By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Sonnet 20 by William Shakespeare is one of the more famous early poems, after Sonnet 18. Its opening line, ‘A woman’s face, with Nature’s own hand painted’, immediately establishes the sonnet’s theme: Shakespeare is discussing the effeminate beauty of the Fair Youth, the male addressee of these early sonnets.
Here is a brief summary and analysis of Sonnet 20 in terms of its language and meaning.