Sonnet 105
Sonnet 105 | |||||||
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Sonnet 105 is one of
Synopsis
The poet denies that his love is a form of idolatry and that the youth himself is an idol. He insists that he has been constantly devoted to the values of fairness, kindness and truth. Being three themes united in the figure of the youth, there is great scope for verse, since they have never been united in one person before.
The language used is similar in some respects to the language in the Book of Common Prayer used to describe the Holy Trinity, and Shakespeare's triple repetition of the three attributes of the Fair Youth - "Three themes in one" - makes plain his deliberate comparison of the youth to a form of deity or idol, even as he purports not to engage in idolatry (in the sense of polytheistic worship of idols).
Structure
Sonnet 105 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 3rd line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / Since all alike my songs and praises be (105.3)
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
The sonnet embraces a large number of stresses in normally non-stressed positions. These appear as inversions and non-ictic stresses, both of which appear in line 10:
× / × / / × × / × / Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words; (105.10)
Here, both "fair" and "kind" are fully stressed, but in a regular reading only "kind" is metrically marked, "fair" being a non-ictic stress. In contrast, "varying" (which the meter demands function as two syllables[2]) is a mid-line inversion. Both variations recur several times in this sonnet.
Context
Sonnet 105 falls broadly into the group of Sonnets addressed to a "
Religious themes are also prevalent in this sonnet. The sonnets were published in 1609, composed during the reign of
Criticism
Sonnet 105 invokes a strongly religious tone and is read by most critics as decidedly Christian, as it denies claims of idolatry and strongly alludes to the trinity. In his analysis, Brian Gibbons emphasizes the importance of the speaker's denial of idolatry; the speaker is following the first two commandments by practicing monotheism and not building any other idols or images. However, the speaker fundamentally breaks the Third Commandment by taking the name of the Lord in vain; "unorthodox monotheism is in Christian terms blasphemous." Gibbons views this oversight on the part of the poet as convenient and intentional rather than accidental.[6]
Like Gibbons, Eugene Wright views this sonnet with a Christian lens, noting that the poet uses familiar Christian rhetoric and imagery to appeal to the reader. However, he argues that the speaker is not guilty of blasphemy because it is not the youth being praised, but the "qualities of 'Fair, kind, and true,' transcendent qualities the young man partakes of." According to Wright, the main idea of the poem is unity - the unity of the three qualities in the persona, never before seen in a strictly mortal man. The emphasis on three-in-one is not meant to replace the trinity or suggest that the beloved is divine or equivalent to Christ, but to echo the unity of the virtues and to evoke an image of perfection.[7]
Carl Atkins' analysis undermines some of the more popular interpretations of this sonnet, largely because he emphasizes the possibility that the poet and the male beloved (or "
References
- OCLC 4770201.
- ^ Booth 2000, p. 338.
- ^ Massey, Gerald. Shakespeare's Sonnets Never Before Interpreted. New York, N.Y.: AMS, 1866 (reprinted 1973)
- ^ Evans, G. Blakemore. The Sonnets: Updated Edition. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University P, 2006
- ^ Roessner, Jane. Double Exposure: Shakespeare's Sonnets 100-114. ELH, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Autumn, 1979), pp. 357-378
- ^ Gibbons, Brian, and A.R. Braunmuller, eds. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984. 201-202. Print.
- ^ Wright, Eugene Patrick. The Structure of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1993. 267-268. Print.
- ^ Atkins, Carl D., ed. Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2007. 260-261. Print.
Further reading
- First edition and facsimile
- Shakespeare, William (1609). Shake-speares Sonnets: Never Before Imprinted. London: Thomas Thorpe.
- OCLC 458829162.
- Variorum editions
- OCLC 234756.
- Modern critical editions
- Atkins, Carl D., ed. (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets: With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Madison: OCLC 86090499.
- OCLC 2968040.
- Burrow, Colin, ed. (2002). The Complete Sonnets and Poems. OCLC 48532938.
- OCLC 32272082.
- OCLC 15018446.
- Mowat, Barbara A.; Werstine, Paul, eds. (2006). Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems. OCLC 64594469.
- OCLC 46683809.
- OCLC 36806589.