Structure and Form

Shakespeare’s sonnets follow the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet form, characterized by the 14 lines of the poem, the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, and iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern with ten syllables per line, alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables in that order. The poem is also divided into three quatrains, made of 4 lines each, and a final rhymed couplet, made of 2 lines. The quatrains introduce themes or problems, and the couplet provides a resolution or commentary. An example comes from Sonnet 23:

As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;

Here, the poet compares himself to an actor who is too nervous to perform well. Shakespeare introduces the theme of inadequacy and self-doubt. The imagery of an actor and a fierce creature sets the tone for the poet’s internal struggle.

So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might.

Here, the poet continues to describe his inability to express his love through words, despite his intense feelings. The second quatrain expands on the poet’s fear of not being able to perform the "ceremony of love's rite" correctly, showing how his overwhelming emotions hinder his expression.

O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense,
More than that tongue that more hath more expressed.

The poet suggests that his written words can express his love more effectively than his speech. In this quatrain, Shakespeare shifts to the idea that his writings (books) serve as the true conveyance of his feelings, acting as silent messengers of his love.

O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

The poet concludes with a plea for his love to understand his true feelings through his written words. The couplet offers a resolution, urging the beloved to read and understand the poet's written expressions of love, highlighting the idea that true understanding comes from interpreting unspoken words.

Major Themes

Shakespeare often explores love and desire in his sonnets, capturing the intense and often contradictory emotions associated with love. The sonnets examine all types of love, from romantic to platonic and realistic to idealized. Shakespeare also often depicts the darker aspects of love, such as in Sonnet 147, where he presents love as a consuming illness as a metaphor for the more obsessive, self-destructive side of desire:

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease.

One of the most common themes in Shakespeare’s sonnets is the interplay between beauty and time. Shakespeare frequently acknowledges the transient nature of beauty, emphasizing that it is subject to the ravages of time. In many sonnets, he presents the inevitability of aging and the consequent loss of physical beauty. This is depicted in Sonnet 12:

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls all silvered o’er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard:
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing ‘gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

In this sonnet, Shakespeare uses the imagery of nature - fading violets, silvered hair, barren trees - to illustrate his point.

Shakespeare presents poetry as an antidote to time, a recurring theme, especially in the Fair Youth sequence (which is explained below). Sonnet 18 is the most famous example of this:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all t... not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Shakespeare also often explores the poet’s own identity. In these sonnets, it is important to distinguish between the speaker and the poet himself, as they may not always be the same person. One example of this is Sonnet 62, where the speaker reflects on his own self-love as a sin and his paradoxical refusal to condemn it, also acknowledging his own narcissism and the illusion of youth:

Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
And all my soul, and all my every part;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded inward in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,
No shape so true, no truth of such account;
And for myself mine own worth do define,
As I all other in all worths surmount.