18 pages • 36 minutes read
William ShakespeareSonnet 1
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1609A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Sonnet 1” is a Shakespearean sonnet, also sometimes referred to as an English sonnet. Italian and English sonnets both have 14 lines, but the structure of the lines varies.
The overall architecture of a Shakespearean sonnet is three arguments (one developed in each quatrain) and a conclusion (the final couplet). “Sonnet 1” supports this structure with its rhyme scheme—ABAB CDCD EFEF GG—which divides the quatrains and the final couplet. After the three quatrains with alternating rhymes, the couplet with two adjacent rhyming lines offers a clear ending, or conclusion.
By contrast, Italian sonnets feature two sections, an octave (two quatrains) and a sestet (six lines), separated by a volta, or turn in the direction of thought. The octave has the set rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA, while the sestet has a variable rhyme scheme: CDE CDE or CDC DCD.
Shakespearean sonnets, meanwhile, can include multiple voltas. In “Sonnet 1,” the volta between the first and second quatrain is indicated by the conjunction “But” (Line 5). This word introduces a turn towards the specific—and childless—addressee of the poem, who is contrasted with the generic “fairest creatures” (Line 1) described in the first quatrain. Another volta often occurs between the third quatrain and the couplet. In “Sonnet 1,” this turn of thought moves from beseeching the young man to make better choices to threatening him with sin and death if he fails to change his mind.
Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains five metric feet: 10 syllables that alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables. Here is an example of how to scan Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter: “From fairest creatures we desire increase” (Line 1). Unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse) also appears in Shakespeare’s plays. In the sonnets, the meter is combined with rhyme to create a musical effect.
Repetition
Both sounds and words are repeated in “Sonnet 1.” For instance, the word “tender” appears in Lines 4 and 12, at the end of both the first and final quatrain. This repetition emphasizes the addressee’s youth and delicacy, qualities of new blooms: The second repetition of “tender” (Line 12) links the young man with the image of a “bud” (Line 11).
Another repeated word is “world,” which appears in Lines 9, 13, and 14. The young man should “Pity the world” (Line 13) by having children. The repetition of these two words highlights how the sonnet centers on the relationship between the young man’s beauty and its potentially global impact.
Repeated sounds include alliteration (repetition of the first syllable of a word) and consonance (repeated consonant sounds that appear in various places in different words). In the line “Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel” (Line 6), there is alliteration of the letter “f” in feed, flame, and fuel. The “f” sound is also repeated at the end of the word self. The “f” sound appears in a few other words in the sonnet, such as fairest, foe, and famine. This poetic device adds to the sonnet’s musicality and adds emphasis to the words that share a sound.
Metaphor
“Sonnet 1” brings together two different metaphors (comparisons): roses and food.
The beauty of the rose is compared with the beauty of the young man: Both are pleasing to the senses; both are also extremely short-lived but would, in an ideal world, be preserved through progeny.
The metaphor of food is more complicated. Both famine and gluttony are used to describe the young man’s choice to not have children. On the one hand, he deprives the world of offspring that could bear enough of his features to sate the desire for more beauty, creating a “famine where abundance lies” (Line 7). Later in the poem, the speaker argues that the young man is a “glutton” (Line 13) because he consumes his own beauty rather than share it with the world by reproducing. Instead of the moral good of generosity, he indulges in sinful and selfish behavior. These contrasting metaphors develop the claim that having children is a moral imperative.
The two metaphors are linked through their shared qualities, such as being “sweet” (Line 8) and “tender” (Line 4), which also describe the young man.
Related Titles
By William Shakespeare
