Summary Drawing on farming imagery, the poet focuses entirely on the young man’s future, with both positive and negative outcomes. However, the starting point for these possible futures is “Now,” when the youth should “form another,” that is, father a child. The sonnet begins with the image of a mirror […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 3Summary and Analysis Sonnet 2
Summary Sonnet 2 continues the argument and plea from Sonnet 1, this time through the imagery of military, winter, and commerce. Time again is the great enemy, besieging the youth’s brow, digging trenches — wrinkles — in his face, and ravaging his good looks. Beauty is conceived of as a […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 2Summary and Analysis Sonnet 1
Summary Shakespeare begins his sonnets by introducing four of his most important themes — immortality, time, procreation, and selfishness — which are interrelated in this first sonnet both thematically and through the use of images associated with business or commerce. The sonnet’s first four lines relate all of these important […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 1About Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets A sonnet is a 14-line poem that rhymes in a particular pattern. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the rhyme pattern is abab cdcd efef gg, with the final couplet used to summarize the previous 12 lines or present a surprise ending. The rhythmic pattern of the sonnets is […]
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