‚ or she in the poem. It does seem to be describing
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Close Reading In the play‚ Othello‚ by William Shakespeare‚ a character named Iago‚ manipulates people to get what he wants. One character that is manipulated the most by Iago is Othello. The reason why is because Othello made Cassio his lieutenant and there were rumors that Othello has been sleeping around with his wife‚ Emilia. Iago involves Desdemona‚ Othello’s wife‚ in his plan by making it seem that Desdemona and Cassio are having a relationship. Iago convinces Othello about this relationship
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“Sonnet CXXX” is a spoof of the typical love sonnets written by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. It ridicules the senseless depictions that poets gave their lovers whereas in comparison the speaker in “Sonnet CXXX‚” illustrates his mistress with honest comments. These remarks declare her “true” character and show the speaker’s absolute and total adoration for her because of it. As the poem opens‚ in the first quatrain‚ we are introduced to the narrator’s‚ “I”‚ “mistress.” This term however‚ is not
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Shakespeare is expressing‚ though not in the first person‚ that he knows women are not the perfect beauties they are portrayed to be and that we should love them anyway. He uses two types of descriptions‚ one of their physical beauty and the other of their characteristics to make fun of all those romantic’ poets trying to brown nose’ the girls they like. One of the physical attributes‚ in the first quatrain‚ that he mentions is his "mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun‚" meaning she has no
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