Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Thirty

This sonnet puts down the love that is involved with Shakespeare. It is a classic "AB, AB, CD, CD, EF, EF, GG" rhyme scheme. Instead of praising the love, he constantly is negative toward them. Which at the time was much unlike Shakespeare, who we see always praising this boy's beauty that he writes of. Which leads back to the theory of the "dark woman" being portrayed.

It's almost like a parody to other sonnets in that it is sarcastic, and tells the truth of how the speaker really feels about his love. The speaker is thinking of every beautiful thing, comparing it to his love but in a negative way. Like when it says that he loves to hear her speak, but the sound of music is much more beautiful than the sound of her voice.

In the end, it summarizes in saying that while their lover's love is as rare as heaven, their comparisons to these beautiful things will always stand as false considering how negatively the speaker talks of his love.

Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Twenty Nine

This sonnet contains mainly a negative tone to it. The first twelve sentences in the sonnet are all one sentence phrases. Words like perjured, murd'rous, bloody, hated, hunted, rude, cruel, and blame are used to emphasize how negative the sonnet is in the beginning.

The first half of the poem focuses on how lust is cruel, and how awful it is to not experience love, but experiencing lust for a person. It is believed that this sonnet pertains to Shakespeare's "dark woman" mistress.

Toward the end of the third quatrain however, Shakespeare compares this lust much like joy proposed behind a dream. The couplet concludes this saying that this "heaven" that is lust much leads men to hell.

All in all, Shakespeare says that he knows lust is an awful feeling to have toward someone, but at the same time he cannot resist the lust, and he can accept it.

Shakespeare Sonnet One Hundred Sixteen

This sonnet focuses on the meaning of love. In the first quatrain Shakespeare says that love is not love in other people's minds. That what is called love is not true love in most cases, some people just say love when it isn't true.

Shakespeare compares a lost ship to this sonnet. A ship is strong, and Shakespeare says that it will stand firm even when it's love has been unfaithful. That even if a ship is lost, that love is the star that guides it home on its way.

In the third quatrain, the word "Time" is personified when it says that "Love is not Time's fool," (Shakespeare 8) meaning that even if time runs out, love will not. Love is endless and never changing. Love, even when lost will guide its way back.

The couplet finishes off saying that until it is proven, not all love will be true love, and not all men have loved.

Shakespeare Sonnet Ninety Nine

This sonnet is another one of Shakespeare comparing the speaker to beauty. This sonnet is the only sonnet out of the collection with fifteen lines. That's because the first line in the sonnet Shakespeare more saw as an introductory line rather than part of the first quatrain.

In the first quatrain Shakespeare is accusing an object of stealing something from his love. "Sweet thief," he calls it, saying that their complexion resembles that of the lover's which they have stolen too much from.

The second quatrain reveals that Shakespeare is scolding the flowers. Three flowers in particular, the lily, the rose, and violet. Shakespeare says also that buds of marjoram had stolen the sweet scent of his love's hair.

The third quatrain focuses mainly on the roses, saying that they are the chief thief in this affair. He says that they are white with despair and red with shame from stealing so much beauty. The couplet ends by saying that Shakespeare saw more and more flowers, yet could see none that hadn't stolen beauty from the lover.

Shakespeare Sonnet Eighty Seven

In this sonnet, the speaker is putting down the qualities that they possess as humans. They are saying goodbye to their lover, stating that their lover is too good for them. They continue saying that the worth of their lover is enough for them to leave and let go since they feel that they are unworthy.

They say that even though the connection that they have has potential they just don't see how they are a value to their lover. In the third quatrain the speaker displays that they are not even worth the things that their lover had given them.

The last couplet finishes off by saying that it would be flattering to them self just to have their lover in a dream. And while they're in sleep, they'd feel much like a king having a love like that. But waking up from the lovely dream would just result in them living a normal, loveless life.

Shakespeare Sonnet Fifty Five

In this sonnet, Shakespeare says that the beauty and love of the boy will outshine and outlast anything ever made. The boy will outdo death, war, stone, and other things that are usually unbreakable. He says that no matter what happens, no matter how much time goes by, the memory of the boy will never fade from the minds of those that love him.

And despite death and other events that may occur, the boy will keep moving forward with being praised. Even with all of the terrible things that happen in the world, the boy will keep on living the way he should.

It ends with Shakespeare saying that even on the day the boy will die, he will live forever in the eye's of lovers and in their minds and hearts as well. No matter if the boy is there or not, his presence will always remain in the lives of those who cherish him.

Shakespeare Sonnet Eighteen

This sonnet by Shakespeare contains one of the most recognizable lines in poetry.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate," (Shakespeare 1,2) This sonnet is furthermore stressing how lovely the boy seems to Shakespeare. He is saying that the boy is better than a summer's day, and that he is more tolerable than one since summer can be unbearably hot and too short.

Shakespeare also says that "every fair from fair sometime declines," (Shakespeare 7). What he means here is that all good things must come to an end. Meaning that the boy's beauty will eventually end. The next line says that nature's course will result in untrimmed beauty, such as the things we lose when we're older, like our hair, memories, etc.

The last couplet basically ends with Shakespeare saying that as long as the boy's beauty is living somehow, that he is immortal.

Shakespeare Sonnet Twelve

This sonnet in particular represents the seasons and their aging. It is known as a seasonal sonnet. The first quatrain represents the ticking of a clock. It is telling of how time passes quickly, and day is to life as night is to death.

The second quatrain says that as time passes, leaves will fall off of trees, flowers will get old and wilted, and when these things happen they aren't as beautiful as they once were. So, what the speaker stresses is that while they are young and still have their beauty, they should settle down with children.

The third quatrain and the last couplet specifically focus on time again. Shakespeare is saying that despite time rapidly slipping away, the boy should sometime soon settle down and extend his beauty by having children. He is saying that when time finds him, and wants to take him away, that he'll at least have an offspring to carry on the beauty that he once had possessed himself.

Shakespeare Sonnet Two

Sonnet two has to deal a lot about aging and what it can do to a person's beauty. Again, we are to believe Shakespeare is speaking to Mr. W.H., praising him for his beauty. He goes on saying that "forty winters shall besiege thy brow," (Shakespeare 1) which is comparing the age of the boy to the seasons. Spring is considered to be the new season, young and full of life, summer is still young and fun, autumn is when people go through changes getting older, and winter is cold, old, and almost dead-like. In line two, Shakespeare says "dig deep trenches," which can symbolize the wrinkles upon an older person's face.

So, when Shakespeare stresses that the beauty the boy possesses will not be with him forever, he follows up by saying that if he could pass his beauty onto a child, it would live forever. If this boy got married, and had a child the beauty would be immortal.

Shakespeare Sonnet One

In this sonnet, Shakespeare is encouraging the boy of whom he's directing it toward to reproduce and settle down. What the speaker is saying, is that people want more of beauty, they want to make sure beauty never dies. By this boy that Shakespeare addresses (which is believed to be W.H. a young man of a royal family who hired Shakespeare as the family's poet) having children, beauty will live on.

The line, "Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel," (Shakespeare 8) explains that by him not settling down, not getting married, and not having children, he is cheating himself out of exposing his beauty further. He is trying to stress that it would be an awful waste for him not to have a child. He even goes as far as to say it's downright selfish of him not to have a child.

In a round about way, Shakespeare is complimenting the boy, as well as scolding him for not using his beauty to his advantage.