Sonnet by Shakespeare to Explicate - Essay Example

William Shakespeare’s is today recognized as perhaps the seminal playwright of the English language. While his plays, such as ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’, constitute seminal works, Shakespeare is also recognized for the beauty of his sonnets. This essay explicates Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 29’ in terms of its images and meaning, as well as noting its theme and rhetorical pattern. William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 29’ is representative of his love sonnets. Even as the theme of the sonnet is ostensibly concerned with love, it also represents one of Shakespeare’s most outwardly cynical sonnets.

While the sonnet is largely straightforward, it does have a number of challenging images. In the third line, Shakespeare writes, “And trouble deaf heav'n with my bootless cries” (Shakespeare 3). Here, the narrator is indicating this in his loneliness he cries out to heaven with useless (‘bootless’) cries. Shakespeare advances this theme of despondency and loneliness, indicating that the narrator wishes that he had the life of others; Shakespeare writes, “Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope” (Shakespeare 7).

The sonnet follows a Petrarchan structure, which is visible in the final six lines when the narrator indicates that despite his despondency, “Haply I think on thee, and then my state,/ Like to the lark at break of day arising” (Shakespeare 10-11). In these regards, the overriding theme and rhetorical strategy indicates that while the narrator experiences considerable despondency, the thought and image of his love make the trying times bearable. In conclusion, this essay has considered Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 29’.

It has considered theme and rhetorical strategy, indicating that the poem is a love sonnet with a Petrarchan structure. Ultimately, the sonnet is a powerful and unique one within Shakespeare’s canon. References Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 29. Shakespeare Online. http://www.shakespeare- online.com/sonnets/29detail.html