What is love? Compare and contrast Shakespeare's presentation of it's paradox in sonnets 116 and 147.

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Sonnet Coursework

Task:-        What is love? Compare and contrast Shakespeare’s presentation of it’s paradox in sonnets 116 and 147.

Shakespeare was born in 1564 on the 23rd of April the same date he died 52 years later. But it was only in 1590’s when he started to write sonnets. He mainly wrote them during the plague as all the theatres were closed. (1592)

        Sonnets are lyrical poems of 14 lines with a formal rhyme scheme, expressing different aspects of a single thought, mood, or feeling, resolved or summed up in the last lines of the poem. Sonnets are generally composed in the standard metre of the language in which they are written – in English this is iambic pentameter. The there are two main forms of sonnet but these two (sonnet 116 and 147) are both written in Shakespearean form of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Shakespeare’s sonnets unlike the Italian (petrarchan) form are not structured as an octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines) but as 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet. Yet the first 8 lines of Shakespeare’s sonnets still introduce the argument and the final lines conclude it. Within each quatrain lines 1 and 3 would rhyme as would lines 2 and 4, this continued for all 3 quatrains and the final two lines would rhyme. This gives a total of the 14 lines.

        Sonnets were originally written to show allegiance to a monarch, woman, or a poetic predecessor in the Renaissance. Sonnets are defined as closely argued definitions of human emotions. Shakespeare offers an effective, unifying climax to the whole by finishing with a rhyming couplet. They contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story, as said by Fiona Shaw in “Great Britain’s”. The sonnets were first shown to his friends. They were published in 1609 and were dedicated to Mr WH. who is still a mystery man. All together Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. The first 127 were written to a young man and the last 27 concern a woman who has become to be known as the dark lady. Some of his sonnets mention and explore a three way love triangle, but sonnets must not be read as autobiographical.

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        Shakespeare was the third of eight children and was the eldest son, he was well educated at Stratford grammar and was a member of Lord Chamberlain’s company which later became the “King’s men”, William was also an actor and a share holder in the company. In the 1580’s he is said to have served as a tutor in the household of Alexander Houghton, a prominent Lancashire catholic and friend of the Stratford schoolmaster John Cottom. I found this out when researching more into his life on the internet. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in 1582 with whom he had three children ...

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