Shakespeare's sonnets study guide
(adapted from guides by Al Drake and Brian Loftus)
Sonnet 1
1. Who is the speaker addressing and what is his plea? What are the turns in this poem?
2. What are the arguments for procreation here?
3. What images suggest a contrast or alternative to procreation?
4. What are some of the most primary poetic devices? How do they work thematically?
5. In a sense, this poem falls into the genre of seduction sonnet. How is this complicated or ironic here? What conventions does this sonnet share with its genre? How is it different?
Sonnet 12
1. What images are used to illustrate the passage of time?
2. Why is the word “bier” used to describe the carts transporting hay? In what context is it normally used?
3. How is Time's scythe connected with the previous images?
4. What is the only thing that “the lovely boy” can do to escape Time?
Sonnet 18
1. What is the dominant conceit of this sonnet? Does it proceed straightforwardly or is it questioned?
2. If the challenge of poetry is to represent in language, what does this poem say about the possibility of this? Is the final couplet ironized or undercut in any way?
3. To whom is this poem addressed? Can you prove this textually?
Sonnet 19
1. What is the antecedent to the "Him" in line 11 of sonnet 19? If this is the first unambiguous reference to the gender of the sonnet's professed love object, what does this suggest?
2. Why is time paradoxical in this poem as a subject of address? How is it personified, what does it devalue?
Sonnet 20
1. The central paradox of this poem is the oxymoron "Master Mistress. " How many ways can this be read?
2. What do you make of this indeterminacy in light of the determinate "Him" in the previous poem? What about the gender indeterminacy of sonnets 1-18?
3. If indeterminacy, or "shifting change" (line 4) is a primary theme of this sonnet (and the sequence itself) can you explain the various possibilities of line 9 and lines 13-14?
4. With such radical possibility of meaning in this poem, its very theme must deal with language. Can you formulate one?
Sonnet 55
1. This is one of so-called “immortality sonnets”. What images or metaphors are used to illustrate the subject of immortality?
2. The poem alludes to the trope of “exegi monumentum” from Horace's Song III, 30. Look the poem up and compare: in what respects is Shakespeare's sonnet similar or different?
Sonnet 116
1. Line 1 is a paraphrase of the line from the Anglican marriage service (well-known to you at the very least from countless romantic comedies). What kind of impediments could a minister have in mind when uttering these words? Why can't the “marriage of true minds” admit any impediments?
2. Who does the final couplet refer to? The speaker? His lover? Both of them?
Sonnet 129
1. What can you say about the quality of imagery in this sonnet? Does such description constitute a departure from Shakespeare's so-called "sugared style" (i.e. the piling up and development of a series of metaphors, often one per quatrain)? Is so, how?
2. Explain how the rhythmic and descriptive qualities of "Sonnet 129" accord with its theme. (A tip: read the poem out loud.)
3. What is the "heaven" to which the speaker refers in the couplet? Isn't this word rather ironically used? Explain.
Sonnet 130
1. This sonnet takes the conventional form of a blazon, representing the female body fragmented, piece by piece, yet it also subverts this form. How?
2. Is this poem ultimately a deflation or inflation of the woman? Support. This may be a more complicated question than it first appears and I think both options can be supported.
3. What implicit statement or critiques are made about poetry and language as a medium of representation? How are they made?
4. Though this poem seems to avoid explicitly poetic devices--such as simile--through negation, it nevertheless employs figurative language. What do you make of this? Does the form and figure of the poem adequately represent woman or does she escape direct representation and appear only as a figure? Support.
Sonnet 138
1. Explore the double meaning of the verb "to lie" here and map out its various associations throughout the poem.
2. What does line 3 suggest about the quality of the belief asserted in line 2?
3. What does line 8 imply about "truth?"
4. Ultimately, what keeps the "relationship" between the two lovers sound? It might be helpful in answering this question to refer to the final couplet and its ambivalent use of the word, "lie." What does "lie" mean in this poem?
Sonnet 144
1. The sonnet describes a complicated love triangle. How would you describe the relationships between all three participants?
2. What seems to be the Dark Lady's motivation in seducing the beautiful blonde man?