Sonnet 106 by Shakespeare Essay Final Draft PDF

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Kosche 1 Jade Kosche Professor Wallis English 205 (§ 1266) 22 October 2015 Doing Beauty Justice Deep admiration and profound phrases of esteem are the elements of Sonnet 106. This sonnet is one of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare (William). Sonnet 106 is a member of the Fair Youth Sequence, which is comprised of the first 126 sonnets that scholars traditionally interpret as addressing an unnamed young man (i.e. the Fair Youth) (Introduction). In this analysis, I present my interpretation of Sonnet 106, quatrain by quatrain, through the lens of contextual analysis and poetic figures. Any solid interpretation of poetry must be built on a foundation of context. Thus, I will first analyze the technical poetic aspects of this sonnet in respects to speaker, setting, poetic figures, and rhyme scheme. Sonnet 106 is rather open. In other words, it leaves much to the reader’s imagination. One of those aspects left to the imagination is the identity of the speaker. The speaker is presumably male, but could be a female speaker just as well as a male one. For the sake of simplicity, however, I will refer to the speaker as a man. As for his age, he is certainly not childlike. I would estimate that he is an adolescent or perhaps older, since he expresses thoughts of deep admiration in profound and sophisticated ways. His attitude and tone is that of esteem, and near veneration for his beloved. Another technical aspect to take into account is the setting of the poem. In this case, Shakespeare decides to leave the setting of Sonnet 106 unclarified. Nowhere in the poem is a hint of the background or foreground, neither geographically nor chronologically. However, all this lack of detail also lends to the sonnet’s extreme versatility. In essence, Sonnet 106 can be applied in a variety of circumstances – from a

Kosche 2 woman to a man just as well as from a man to another man, and in whatever place. The only guiding principle of this sonnet is the adoring love one person has for another. As for poetic figures, Shakespeare uses a variety in this sonnet, such as alliteration, allusion, synecdoche, and euphony. I will describe them along the course of this analysis, along with the quatrains they pertain to. Shakespeare styles this poem as a classical Shakespearean sonnet, with fourteen lines broken into three quatrains and an ending couplet (the rhyme scheme being abab cdcd efef gg). The first quatrain of Sonnet 106 is when the speaker reflects on stories of the past. In the first and second lines, he notes the “chronicle,” or historical record, of the fairest of “wights” (i.e. people) (Sonnet). This chronicle is beautifully written in “old rhyme” (Shakespeare 3), seemingly appropriate for the beauty of those dead “ladies” and “lovely knights” (Shakespeare 4). Shakespeare uses alliteration in the first two lines of the quatrain. Alliteration is the “occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words” (Alliteration). Here he writes, “when,” “wasted,” and “wights” – all accentuating the w sound. He also clearly alludes to the chivalric romances of olden times, which were archaic even for Shakespeare. An allusion is “an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly” (Allusion). Thus, the first quatrain gives us a fundamental basis from which the rest of the sonnet can be understood. The second quatrain is when the speaker reexamines his thoughts of the chronicle. In line five he refers to the “blazon,” or heraldic record, of “beauty’s best,” which are the ladies and knights of old (Sonnet). In line six, he gives a record of sorts of his own, listing: hand, foot, lip, eye, and brow. The speaker says that his beloved equals the best of the beauties in all of the ways the previous line describes (Shakespeare 7-8). The initial two lines of this quatrain contain alliteration, just as the first quatrain did. Here Shakespeare uses “blazon,” “beauty,” “best,” and

Kosche 3 “brow,” to emphasize the b sound. Line six also holds synecdoche, since it refers to the whole of the beauties, not simply their hands, feet, lips, eyes, and brows. A synecdoche is “a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa” (Synecdoche). This second quatrain is an examination of the chronicle’s contents mentioned in the first stanza, and declaration of his beloved’s beauty. The speaker changes his approach in the third quatrain. Instead of considering his beloved’s beauty to match those of the wights of chivalric times, he concludes that his beloved’s beauty is superior to those of the past. Lines nine through eleven bring a new concept to the sonnet – prophecy. The speaker now thinks that the praises of the chronicle writers were actually prophecies of his beloved, and the lovely wights of old were merely prototypes of his beloved, too (Shakespeare 10). In fact, the speaker goes so far as to say that those writers were not even skilled enough to “sing” the praises of his beloved. Again, in accordance with the first two quatrains, this third quatrain has alliteration in its two opening lines. Shakespeare uses, “praises,” “prophecies,” and “prefiguring” to highlight the p sound. The third stanza can be understood as a switch in the railroad of the sonnet, if you will. It takes the culmination of the first and second quatrains and goes off in a new direction, leading the readers to the conclusion that his beloved is so lovely that none of the best writers would even be able to capture that beauty. One question remains, however. Will the speaker be able to do what others cannot? The closing couplet is the great disappointment of the sonnet. All along the speaker describes the loveliness of his beloved, and by the couplet, the readers expect a resolution to the dilemma. Generally, as readers, we desire him to accomplish what no other writer has yet been able to do – write something worthy of his beloved’s beauty. However, just as the writers of old, still no one is adequate to do the beauty justice (Shakespeare 13-14). All they have, rather, are

Kosche 4 “eyes to wonder,” but they “lack tongues to praise” (Shakespeare 14). The euphony appears in the final line of this stanza, “lack tongues to praise.” A euphony is “a harmonious combination of words” (Euphony). Shakespeare uses this euphony to truly elucidate his belief that even he is not worthy enough of a writer to express his beloved’s praise. Ironically, the sonnet itself contradicts his claim through its fine structure, rigid rhyme, and profound elaborative qualities. Certainly, the speaker underestimates the power of his own skill, for they point both to his genius and to the overwhelming loveliness of his beloved. Indeed, he accomplished that which he claims no one has yet been able to accomplish. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 106 is concise, but dense with contemplation. In interpretation, it is not obscure, yet does require some effort to comprehend. It is both rewarding and memorable as a sonnet, because the speaker’s emotions are so central to the human experience. The speaker, after all, desires to capture and articulate the beauty of his beloved, to convert it to words and finally do the beauty justice.

Kosche 5 Works Cited

"Alliteration." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. "Allusion." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. "Euphony." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. "Introduction to the Sonnets." Shakespeares-Sonnets. Oxquarry Books Ltd, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. Shakespeare, William. "Sonnets by William Shakespeare." Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. 9th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 548-49. Print. "Sonnet CVI." Shakespeares-Sonnets. Oxquarry Books Ltd, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. "Synecdoche." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. "William Shakespeare Sonnets ." William-Shakespeare. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015....