Understanding Sonnets
He has wonderful characters and most people know the names of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Lear and sometimes even Puck, Oberon, and Titania. Of course one knows by now that the mentioned author is the one and only William Shakespeare. Many are taught in high school to appreciate his plays and how to understand them. Many high schoolers, and adults for that matter, never touch on the sonnets he has written. These sonnets are so tightly packed and full of meaning, though, that they may be Shakespeare’s work most worthy of praise.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” He begins sonnet 18 like this and so continues in an eloquence that will never be matched. The sonnets can be deciphered in many ways depending on the one who reads them, but no matter who reads them it is agreed that they are the work of a genius.
Whether writing to a woman or a man, as it is often argued, he writes with a beauty that inspires not only one’s brain, but their heart as well. He treats them both gently and like royalty. He has wonderfully creative rhyming ability and uses descriptions that are goose-bump material. He has entertained many long after his death with poetry and plays, comedies and tragedies, and he is taught to all school children at some point in their education.
A helpless romantic, he has left his work behind for many a young lover to use in their plight of wooing. Following is a personal understanding of just a few personal favorite sonnets.
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decrease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by grave and thee.
This is the first sonnet. It seems written to a man. Shakespeare points out that he is a good-looking man but implies that this man is not interested in marriage or reproduction. It may mean that the man is in love with himself or just keeps himself from others.
“From fairest creatures we desire increase…His tender heir might bear his memory;” Here Shakespeare is saying that the man he is speaking to is fair and beautiful. He is saying that beautiful people need to increase or reproduce so that beauty will not die out in this world.
“But thou, contracted to thine own eyes ……….Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.” By saying that he is “contracted”, Shakespeare is saying that this man is betrothed or drawn to his own eyes or looks. By “feeding his lights flame…”He feeds his need for love with himself. Shakespeare implies that the man has quite a bit to offer, and yet he with holds it all and keeps it to himself causing a “famine” of something that others could be hungrily enjoying. Shakespeare tries to explain that by keeping to himself the man has become his own foe and is cruel to himself for not enjoying others.
“Thou that art the world’s fresh ornament….And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.” In this description Shakespeare is saying that the man is the world’s young and good looking specimen and that he is a messenger of spring. He goes on to say that he wastes and hoards his marital and paternal potential.
“Pity the world…By the grave and thee.” This seems to be the hardest part of this sonnet to decipher. It appears to mean, though, that Shakespeare, glutton that he is for this man, would die willfully without issue next to him.
Shall I compare thee to a summer day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
It is not known if this is written for a woman or a man, but for the sake of discussion, let’s say it was written to a woman. This is sonnet Number 18 and is one of the more eloquent. It’s words can vividly bring a warm vision of summer to one’s mind. Shakespeare is not only explaining why summer can not compare with the discussed lady, but he is also immortalizing her with his words. He is taking faith that people will go on to read his work forever.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day……..And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Shakespeare tells the lady that she is more beautiful than a summer day and more temperate or balanced. He then begins to describe why summer could not match her perfection by saying that summer is too short . One can enjoy it for only so long.
“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines…By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;” Here Shakespeare further describes how summer falls short of the woman’s beauty. He then says that all beautiful things sometimes decline by chance or for natural reasons such as age. In the next line, though , he goes on to exclude her from this comment.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;” People’s enjoyment of her beauty will not ever end and neither will her beauty itself. Shakespeare then goes on to explain why her beauty will last forever.
“Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade…So long lives this, and gives life to thee.” Death will never befall her. People will always know of her beauty. Shakespeare says this because he has faith that as long as there are men who can breathe and see to read, his poetry will live on. Therefore, she and her beauty are now immortal in this poem. People will forever enjoy her beauty through the poetry.
They that have the power to hurt and will do none
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces
And husband nature’s riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces.
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
This is the 94th sonnet and considered one of the harder sonnets to understand. In this sonnet Shakespeare seems to be confronting someone that seems to love him but meets his adoration with coldness. He seems to be defending his method of open heartedness.
“They that have the power to hurt and will do none…Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow;” The person described in the first line is the beloved person who does not express their emotions freely. By “moving” others the beloved inspires others to love , but shows no response. The beloved person remains cold and does not give into temptation to show their love.
“They do rightly inherit heaven’s graces….Other’s but stewards of their excellence.” The spoken of “heaven’s graces” are love and beauty. The beloved has both of these but by husbanding nature’s riches from expense they do not spend these freely. The beloved can control their emotions and how they react while others are still smitten with the beloved’s beauty.
“The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet… Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” The last lines of this sonnet all tie in to one thought for the most part. One way to look at these words is that Shakespeare is the summer while his writing is the flower. It means a lot to Shakespeare, yet the words themselves are just that: words. They will be read, but if they mean nothing to anyone else, they die. The base infection is the girl’s coldness. If his writing meet only with the girl’s coldness, her attitude will surpass Shakespeare’s dignity. The sweetest things can be turned sour by the beloved one’s cold deeds but at least Shakespeare was able to say what he felt. In the last line, he states that it is better to have gotten it off his chest than to have let it fester in his heart like the beloved allows in theirs.
So, as one can see, each of these small poems are packed with much more meaning than can be understood at one glance. These are meant to broken apart and studied. Far beyond inspirational, Shakespeare’s poetry is amazing. To pack so much meaning into a short line and still have it sound so beautiful…Well, that is why Shakespeare is thought of as such a genius
