20 Questions: 15 Sonnets by Shakespeare
1. Sonnet 18: The rhyme scheme divides the poem into three quatrains and a couplet, but the
statement of the poem divides differently. What word, in what line, signals the shift in the
statement of the poem?
2. Sonnet 18: Paraphrase the poem in enough detail to show that you understand the literal
meaning of every line.
3. Sonnet 27: Paraphrase the statement of each quatrain in enough detail to show that you
understand the literal meaning of every line.
4. Sonnet 29: As in Sonnet 18 the rhyme scheme divides into three quatrains and a couplet but
the statement of the poem divides rather differently. Describe this division. How is it similar
to but different from the division of Sonnet 18?
5. Sonnet 29: Paraphrase the statement of each quatrain in enough detail to show that you
understand the literal meaning of every line.
6. Sonnet 30 provides yet another variation in how the statement of the poem can be arranged.
Describe the relationships among the three quatrains and compare the division of the
statement here with Sonnets 18 and 29.
7. Sonnet 30: Paraphrase the statement of each quatrain in enough detail to show that you
understand the literal meaning of every line.
8. Sonnet 60: Here each quatrain makes the same statement in a different way. Explain the
imagery that Shakespeare uses in each quatrain to describe the inevitable changes brought by
time.
9. Sonnet 64: Again each of the three quatrains make the same statement in a different way,
and the statement is much the same as in Sonnet 60. However, the imagery is different, and
the attitude expressed in the couplet is different. Explain these differences between Sonnets
60 and 64.
10. Sonnet 64: The first two lines of the third quatrain are similar to the first two quatrains. But
ll. 11-12 are quite different. Describe this difference, and explain the relationship between ll.
11-12 and the first two quatrains.
11. Sonnet 66: Here Shakespeare radically disrupts the usual arrangement of the poem’s
statement in quatrains. Describe the relationship between l. 1 and ll. 2-12; between l. 1 and l.
13; and between l. 1 and l. 14.
12. Sonnet 71: The three quatrains lead us to believe that this is a fairly conventional poem in
which the poet wishes his beloved to have a happy life after he is dead. The couplet, however,
changes tone and leads us to imagine a very different kind of relationship between the poet
and his beloved. Describe this change in tone, explain how it happens, and speculate about
just what sort of relationship the poet and his beloved may have had.
13. Sonnet 73: Each of the three quatrains presents a different image of old age. Explain the
imagery of each quatrain.
14. Sonnet 73: The syntax of ‘thou must leave’ in l. 14 is ambiguous. Does it mean ‘you must
leave’ or ‘must leave you’? Discuss the implications of each reading for the poem as a whole.
15. Sonnet 91: Again we have a contrast between the ideas put forth in the three quatrains and
the idea proposed in the concluding couplet. In the former, love is better than social status,
riches, possessions, etc. But in the couplet, the lover seems suddenly not more fortunate, but
more vulnerable—potentially ‘most wretched’. Great art raises questions. Discuss the
questions raised in this sonnet about the nature of romantic love.
16. Sonnet 116: Discuss the different images used to describe ‘true love’ in each of the three
quatrains. What aspect of love does each of them emphasize?
17. Sonnet 129: Here again the rhyme scheme adheres to the pattern—three quatrains and a
couplet—but the statement of the poem departs radically from it. The poet describes lust and
the guilty feelings that attach to it. The violence of his emotions is reflected in the violence he
does to the usual cadences of the sonnet. Try to describe the arrangement of ideas in ll. 1-12.
What is the effect of repeating the word ‘mad’ in ll. 8-9? How does the tempo vary in ll.
1-12? How does the volume vary?
18. Sonnet 130: Shakespeare is ridiculing other poems of his time in which feminine beauty is
praised in wildly unrealistic terms. Is his sonnet insulting to his beloved, or flattering? What
sort of woman would be insulted to receive this poem? What sort of woman would be
pleased by it? How does the humour in the poem add to its effects?
19. Sonnet 138: Pay attention to the double meanings running through this sonnet: lies, vainly,
simply/simple, habit. How do these double meanings add to the poem’s effects? Imagine a
coffee shop conversation in which you are describing the couple in this sonnet to a friend.
How do you describe them and their relationship?
20. Sonnet 146: Although God is not mentioned this is clearly a Christian meditation on the
struggle between the soul and the body (‘sinful earth’). Paraphrase the statement of each
quatrain in enough detail to show that you understand the literal meaning of every line.
20 Questions: 15 Sonnets by Shakespeare