Sonnet 116 William Shakespeare

(1564-1616) English Renaissance
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, many of which had subtext of homosexual love
Echoes of Plato's symposium; equal lovers
Could be said to have autobiographical tone
The Shakespearean sonnet is divided into four parts
The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains, rhymed ABAB; the fourth part is called the couplet and is rhymed CC.
The Shakespearean sonnet is often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain
While the couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or ideas.
Shakespeare’s use of the sonnet form is richer and more complex than this relatively simple division into parts might imply.
His sequence largely occupied with subverting the traditional themes of love sonnets—the traditional love poems in praise of beauty and worth, for instance, are written to a man, while the love poems to a woman are almost all as…

Get Revising