Shakespeare – Page 3 – Interesting Literature

A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 17: ‘Who will believe’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Sonnet 17 is the last of the ‘Procreation Sonnets’, the series of poems with which the cycle of Sonnets begins, which see William Shakespeare trying to persuade the addressee of the Sonnets, the Fair Youth, to sire an heir. What follows is a brief summary and analysis of Sonnet 17 in terms of its language, meaning, and themes.

Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say ‘This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.’

A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 16: ‘But wherefore do not you’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Sonnet 16 by William Shakespeare continues the argument established in the previous sonnet, about art – and specifically, Shakespeare’s own poems – immortalising the Fair Youth’s beauty. Below is a brief summary and analysis of Sonnet 16.

But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Make war upon this bloody tyrant, Time?
And fortify your self in your decay
With means more blessed than my barren rhyme?
Now stand you on the top of happy hours,
And many maiden gardens, yet unset,
With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers,
Much liker than your painted counterfeit:

A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15: ‘When I consider’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘When I consider every thing that grows’: so begins William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15, another example of the Bard’s ‘Procreation Sonnets’ addressed to the Fair Youth. In this post we offer a brief summary and analysis of Sonnet 15, focusing on the poem’s language, imagery, and overall meaning.

When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;

A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 14: ‘Not from the stars’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 14 is another ‘Procreation Sonnet’, which urges the Fair Youth, the addressee of the early Sonnets, to marry and sire an heir. What follows is a short summary and analysis of Sonnet 14, which takes astrology as its (rejected) trope, and begins with the line ‘Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck’. Let’s go star-gazing with the Bard…

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:

A Short Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 13: ‘O that you were yourself’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 13, beginning ‘O that you were yourself!’, continues the procreation theme established in the previous dozen sonnets. What follows is a short analysis of Sonnet 13 – its language, its meaning, and its imagery.

O that you were your self! but, love, you are
No longer yours, than you your self here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give:
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination; then you were
Yourself again, after yourself’s decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.