Sonnet 34
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Structure
Sonnet 34 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, composed of three quatrains and a final couplet. It follows the form's typical rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It is written in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. Line 12 exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / To him that bears the strong offence's loss.
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
It is possible that for Shakespeare the couplet embodied a true rhyme (as indicated by the Quarto spelling: sheeds/deeds) even though seemingly the singular shed would not have made a true rhyme with deed.[2]: 189
Source and analysis
Following Horace Davis, Stephen Booth notes the similarity of this poem in theme and imagery to Sonnet 120. Gerald Massey finds an analogue to lines 7–8 in The Faerie Queene, 2.1.20.
In 1768, Edward Capell altered line ten by replacing the word "loss" with the word "cross". This alteration was followed by Edmond Malone in 1783, and was generally accepted in the 19th and 20th Centuries. More recent editors do not favor this as a speculation that introduces a metaphor of the young man as a Christ figure, something that Shakespeare did not do here or elsewhere; the idea, as it would be portrayed by the young man in the context of this sonnet, does not fit well with Gospel accounts.[1]: 178 Booth considers that the repetition of the word suggests the persistence of "loss".[2]: 189 [3]: 44, 229
Interpretations
- Robert Lindsay, for the 2002 compilation album, When Love Speaks (EMI Classics)
Notes
- ^ ISBN 9781408017975.
- ^ ISBN 0300085060.
- ISBN 9781349054435.
References
- Baldwin, T. W. (1950). On the Literary Genetics of Shakspeare's Sonnets. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
- Fineman, Joel (1984). Shakespeare's Perjur'd Eye: Representations. pp. 59–86.
- Hubler, Edwin (1952). The Sense of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
- Schoenfeldt, Michael (2007). The Sonnets: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Poetry. Patrick Cheney, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- 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.
External links
- Works related to Sonnet 34 at Wikisource
- Paraphrase and analysis (Shakespeare-online)
- Analysis