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| William Shakespeare [1564-1616] |
Introduction
The sonnet is a kind of lyric. It deals with world within the world. Human mind is that world which is deeper and more mysterious than the objective reality. The great object of a sonnet, seems to be expressed in musical numbers, with undivided breath, some occasional thought and personal feelings. In Shakespeare's hand the sonnet did not become a trumpet as it did in the case of Milton. Shakespeare passionately recorded his love in the sonnets addressed to his male friend. In the sonnets addressed to the Dark Lady, the poet expresses his feeling of disgust-- his lust for the lady. According to the Romantic critics, it is in these minor pieces of Shakespeare that we are first introduced to the personal knowledge of a great poet and his feelings.
Sonnets Addressed to the Male Friend
Actually, Shakespeare unlocked his heart in his sonnets. In the intensity of passion and sincerity of feeling we can hear the warm heartbeats of the poet. In the sonnets addressed to his male friend, Shakespeare is warm, sensitive, vital, radiant with delight and thrilled with pain. Such sincerity of feeling cannot be expressed unless one experiences it. For example, in the sonnet 18, the poet compares his friend's beauty with the beauty of the English summer and finds his friend's beauty superior to that of summer. In this transient world he wants to eternalize his love. In the sonnet 64 the poet is sincere and passionate at the thought of the end of his life. He trembles to think--
"That Time will come and take my love away."
This suggests that the sonnets of Shakespeare are not mere literary exercises. Here Shakespeare deliberately laid bare his soul.
Conflict between Time and Love
In some of the sonnets, the poet's intense feeling of love leads to his speculation on the conflict between time and love. The poet speaks of the inevitable progress of death, decay and destruction, but he declares the triumph of love over the ravages of time. For example, in the sonnet 65, the poet speaks of the invincible power of time, but he is enlivened with his expectation of the enduring power of his verse to preserve his love and protect this from time. He states hopefully--
"That in black ink my love may still shine bright."
Note of Melancholy
Obviously, the sonnets are dominated by a note of melancholy, but they end with a note of consolation and delight. Again, we may cite the example of sonnet 65 in which the despondent feeling is aggravated further by the poet's fearful realization that there is no power or force to resist the cruel blow of time or stop its swift march. A melancholy mood, thus, runs all through this sonnet. The poet's admission in the third quatrain is deeply moving and bears out the helpless human submission to cruel, unsparing time--
Shall time’s best jewel from time’s chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?"
"That in black ink my love may still shine bright."
Sonnets Addressed to the Dark Lady
In his sonnet 144 Shakespeare says--
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The Dark Lady is the 'despair' and the 'worser spirit' of Shakespeare’s life. In the sonnets addressed to the Fair Youth, there is a strain of genuine passion. In the sonnets addressed to the Dark Lady, the passion is unmistakable, but scathing satire-- governs the whole course. The poet is ashamed of his lust for the lady. The lady is black in body as well as in her deeds. She does not love him, but her attraction is irresistible. She is a hypocrite, but the poet dotes upon her.
The sonnet 137 & 138 addressed to the Dark Lady suggest a short of relationship based on lust or on seeming trust.
Use of Imagery
Shakespearean sonnets are rich with the use of vivid and sensuous images which help the readers to recreate the poet's feelings. For example, in the sonnet 73, we come across so many vivid images. The poet's assumption of old age is suggested by the image of late autumn or early winter. His age is vividly presented with the images of 'yellow leaves', 'boughs' which 'shake against the cold', 'bare ruin'd choirs' and 'twilight'. Death is suggested by 'sunset' and 'black night'. The terrors of death are tempered by its comparison with sleep, and more especially a sleep that 'seals up all in rest'. The fire of life was once brilliant, but now it has got dimmed. The poet's youth has turned into ashes. The ashes now serve to extinguish the very flame that, when those ashes were wood, they fed. What is implied, of course, is that the vigour and liberties of youth are precisely what serve to bring men by the excess of youthful folly and energy to their death.
Structure
The structure of the Shakespearean sonnets shows structural symmetry as well as balance. For example, in the sonnet 65, The first two quatrains are illustrative of the cruel and invincible power of time. This leads to the poet's fearful meditation in the third quatrain. He muses sadly on the utter human helplessness to 'hold back' the 'swift foot' of time, or to 'forbid' its 'spoil of beauty'. The concluding couplet contains the poet's consolatory conclusion of the 'miracle' of his art to make his love 'still shine bright'. As in other sonnets, this sonnet has seven rhymes arranged in three quatrains and a concluding couplet, as shown below--
abab cdcd efef gg
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