Shakespeare's Sonnets were published in 1609 and consist of 154 poems mostly written between 1593-1599. The sonnet form was introduced in England during the reign of Henry VIII based on the Italian model of Petrarch which uses a rhyme scheme of abba abba cdc cdc. Shakespeare adapted the form to have a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg with three quatrains followed by a couplet. The sonnets address themes of love, time, and explore relationships between the fair youth, dark lady, and a rival poet whose identities remain uncertain.

1. SHAKESPEARE’S
SONNETS

2. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
•It is a fourteen-line poem which may be variously rhymed.
•It was introduced in England by a group of Court poets during
the reign of Henry VIII.
•Petrarch was considered a model by sonnet writers.
•Love sonnets were collected in sonnet sequences.
•Astrophil and Stella (1591) started the vogue.
THE SONNET

3. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
•Surrey translated many Petrarchan sonnets.
•His great innovation was to change the structure of the Italian
sonnet:
Italian sonnet English sonnet
1st quatrain abba 1st quatrain abab
2nd quatrain abba 2nd quatrain cdcd
1st tercet cdc 3rd quatrain efef
2nd tercet cdc couplet gg
•The English sonnet is composed by three quatrains
and a final couplet.
.
PETRARCH VS SURREY

4. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
•They were published in 1609.
•They are 154 in total.
•Most of the sonnets were written
between 1593 and 1599.
•Possibly they were written to the
Earl of Southampton.
•Each sonnet is composed by three
quatrains and a final couplet.
•The rhyme scheme is
abab cdcd efef gg.
SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

5. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
•Their identity is uncertain.
•Fair youth: his role in the sequence is
fundamental.
•Dark lady: a flesh-and-blood woman.
•Rival poet: a disturbing factor
in the poet’s affection for the fair youth.
THE CHARACTERS

6. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
Love
•A variety of feelings.
•Old motifs come to new life.
•The marriage sequence.
•It is seen as both spiritual and physical.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
(Sonnet 116)
THE THEMES (1)

7. SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
Time
•It is the arch-enemy of all mankind.
•It destroys all the beauty and goodness in the
world.
•The poet suggests two ways of opposing Time:
procreation and poetry.
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 too short a date
(Sonnet 18)
THE THEMES (2)