Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 14 | Folger Shakespeare Library (2024)

FAQs

Where can I read Shakespeare's sonnets? ›

Originally Answered: Which Shakespeare sonnets are easiest to recite? You probably know the well-known sonnets - 18, 29, 33, 65, 104, 116, 130, and 138 - better than you think you do; parts of them are probably already in your brain and so they'd be easy to learn fully.

Sonnet 14 As astrologers predict the future from the stars, so the poet reads the future in the “constant stars” of the young man's eyes, where he sees that if the young man breeds a son, truth and beauty will survive; if not, they die when the young man dies.

Shakespeare's sonnets are composed of 14 lines, each written in iambic pentameter and most with the traditional rhyme scheme of the English sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg.

Sonnet 18, 'Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? ', is one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets. It is the first sonnet after the conclusion of the 'Procreation' opening sequence (Sonnets 1–17). See if you can detect the change in tone and subject matter of Sonnet 18 from the previous 17 sonnets.

Hamnet Shakespeare was the only son of William Shakespeare, and a twin to Judith. Hamnet Shakespeare was named after Hamnet Sadler, a friend of the Shakespeare family.

Sonnet 18 is considered by many to be one of the most beautifully written verses in the English language. It has long been prized because Shakespeare was able to capture the spirit of love so simply. The sonnet begins with those immortal words: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Sonnet 145 is probably Shakespeare's most criticized poem – some even doubt it really is Shakespeare's.

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is justifiably considered one of the most beautiful verses in the English language. The sonnet's enduring power comes from Shakespeare's ability to capture the essence of love so clearly and succinctly.

The phrase "three person'd God" is an allusion to the Holy Trinity—Christianity's depiction of God as composed of three different entities: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Here, the speaker's referring to the whole Trinity, begging the Trinity to attack the speaker's heart.

What is the conclusion of the Sonnet 14? ›

Typically, this concluding image is of death, as in Sonnet 14's "Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date." In other words, should the young man die without fathering a son, not only will he suffer from the lack of an heir, but the world, too, will suffer from the youth's selfishness.

Sonnet 14 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, which consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet. It follows the traditional rhyme scheme of the form: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

There were at least five major outbreaks of bubonic plague in London during Shakespeare's lifetime and though these outbreaks didn't reach the devastation of the Black Death, they all had a major impact on the population, particularly in towns and more populated areas.

What is now known as the Shakespearian sonnet is the English sonnet form Shakespeare popularised: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter (a ten-syllable pattern of alternating unaccented and accented syllables). The rhyme scheme breaks the poem into three quatrains (four lines each) and a couplet (two lines).

So, in terms of somebody who is just getting started and wants to learn more about the sonnets, the book you've recommended is Shakespeare's Sonnets, edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones, who is a professor here at the University of Oxford.

The average reader will spend 1 hour and 21 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute).

The play opens with a sonnet spoken by the chorus, the prologue. But the most famous sonnet in the play is in Act 1 Scene 5 when Romeo and Juliet meet, beginning with the line 'If I profane with my unworthiest hand' (Romeo, 1:5).