If asked about the primary characteristic of any sonnet, let alone a Shakespearian one, most people would quickly make the observation that 'a sonnet has fourteen lines'. Here, Dr Paul Edmondson raises fourteen questions about Shakespeare's Sonnets. His answers include recommendations of particular sonnets which you may wish to look at and reflect upon in greater detail.
1) What is a sonnet? The word sonnet comes from the Italian 'sonnetto', meaning 'little sound'. It is an exceptionally disciplined way of conveying thought and feeling; a tiny oblong of a literary canvas in which it is possible to convey a meaningful splinter of reality. As the form, which originated in Italy, developed into English (through the sixteenth century) it gradually became usual to produce fourteen lines, made up of three related quatrains and a rhyming couplet. English poets quickly learned to adapt the rhyme scheme the better to suit their native language, and this ended up as: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, and g-g. Thus the first line rhymes with the third, the second with the fourth, the fifth with the seventh, the sixth with the eighth, and so on. The English sonnet form (often referred to as the Shakespearian sonnet) made it possible for ideas to develop over twelve lines, and for the poet to sign them off with a final flourish with the final couplet, as a conclusion, if not always as a summation. But there are always exceptions to the rules. The great poet and visionary John Donne's book of 'Songs and Sonnets' (published in 1633, but written much earlier) does not contain one fourteen-line poem.
2) Where did the sonnet come from? The Italian Dante Alighieri was the world's first great sonneteer; on 6 April 1327, Francesco Petrarch saw his beloved Laura, and in his love poems to her became the next great practitioner of the form. And it's a form that has proved invaluable to European poets ever since. It is concise; it is flexible; and it has encouraged some of the richest poetic achievements in the English language.
3) How did Shakespeare write sonnets? Most of Shakespeare's sonnets follow the aforementioned format of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, usually offering a turning point (the volta) at line nine (for example: Sonnets 18, 29, 65). In some, this turning point after the octave (the first eight lines) at the beginning of the last six lines (the sestet) is less clearly pointed, giving the impression of three gradually developing quatrains and a couplet (for example: Sonnets 3, 133, 143). In others, Shakespeare has found a way to link more subtly the first two quatrains with each other, and the last quatrain with the couplet, giving a denser impression of octave followed by sestet (for example: Sonnets 108, 111, 121). Sometimes the volta is deferred until the last possible moment (line thirteen), so the impression becomes one of an argument pushed to its limit before a final sense of release. This works especially well in Sonnet 129 (which is all about, as well as offering a vicarious experience of, lust), Sonnet 130 (in which the Petrarchan tradition of the idealized woman is turned on its head), and Sonnet 30 (which is all about loss and sudden reclamation). Shakespeare's couplets do not always do the job we expect them to do. Though many of them offer a summation and a development of the twelve lines we've just read (Sonnet 18, for example), others do not. Sonnets 36 and 96 have the same couplet. Shakespeare here seems to view the couplet as an interchangeable block of meaning.
4) When did he write them? Shakespeare's collection, first printed in 1609, does not represent a chronological ordering. In Colin Burrow's exemplary Oxford edition (2002) he cites the scholarship of Macdonald P. Jackson, from which it is possible to suggest the following rule of thumb. The earliest sonnets are those from Sonnet 127 onwards (1591-5), followed by Sonnets 61-103 (1594-5), then Sonnets 1-60 (1595-6), and finally Sonnets 104-126 (1598 onwards). These chronological slices are far too tidy. Shakespeare revised four of his sonnets (there are alternative versions of Sonnets 2, 106, 138 and 144), and he surely could have revised any number of them up until their publication in 1609. Sonnet 104 hints at a three-year time frame to a particular relationship, but this does not mean that this same time-frame can be superimposed over the entire collection.
5) To whom are they addressed? Critical assumptions have accrued over many years and the phrases 'the young man' and 'the dark lady' are often used to refer to Sonnets 1-126 and 127-154 respectively. This way of reading is unhelpful and leads readers to deduce all sorts of biographically unprovable notions about Shakespeare's life. In Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells' co-authored Shakespeare's Sonnets (Oxford, 2004) a table shows clearly that only twenty of the sonnets are unambiguously addressed to a man and only seven to a woman. Their ages and colours are unknowable. Moreover, how can we confidently assume that the poems are addressed to the same man or the same woman? It is thus that hardened biographical assumptions can be exploded, and the framework of reading is expanded. Sonnet 31 refers to 'the trophies of my lovers gone' which suggests either a fictional or real pluralism on Shakespeare's part. Nor, too, should the poetic 'I' of the sonnets be regarded as the same throughout. These are, after all, the work of a man who spent his life imagining different voices, different perspectives.
6) Why did he write sonnets? The tantalizing reference by Francis Meres in 1598 in which he speaks of Shakespeare's 'sugared sonnets among his private friends' conjures an image of the poems being discreetly circulated in manuscript among several individuals. Perhaps Shakespeare wrote some of them to commission? We cannot be certain.
