Shakespeare's Sonnets - William Shakespeare

William “fucking” Shakespeare. Read the 154 sonnets that were together in the 1609 quarto. I'm out of practice reading poetry. Pretty much all I did to get my degree. But you use it or lose it, I guess. Still. Turns out this Shakespeare character is pretty good at writing. 

A little background here. The collection is regarded as an extension of the sonnet legacy that emerged during the Renaissance period from Petrarch in 14th-century Italy. The form was introduced to 16th-century England by one Thomas Wyatt and then given its rhyming meter and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. 

Although adhering to the stylistic form, Shakespeare's sonnets deviate significantly in content. These departures appear to be a rebellion against the well-established traditions that had lasted for two centuries. Unlike the works of Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney, which expressed worshipful love for an unobtainable female love object, Shakespeare's sonnets introduce a young man and the Dark Lady. 

The sonnets encompass various subjects, including the progression of time, love, unfaithfulness, envy, attractiveness, and death. Bucking tradition, he delves into themes such as lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony. 

Three characters emerge throughout. They are generally referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady. The first 126 sonnets are directed toward a young man, while the final 28 allude to or directly address a woman. The speaker adores the Fair Youth's beauty and, if one reads the sonnets as published chronologically, has an affair with the Dark Lady before the Fair Youth does. Scandalous However, it is unclear if the characters and poems are fictitious or autobiographical. Scholars who support the autobiographical interpretation have attempted to link the characters to historical persons. Gonna ignore all that here though. 

The ones that jumped out to me are 18, 71-74, 94, 106, 144, and 146. 18 is the one that starts out “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” This is undeniably the most well-known and probably the most popular lyric poem in the English language. Up there with “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” as the most famous of Shakespeare's lines. It's straightforward adoration of his dude who has his enduring place in literary history thanks to “The Bard.” This was what Shakespeare was setting out to do with this piece as the first 17 sonnets urge the guy to procreate. In this one, Shakespeare concludes that the young man's beauty, his "eternal summer", could be preserved for “generations” through his poetry, rather than through some dumb kid. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see," the sonnet will live on, granting everlasting life. Pretty cool. 

Really like Shakespeare's moodier sonnets, like the connected group of 71-74. The sequence shows the poet's fear of death and his desire to leave a lasting legacy that will keep the youth's memory alive. The tone grows increasingly mournful as he confronts his own mortality, as a good poet does. Sonnets 71 and 72 see him urging the young man not to mourn or even praise him after his death, expressing concern for the youth's reputation and self-denial. In Sonnet 73, he uses metaphors of autumn leaves, twilight, and dying embers to reflect on his approaching death. Still, he desires the young man's love, of course. Sonnet 74 marks a significant shift as the poet asserts the worth of his poetry, claiming it will serve as a memorial because it contains images of the youth's soul. More of that everlasting life stuff. 

Skipping way ahead here to Sonnet 144. Here the poet departs from his usual focus on either the Dark Lady or the young man and instead analyzes their relationship with some detachment. This is in the form of the old devil, the Dark Lady, on one shoulder, and the angel, the youth, on the other. However, his cynical and mocking tone suggests that he is tormented by uncertainty about the situation. The sonnet follows a familiar pattern of setting up an antithesis between the two lovers, with the young man representing selfless love and the Dark Lady representing shameful lust. Oh, for shame. Symbolically, they represent the poet's inner conflict between these two types of love. However, the poet is now merely a spectator and fears that the young man may be tempted by the Dark Lady. The uncertain outcome of their relationship is the only certainty for the poet, who ends the sonnet with the ominous phrase "until my bad angel fire my good one out," leaving the true meaning open to interpretation. This is my favorite poem of the bunch. Sonnet 146, is a close second though. 

In 146, the poet contemplates why his soul spends so much time pursuing earthly desires instead of striving for immortality. The woman he desires is symbolized by the "fading mansion," which contrasts with the promise of eternal life in Psalm 23. The poet urges his soul to learn from the rejection of the body by the woman and to focus on earning salvation instead. He emphasizes that the soul should prepare for death and ensure its immortality. In the final couplet, the metaphor of “Devouring Time” suggests the urgency of this preparation, as the soul becomes eternal once it secures its immortality.

By the by, dude does a pretty good job of making the most of his time. I took four fucking classes on in him college, for example. People devote their whole lives to studying his work. Shit, I think about the guy every day. Some shit that hits home is when questions why his soul wastes its time on temporary pleasures when life on earth is so short. This is some shit I ask myself every fucking day.