Composition Date of the Sonnets
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. These were probably written between 1592 and 1598. During Elizabethan times sonnets were often commissioned by wealthy parties. This means writers were provided with a subject that the person paying them was interested in - this could have been a theme or idea or person. In 1609 Shakespeare's sonnets are said to have been stolen and published by Thomas Thorpe without Shakespeare's permission, however an arrangement was met and the sonnets were published. The sonnets were dedicated to a W. H., whose identity remains a mystery, although William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, is frequently suggested because Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) was also dedicated to him.
Narrative of the Sonnets
The majority of the sonnets (1-126) are addressed to a young man, with whom the poet has an intense interest in. The poet spends the first seventeen sonnets trying to convince the young man to marry and have children; beautiful children that will look just like their father, ensuring his immortality. Many of the remaining sonnets in the young man sequence focus on the power of poetry and pure love to defeat death and "all oblivious enmity" (Sonnet 55). The final sonnets (127-154) are addressed to a promiscuous and scheming woman known to modern readers as the dark lady. Both the poet and his young man have become obsessed with the raven-haired temptress in these sonnets, and the poet's whole being is at odds with his insatiable "sickly appetite" (Sonnet 147). The tone is distressing, with language of sensual feasting, uncontrollable urges, and sinful consumption. Because we know little other than a few facts about his upbringing, education and family life it is difficult to decide how true to Shakespeare's personal feelings the sonnets are. It makes sense to read his poems as a work of fiction rather than looking for real people the poems may have been based on as we have little evidence of who could be who. What will make your understanding clearer is a good understanding of the context they were written in. This means what was happening over the period they were written.
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. These were probably written between 1592 and 1598. During Elizabethan times sonnets were often commissioned by wealthy parties. This means writers were provided with a subject that the person paying them was interested in - this could have been a theme or idea or person. In 1609 Shakespeare's sonnets are said to have been stolen and published by Thomas Thorpe without Shakespeare's permission, however an arrangement was met and the sonnets were published. The sonnets were dedicated to a W. H., whose identity remains a mystery, although William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, is frequently suggested because Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) was also dedicated to him.
Narrative of the Sonnets
The majority of the sonnets (1-126) are addressed to a young man, with whom the poet has an intense interest in. The poet spends the first seventeen sonnets trying to convince the young man to marry and have children; beautiful children that will look just like their father, ensuring his immortality. Many of the remaining sonnets in the young man sequence focus on the power of poetry and pure love to defeat death and "all oblivious enmity" (Sonnet 55). The final sonnets (127-154) are addressed to a promiscuous and scheming woman known to modern readers as the dark lady. Both the poet and his young man have become obsessed with the raven-haired temptress in these sonnets, and the poet's whole being is at odds with his insatiable "sickly appetite" (Sonnet 147). The tone is distressing, with language of sensual feasting, uncontrollable urges, and sinful consumption. Because we know little other than a few facts about his upbringing, education and family life it is difficult to decide how true to Shakespeare's personal feelings the sonnets are. It makes sense to read his poems as a work of fiction rather than looking for real people the poems may have been based on as we have little evidence of who could be who. What will make your understanding clearer is a good understanding of the context they were written in. This means what was happening over the period they were written.
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