UNDERSTANDING THE ESSENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1st, 18th, 116th , AND 127th SONNETS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Year 2019, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 30 - 37, 27.11.2019

Halilcan Koçak

Abstract

One
of the most prominent poem sequences of all times, sonnets of William Shakespeare
show us that poetry can be a great way to express feelings from diverse aspects
and points of focus that range from frustration to lust. We can find a physical
aspect of love and spiritual side of it while reading the sonnets. Shakespeare
used more than one character in his sonnets to make the sequence more
comprehensive and piquant. Through four characters, the sonnets capture the
attention and curiosity of readers. In this paper, the 1^st, 18^th,
116^th and 127^th sonnets of Shakespeare will be analyzed
and interpreted from the aspect of meaning, theme, and structure in order to comprehend
the essence of the sequence better. These four sonnets are selected and
analyzed on purpose; they are the four pillars of the sonnets through which the
flow of the whole sequence is changed. There are 154 sonnets in the sequence. As
a whole, sonnets tell us a love journey between four characters: a speaker, a
blonde young man, a dark lady, and a rival speaker. Even though love is the
main foci in the sequence, other sentiments that foster love will be elaborated
in this paper. 

Keywords

Poetry, William Shakespeare, Sonnet

References

• BURROW C. (2002), The Complete Sonnets and Poems, Oxford University Press
• BENNETH K, (2007) Threading Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Kenneth C. Bennett Illust.
• HUGHES S. (2000) New Light on the Dark Lady, Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, 36.3 Fall; 1, pp. 8-15
• Merriam Webster Dictionary retrieved from:https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/writ%20of%20error 27.09.2019
• PROSER, M. (1971). Shakespeare of the Sonnets. Critical Survey, 5(3), 243-254. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41553884
• Roessner, J. (1982). The Coherence and the Context of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 81(3), 331-346. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27709024