7) How might the sonnets be related to Shakespeare's other works? Sonnets occur in several of Shakespeare's plays. The lords in Love's Labour's Lost compose sonnets to their ladies; Romeo and Juliet share a sonnet when they first meet; Orlando speaks a truncated sonnet when he's hanging his verses on Arden's trees in As You Like It; the epilogue to Henry V is a sonnet. These few examples show Shakespeare's fascination with the form in a variety of fictional contexts. Perhaps his collection was like a sketchbook for him in which he could try out dramatic perspectives and moods.
8) Are there any anomalies in the collection? Sonnet 99 has fifteen lines (and is about theft), Sonnet 126 has twelve lines and is in rhyming couplets, and Sonnet 145 is in iambic tetrameter (in 1971 Andrew Gurr posited that this was Shakespeare's earliest surviving poem with its pun on Hathaway in the words 'hate away').
9) Can we relate the sonnets to Shakespeare's life? It's tempting to do so, people have long done so, but it's very dangerous to do so. Also, such readings rather limit an appreciation of Shakespeare's creativity, since they make the assumption that Shakespeare had to experience something in order to write about it.
10) Are some more autobiographical than others? Far harder to discern is whether or not some sonnets stand closer to Shakespeare's inner life and feelings than others. Such a notion demands that their language of subjectivity is scrutinized very carefully. Some of them pun on his first name 'Will' (Sonnets 134, 135, 136 and 143), others seem to assume knowledge of a context or even a particular occasion (for example: Sonnets 36, 83, 86, 110 and 125).
11) What are the main concerns of the sonnets? The major themes which stream through the collection include: how to conquer the ravages of time through either procreation (for example: Sonnets 2 and 12), or through writing (for example: Sonnet 63), the inability to sleep because of thoughts about the beloved (for example: Sonnets 27 and 43), celebrating the beloved in the natural world (for example: Sonnets 97-99 and 113), self-abasement on the part of the poet (Sonnet 57, for example, and self-disgust at sex (for example: Sonnets 129 and 147). Sonnet 146 is the only explicitly religious sonnet in the entire collection.
12) How do the sonnets handle sex? Several of the sonnets are exceptionally frank about sex, and these are among those printed later in the collection. 'Will' puns not only on the poet's first name, but also on an interchangeable term for the male and female sexual organs. Sonnet 135 becomes very saucy if read from this perspective. In Sonnet 151 the volta occurs when the poet experiences an erection.
13) What do the sonnets tell us about Shakespeare's own sexuality? Sonnet 20 is the notorious test case, with its talk of 'master-mistress of my passion' and being 'pricked out for women's pleasure.' If this poem is read biographically then Shakespeare seems to be saying that since his male addressee has a prick, he is not for him. Or, as Stephen Orgel has suggested, the 'women's pleasure' the addressee has been 'pricked out' for ('selected for') means that he is able to take pleasure as women do, by having sex with a man. 'Use' in the last line is read as a verb not a noun ('love's' does not have an apostrophe in the 1609 edition), so that this sonnet can emerge as a clever and subtle appreciation of homosexual love. But the fact that one sonnet can be read in two ways tells us nothing about Shakespeare's own sexuality. More importantly, Shakespeare's collection shows rather that he was able to imagine the broad spectrum of human sexuality with all of its tensions, celebrations, regrets, and disappointments.
14) Why read Shakespeare's sonnets? Among the collection are some of the best poems ever written. It's important not to try and read too many at one sitting. It's far better to reflect at leisure upon a single sonnet than to cram half a dozen into fifteen minutes. A sonnet by Shakespeare can last a lifetime. If you were to memorize one, you might find that it worked upon you differently at different times. They can be read silently, quietly to oneself, or whispered into the ear of a loved one. They can be performed on a stage in a variety of tones of voice and achieve surprising dramatic effects. If you are new to Shakespeare's sonnets, you might like to dip into the collection at the following points and try the following to get you started: 17, 29, 53, 81, 98, 116, 138, 144, and 146. We can never exhaust their meanings, and if we think we have, then I promise you that the meaning will change if we were to read the sonnet out to someone we know, or someone we love.
Some suggested books on Shakespeare's Sonnets Colin Burrow, ed., The Complete Sonnets and Poems (Oxford, 2002). This is the only edition available which includes all of Shakespeare's poems, together with a book-length introduction, and a good commentary.
Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, Shakespeare's Sonnets (Oxford, 2004). This is a guide to reading the sonnets and an overview of critical and creative approaches to them.
Other notable editions of the sonnets include: Stephen Booth's (which prints a facsimile of the 1609 edition and offers a full and engrossing commentary), John Kerrigan's Penguin edition (which has an excellent commentary), and Helen Vendler's (which offers lively and micro-cosmically close readings).
All of these books, and more, are available from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Bookshop.
