The Traditional Shakespearian Sonnet
William Shakespeare took the form of the Sonnet to a whole new level during his lifetime by composing an unprecedented 154 sonnets all in the form that he himself popularized. The sonnets he published were not given individual names, but rather numbers and they are usually referred to either by number or the first line of the poem itself. Shakespeare’s sonnets are composed on a variety of topics but most of the time he sticks with those listed on the main page, namely love, nature, and beauty. Often times in Shakespeare’s sonnets he would use the first 2 quatrains to introduce a problem and the final one plus the couplet would either solve it or offer some possible solution. Take for example one of his most famous sonnets, Sonnet 29.
Sonnet 29 
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, (A)
I all alone beweep my outcast state (B)
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries (A)
And look upon myself and curse my fate (B)
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, (C)
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d (D)
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, (C)
With what I most enjoy contented least, (D)
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, (E)
Haply I think on thee, and then my state (B)
Like to the lark at break of day arising (E)
From sullen earth, signs hymns at heaven’s gate (B)
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings (G)
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. (G)
Shakespeare deviates slightly from the traditional sonnet rhyme scheme for some reason in this poem, choosing to repeat the B rhyme in the final quatrain of the poem rather than introduce a new F rhyme, but the sonnet is still written in Iambic Pentameter. Now notice how Shakespeare presents the problem of envy in the 2 quatrains lines. The speaker builds up this issue, going on and on about how he wishes he had an entourage of friends or certain people’s talents for art. He really does not give himself much if any credit up to this point, calling himself a social outcast and saying he despises himself, but notice the final quatrain of this otherwise very depressing poem. Line 9 begins the turn from these self-loathing thoughts and brings the speaker to his final epiphany by the end. He realizes that he has something that not all men get the chance to experience (true love) and he takes solace in this fact. The final line of the poem when the speaker states that he would “scorn to change my state with kings.” is when he finally realizes that he has everything he needs and could not possibly be better off than he is now.
(Back to The Romantics and the Sonnet)
Poem cited from Shakespeare-online.com/sonnets
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