Sonnet Analysis: William Shakespeare

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:59 am

I recently wrote an analysis essay about this poem for my AP English class (which I got a 100 on!

), and I noticed something very special <i>inside</i> the poem.

I challenge anybody to bring it to light.
*hint irregular anything?

(i spaced the couplet because i couldnt indent it)

Sonnet XXVIII (William Shakespeare)
How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarr'd the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eased by night,
But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd?
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me;
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please them thou art bright
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.

But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer
And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:33 pm

ok, I give. dazzle me with your AP English best!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:12 pm

Dah Bard Debarr'd......booyakasha!

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:47 pm

Hint: rhyme scheme?

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 5:23 am

Hmmm...well, there's a pretty evenly spaced out amount of masculine and feminine endings (I think), but the couplet has feminine endings which is very unusual.

I love the kinky Dark Lady sonnets.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:49 am

I thought feminine endings had an "e"...but maybe I am thinking of French and it is totally not applicable to English.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:21 am

Well, it has nothing to do with feminine endings.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:58 pm

Come on then....impress us.....

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:54 pm

ABAB
CDCD
AEAE

FF

That's not irregular.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 7:02 pm

noiseradio wrote:ABAB
CDCD
AEAE

FF

That's not irregular.

It's uncommon for sonnets during the Renaissance- and to any other Shakespearean sonnet. I've never come across another one with this scheme, and I own a book of his complete sonnets.

I have learned that everything is intentional when it comes to sonnets during this time period, especially by Williams Shakespeare- and this rhyme scheme 'blurp' is made to emphasize the point of the sonnet (or to "summarize" it, actually).

I actually picked this sonnet out of the book sort of randomly. I needed to analyze a sonnet for class, and this one caught my eye as I was skimming the pages. When I noticed this rhyme scheme, I immediately knew there was a reason for this. Upon taking a closer look at the "A's" in the scheme, I noticed a mini-poem inside of the sonnet- which effectively strengthened the speaker's utter pain in only four lines:

A - "How can I then return in happy plight,"
A - "When day's oppression is not eased by night?"
A - "I tell the day, to please him, thou art bright,"
A - "So flatter I the swart-compevion'd night."

My teacher loved my essay, and it is the only essay in recent memory that I was proud of. I've had a couple of 80's and 85's since, but this was my big one that's going to stay on the refridgerator.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 7:45 pm

Actually, Sonnet 20 has basically the same rhyme scheme:

A woman's face with nature's own hand painted (A)
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; (B)
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted (A)
With shifting change, as is false woman's fashion; (B)
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, (C)
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; (D)
A man in hue all hues in his controlling, (C)
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. (D)
And for a woman wert thou first created; (A)
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting, (E)
And by addition me of thee defeated, (A)
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. (E)
But since she prick'd thee out for woman's pleasure, (F)
Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure. (F)

I wouldn't go so far as to say this form is irregular, either for Shakespeare or for Renaissance sonnets. It's more or less ABAB for twelve lines and a rhyming couplet. The fact that one end rhyme is used more than twice is not necessarily remarkable. There's no rule which says that a sonnet's 14 lines must be composed of 7 distinct end sounds.

But the internal poem is still interesting. It may well have been on purpose, but it could also be a happy accident. I'm glad your teacher liked your essay.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 7:51 pm

See also Sonnet 44:

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, (A)
Injurious distance should not stop my way; (B)
For then despite of space I would be brought, (A)
From limits far remote where thou dost stay. (B)
No matter then although my foot did stand (C)
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee; (D)
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land (C)
As soon as think the place where he would be. (D)
But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought, (A)
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone, (E)
But that so much of earth and water wrought (A)
I must attend time's leisure with my moan, (E)
Receiving nought by elements so slow (F)
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe. (F)

I think this rhyme sceme is actually pretty darn regular.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 7:54 pm

Not to mention Sonnet 66:

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Same rhyme scheme.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 7:57 pm

Then there's Sonnet 87

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,
Or me, to whom thou gavest it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:03 pm

In sonnet 135, he uses not only the same rhyme scheme, but the same exact words in inverse order:

Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus;
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus.
Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea all water, yet receives rain still
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in 'Will,' add to thy 'Will'
One will of mine, to make thy large 'Will' more.
Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill;
Think all but one, and me in that one 'Will.'

Even the couplet!

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:07 pm

The only one of Shakespeare's sonnets that is really odd is Sonnet 126:

O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.

Not only is the rhyme sceme not ABAB (which it is for all his others), but there are only 12 lines.

See, lots of people have books of Shakespeare's sonnets. Some of us have even read them all.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:12 pm

Aw, I didn't notice any of those!
Thanks for bringing them to my attention- I guess I picked the right one?

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:17 pm

Yaeh, especially since the "internal poem" concept doesn't work as well in the others. If you take all the "A" lines and put them together for each sonnet that has this rhyme scheme, you don't always get a cogent thought. By itself, that's no big deal; it doesn't mean that Sonnet 28's "internal poem" was an accident. But it makes it harder to say that there are no accidents in Shakespeare's sonnets. It looks pretty likely that he didn't always intend the repetition of a particular rhyme to be any indication at all of a hidden message. Again, Sonnet 28 might be an exception, or it might just be luck.

It was at least lucky for you that your teacher didn't look at the others.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 7:06 pm

My friend Billy, (A)
Had a ten foot Willy, (A)
He showed it to the girl next door, (B)
She thought it was a snake, (C)
So she hit it with a rake, (C)
And now it's only four foot four. (B)

\

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 1:46 pm

laughingcrow wrote:My friend Billy, (A)
Had a ten foot Willy, (A)
He showed it to the girl next door, (B)
She thought it was a snake, (C)
So she hit it with a rake, (C)
And now it's only four foot four. (B)

\

Donne, right?

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:44 am

un-Donne

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 11:08 am

John Donne!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:27 pm

Well Donne!

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:27 pm

I think we're donne with this joke.

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:29 pm

Noise Radio (and WHAR), there is one other sonnet (not by Donne) which I've always found unusual among Will's sonnets:

Sonnet 145

Those lips that Love's own hand did make,
breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate',
to me that languish'd for her sake:
but when she saw my woeful state,
straight in her heart did mercy come,
chiding that tongue that ever sweet
was used in giving gentle doom;
and taught it thus anew to greet;
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
that follow'd it as gentle day,
doth follow night, who like a fiend
from heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' for hate away she threw,
and saved my life, saying 'not you'

This one is written in tetrameter or in eight syllable verse. All the others are the usual iambic pentameter with ten syllable lines. It also seems to be the only one where he addresses his wife ("hate away" is believed to be a pun on his wife's name, Anne Hathaway), rather than the young man or the dark lady. Speaking of Will, I've been reading a book about him which I recommend: "Will in the World" by Stephen Greenblatt. Didn't EC use that in "Peace in our Time"?