Introduction
Shakespeare remains the undisputed monarch in the history of English Literature due to his unparalleled contribution in the various genres.
Perhaps the area where he has been diversely interpreted is in his Sonnets – a fourteen-line lyric with the rhyme –scheme abab cdcd efef gg (a set of three quatrains and a couplet). Bruno Leone asserts, “The poet must posses creative techniques and artistry to effectively compose a sonnet.”(38) Shakespeare has to his credit 154 sonnets wherein sonnets 1 – 26 are devoted to a beautiful young man. Sonnets 127 -152 are reflective of an unfaithful and seductive lady. The themes in his sonnets range from love, beauty, politics to mortality. They are more earthy and sexual than contemporary sequences.
Analysis of sonnet 20
An in-depth analysis of sonnet 20 reveals that it stirs the most critical controversy and remains the perfect battleground for scholarly interpretation. It has the largest bodies of criticism than any other sonnet. In the first quatrain, the fair lord is treated as feminine and has been interpreted both in the literal sense and figurative sense. In the literal sense, the poet’s master is having control over him, and in the figurative sense, the Lord is both male and female. The closing couplet ties with the theme of Platonic love and carnal lust. Of course, such varied interpretations could be the product of autobiographical research in the area.
The sonnet is unique as it exclusively ends in feminine rhymes – that is, end rhymes of at least two syllables with the final syllable unstressed. Meter is a recurring pattern of stressed (accented or long) and unstressed (unaccented or short) syllables in lines of a set length. Each pair of unstressed and stressed syllables makes up a unit called afoot. A foot containing an unstrained syllable followed by a stressed syllable is called an iamb. Because there are 5 feet in a line, all iambic, the meter of the line is iambic pentameter. It should be noted that a couplet is always indented; both lines rhyme at the end. All of Shakespeare’s sonnets except sonnet 145 are in iambic pentameter.
Conclusion
It could be too far-reaching to pronounce that the poet wants to possess the youth physically. There is a declaration of love from one man to another, and who the man is speaking to. Helen Vendler comments that Shakespeare “has only obligated himself to portray the feelings of his protagonist in that time and situation” (17).
The understanding of the poem pierces into the youth’s double nature and character. It is asserted that ambiguity characterizes the poet’s feelings but not his language.
References
Greenblatt, Stephen, gen.ed.The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Author.2vols.8thed.New York: Norton, 2007.
Leone, Bruno ed.The Sonnets. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997.
Vendler, Helen.Hi Helen.The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. M.A: Harvard University Press, 1997.
A rough translation of the sonnet
Nature painted with a face of a
woman, you
master and mistress of my passion;
You have the gentle heart of a
woman, yet you are not
fickle like so many changeable women;
Your eyes are brighter than women’s
but not as
deceptive as theirs; you shed
golden light upon any
the object you gaze upon;
A man of your appearance sets the
the standard for what a
a man should look like; your beauty
attracts the eyes of
men and amazes the souls of women.
And you were first created to be woman, but Nature
fell in love with you (or made a mistake) as she was
crafting you.
And defeated me by adding one thing to you, a thing
that does not aid my goal.
But since she chose you to be
for women’s pleasure
your love will be mine, yet
the use of your love is for
women’s benefit.