Sonnet 72
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Sonnet 72 is one of
Synopsis
Sonnet 72 continues after
Structure
Sonnet 72 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 fifth line (accepting a 2-syllable pronunciation of "virtuous"[3]) exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × / Unless you would devise some virtuous lie, (72.5)
- / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
In line nine, the lexical stress of "true" would normally be subordinated to that of "love", fitting most naturally into × /
which would create a variation in the meter of the line. Placing contrastive accent upon "true" preserves the regular iambic meter...
× / × / × / × / × / O! lest your true love may seem false in this (72.9)
... which, as it is revealed later in the line, is appropriate to the sense, as "true love" is contrasted with seeming "false" — an example of Shakespeare using metrical expectations to highlight shades of meaning.
Context
Analysis
Sonnet 72 is a continuation from Sonnet 71. Both sonnets are an anticipatory plea regarding death and the afterlife from the writer to the reader.[5] The overarching subject of Sonnet 72 is The Poet's fixation with how he will be remembered after death. Subsequently the tone remains bleak and self-depreciating.[5]
John Cumming Walters states: "In the sonnets we may read the poet's intents, hopes, and fears regarding his fate, and we learn of his all consuming desire for immortality...Bodily death he does not fear: oblivion he dreads."[6]
In Line 2, "What merit lived in me that you should love", the poet considers his own mortality and worth. Line 7, "And hang more praise upon deceased I", derives from the practice of hanging epitaphs and trophies on the gravestone or marker of the deceased.[5]
Line 13 of the couplet,"For I am shamed by that which I bring forth," may refer to, or resonate with the
- "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, foolishness: all these evil things come from within and defile the man."[5]
References
- ISBN 9781408017975.
- ISBN 978-1-349-05443-5
- ^ Booth 2000, p. 258.
- ^ Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's sonnets. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. Print. pg. 327
- ^ a b c d e f Duncan-Jones, Katherine, ed. Shakespeare's Sonnets. 1997. London, New York. (2013) Print. 255-257, 52
- ^ Walters, John Cuming. The Mystery of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Attempted Elucidation. New York: Haskell House, 1972. 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.