Lessons 18 and 19: Of the Fair Youth and the Dark Lady
Lesson Objectives:
 Establish social, cultural, and historical contexts for the study of Shakespeare’s sonnets
and drama.
 Introduce the Shakespearean sonnet sequence, including those sonnets dedicated to the
Fair Youth (1-126) and the Dark Lady (127-152).
 Examine in closer detail Shakespearean sonnets 18, 73, 130, and 144.
 Introduce elements of drama – to be discussed more fully in Lesson 21.
Handouts: Identify handouts sent to cadet email accounts/posted on course website:
 Poetry Supplemental Handouts
 An Introduction to Drama - Handout
Pedagogical Intent: This lesson expands cadet understanding of the sonnet tradition by
introducing Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence and focusing more closely upon two sonnets each to
the Fair Youth (18, 73) and the Dark Lady (130, 144). We will examine Sonnets 18 and 130 in
class; cadets will read Sonnets 73 and 144 for appreciation and, if time allows, contextualization
in class discussion. Our discussion of the sonnets complete, we will shift our attentions to
establishing a foundation for our study of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
Scheme of Maneuver:
 Sonnet sequence: A collection of sonnets linked thematically though written over time. Each
sonnet can be read individually, though an understanding of the sequence as a whole leads to
a more comprehensive understanding.
o Sonnet sequences were popular throughout the Renaissance; first popularized by
Petrarch.
o Notable sequences: Edmund Spenser, Amoretti; Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and
Stella, Shakespeare’s sonnet sequences; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from
the Portuguese.
 Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets.
o Format:
 Almost all have 3 quatrains and a concluding couplet.
 Iambic pentameter
 Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
 Volta (or turn) marks an epiphany, revelation, shift in tone or moves to
resolve the issue at hand.
 In Petrarchan sonnets – usually at the 9th line.
 In many of Shakespeare’s sonnets, comes in the couplet – and
either summarizes or provides another perspective on the poem’s
theme.
 Exceptions:
 Sonnet 99 has 15 lines.
 Sonnet 126 has six couplets (12 lines) and two bracketed blank
lines. ( ) Some scholars believe these lines have been lost.
 Sonnet 145 is written in iambic tetrameter.

 Sonnet 29 modifies the “traditional” rhyme scheme.
o Common themes:
 Love:
 Beauty
 Sex
 Also delves into politics, gender roles, and the human condition.
o Sonnets 1-126: To the Fair Youth:
 1-17 – Procreation sonnets
 78-86 – Sometimes referred to as the Rival Poet sequence
 References a rival poet competing for the Fair Youth’s affection.
 Some scholars believe the rival poet is Christopher Marlowe.
Others suggest George Chapman. There is no definitive evidence
in support of any specific person, however.
 The identity of the Fair Youth has preoccupied scholars for
centuries – to no avail. There are various theories, from William
Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, to Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of
Southampton, to others.
 Primarily espouse spiritual, romantic, platonic, and/or courtly love.
Some critics find more intimate/erotic undertones, however.
o Sonnets 127-152: To the Dark Lady:
 More overtly sexual than the Fair Youth sonnets.
 As with the Fair Youth, scholars have speculated about the Dark Lady’s
identity.
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
o Themes:
 Man’s mortality vs. poetic immortality
 Contrasts fleeting vs. lasting “beauty”
o What “happens” in the poem:
 First Quatrain:
 1-2: Establish the first comparison, between the Fair Youth and a
beautiful summer’s day – w/ the Fair Youth “winning” the
comparison.
 3-4: Besides, there are bad storms in the summer – and the season
does not last long enough, anyway.
 Second Quatrain:
 5-6: Sometimes the sun is too hot or it is too cloudy
 7-8: Sometimes the natural world loses its beauty.
 Third Quatrain:
 9-10: But the Fair Youth’s beauty will never fade
 11-12: The Fair Youth will not die. In fact, his “beauty” will only
grow.
 Couplet:
 13-14: As long as man can read, the sonnet will stand as a
testament to the Fair Youth’s beauty, thus ensuring the Youth’s
immortality.
o Hyperbole:



The use of gross exaggeration for effect.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:” (l.1-2). Then proceeds to list how nature itself is far from
“perfect” – unlike the Fair Youth.
 The Fair Youth is beyond compare even to the most beautiful
bounties of nature….and deserving of immortality.
o Personification:
 Endowing inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate
characteristics or qualities.
 Of the sun:
 “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, / And often is his
gold complexion dimmed;” (l. 6)
 Of death:
 “Nor shall death brag though wand’rest in his shade” (l.11)
o Anaphora:
 Repetition in which the same expression, word, or words repeat at the
beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.
 “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this
gives life to thee.” (l. 13-14).
o Chiasmus: inverted word order in phrase: a rhetorical construction in which the
order of the words in the second of two paired phrases is the reverse of the order
in the first.
 “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” (l.14)
 Note the a b b a  lives – this / this – life
 Repetition within the poem leads to, almost foreshadows, the chiasmus in
line 14.
Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.
o Shakespeare plays with standard/traditional ideas / tropes about beauty usually
found in sonnets about courtly love. Here the speaker sees his mistress as she
“really” is…yet still loves her very much.
 Read aloud, Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (NAP
168) and the “second song” from C. Day Lewis’s “Two Songs” (lines 1732) (NAP 926).
o Shakespeare plays with metaphor throughout this sonnet to create a decidedly
unflattering “image” of his mistress.
 Eyes – Sun – lover’s eyes are not bright and shiny….
 Lips – Coral – lips are rather pale…
 Breasts - Snow– which are actually dirty…and gray….
 Hair - Wires –Not “golden wires” favored by Spenser.
 “Wires” in and of itself is not derogatory; here “wires” means like
“jewelry” – the negative connotation comes from the fact that her
hair is black, not golden brown.
 Cheeks – Roses – her cheeks are decidedly NOT rosy and are pocked with
scars
o His mistress’ breath stinks, her voice grates, and she walks like a beast rather than
a goddess.

o The poem’s metaphors are clearly hyperbolic. These metaphors, by comparison,
allow Shakespeare to criticize more traditional conceits of beauty.
o Poem lacks allusions (unlike traditional Petrarchan sonnets)
o Ultimately, though, the sonnet, like the more traditional sonnets by Sidney,
Spenser, Petrarch, et al., conforms to the traditional theme of all-consuming love.
Note the recurring metaphor of the sun in both Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 – and how
Shakespeare uses the metaphor differently in each.
o Recurring metaphors, themes, images, etc. reinforce the connections between the
individual sonnets in a sonnet sequence.
Looking Ahead:
 Lesson 19 – Of the Fair Youth & the Dark Lady II
o “Shakesepare’s World,” (TNS 2-30)
o “Shakespeare’s Life and Art” (TNS 42-66).
o “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (NAP 171).
o “That time of year thou mayst in me behold” (NAP 173)
o “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (NAP 177).
o “Two loves I have, of comfort and despair” (NAP 178).
 Lesson 20 – Dramatic Performance Workshop
o “The Dream of the Master Text” (TNS 67-78).
o “The Shakespearean Stage” (TNS 79-99).