Shakespeare's sonnets

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Shakespeare's sonnets comprises a collection of 154 poems in the sonnet form by William Shakespeare, published in 1609. Their themes are love, beauty, poetry and the effects of time on all three. They were probably written over a period of several years, early in Shakespeare's literary career.

Almost all are in the verse form afterwards known as Shakespearean sonnet and deal in large part with a beautiful young man (the Fair Lord), a rival poet and a Dark Lady whose identities have been the subject of much debate. Some have suggested that the young man is the same as the "W.H." referred to in the publisher's dedication, possibly William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, a patron of the stage. The rival poet is sometimes identified with Christopher Marlowe or George Chapman. However, no hard evidence that any of the sonnets' characters have real-life counterparts. The narrator himself could even be a fictional device and not a reflection of Shakespeare's feeling.

Shakespeare's repeated declarations of love for the young man are charged with passion. Some commentators see sonnet 20 as a rejection of physical desire. However, other sonnets addressed to the youth, such as 52, where the youth is compared to a 'sweet up-locked treasure' are drenched in sexual punning and undertones. Nevertheless, much of the romantic language used to address the fair youth differs from the explict physical language used in sonnets addressed to the so-called Dark Lady. It is possible to interpret this as a deliberate contrast between ideal Platonic love, and 'dark' carnal lust. However, this depends to a considerable extent on whether you believe the affair with the youth remained unconsummated and interpret the sonnets as records of real events and feelings, or as literary constructions.