• In Elizabethan England – the era in which
Shakespeare’s sonnets were written – the
sonnet was the form of choice for lyric
poets particularly to engage with traditional
themes of love and romance.
• A sonnet is a 14-line lyric poem
traditionally written in iambic pentameter –
lines ten syllables long with accents falling
on every second syllable.
The Shakespearean sonnet is divided into 4
parts:
the first 3 parts are each four lines long –
known as quatrains
the fourth part is a couplet.
This type of sonnet is often used to
develop a sequence of metaphors and
ideas, one in each quatrain, while the
couplet offers either a summary or a new
take on the preceding images and ideas.
Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence can be
divided in the following way :
Sonnets 1-126 – in which the poet strikes
up a relationship with a young man – the
Fair Youth
Sonnets 127-154 – which are concerned
with the poet’s relationship with a woman,
his mistress – the Dark Lady
Sonnet 60 is acknowledged as one of
Shakespeare’s greatest because it
- is meditation on mortality
- deals with the universal concerns of time
and its passing
- is the best exemplar of the theme of the
ravages of time
Sonnet LX
by William Shakespeare
Ms.M.Sammut Dimech
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes
hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d ,
Crooked eclipses ‘gainst his glory fight.
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow
Feeds on the rarities of
nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but
for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope
my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.