Sonnets

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Sonnets

Sonnets are as the dictionary confirms poems with set rhythmic

patterns and Shakespeare's' were no exception. NEARLY ALL

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS ARE WRITTEN IN THE SAME FORM AND HAVE THE SAME

RHYME SCHEME

All his sonnets were 14 lines long and these 14 lines were then broken

down to three quatrains (four line verse) and one Couplet (two line

verse). Within each verse there was a set rhythm and the rhythm that

Shakespeare used was known as an iambic pentameter. EACH LINE is HAS

10 syllables. EACH line and divided into 5 'feet' EACH ONE OF TWO

SYLLABLES. Each foot is known as an 'iamb'. I have chosen to look at

Shakespeare's sonnets Nos. 18 and 130.

In the first quatrain in sonnet 18 Shakespeare compares his love to a

summer's day. He is saying that the one he loves is "more lovely and

more temperate…". Shakespeare goes on to say that beauty sometimes

declines due to chance or "nature's course untrimmed" and that

beautiful things do lose beauty. However in the third quatrain he

claims that his love will never lose the beauty by saying "But thy

eternal summer shall not fade…". The poem is concluded by "…So long

lives this, and this gives life to thee" which means that as long as

the poem is read people will know how beautiful his love was and this

keeps the beauty from fading or being less beautiful.

In sonnet 130, in the first quatrain Shakespeare talks about her eyes

being "nothing like the sun" and coral being "far more red" than her

lips. He continues in the same vain throughout quatrains two and

three, claiming that the breath form his mistress "reeks" and that he

doesn't see roses in her cheeks. The last verse, the couplet, takes a

turn however and Shakespeare explains his love that she doesn't need

false comparisons she is beautiful to him "…As any she belied with

false compare."

In both sonnets Shakespeare makes references to beauty, whether

comparing to a summer's day or talking about appearances of her cheeks

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