Shakespeare's sonnets were first published in 1609, but there is no clear evidence of when they were written. Scholars generally date them from 1594 to about 1599 (though some say 1597). Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia (1598) mentions that “honytongued Shakespeare, witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his private frinds.”

The sonnet uses a formal rhyme scheme where each line is in iambic pentameter — each line has ten syllables denoting different thoughts, moods, or emotions. The two main forms of the sonnet are the Petrarchan (Italian) and the Shakespearean (English).

Italian Sonnet

While the Italians had been using the form for almost 200 years prior to Shakespeare's time, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey introduced the sonnet into England. William Shakespeare's first few years in London were spent writing in the Italian style.

There's no easy way to explain this, but here goes: The Italian sonnet form has an eight-line stanza (or octave) followed by a six-line stanza (or sestet). The octave has two quatrains, rhyming ABBA, ABBA, but avoiding a couplet. The first quatrain gives the theme, and the second develops it. The sestet is built on two or three different rhymes; the first three lines reflect on the theme, and the last three lines bring the whole poem to an end. Got that?

English Sonnet

The English sonnet differs from the Italian in that it is divided into three quatrains, each rhymed differently, with an independently rhymed couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. Each quatrain takes a different appearance of the idea or develops a different image to express the theme. Except for a few early poems, all of Shakespeare's sonnets were in this form.

Are all these rhyme schemes confusing? Don't worry about it unless you're going to study poetry seriously. It's easy enough to enjoy the sonnets as they are without having to delve into the technicalities.

Personal Poetry

Sonnets were personal poetry and usually circulated among one's friends and close acquaintances. It was thought “bad form” to publish sonnets and undesirable to write them for the purpose of being published. They were private thoughts for a select few.

Copyright laws in sixteenth century England were nonexistent, so a printer named Thomas Thorpe copied the sonnets and published them without Shakespeare's knowledge. Some critics disagree; they suggest that for some unknown reason, Shakespeare may have decided to work with Thorpe.

Are the Sonnets Autobiographical?

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Not much is known about Shakespeare's private life, so scholars have searched his plays and the sonnets in particular for hints, without much success. They have attracted more attention than anything else he wrote except Hamlet. As poetry, they are superb. People are just as interested in them because they may tell a story.

The story is hinted at, rather than told, and concerns Shakespeare's feelings toward a young nobleman who wronged him by stealing the affections of a sweetheart and by transferring his friendship to another poet. (Some think it might have been Marlowe, though that is unlikely looking at the dates.) In the end the young nobleman is forgiven. Critics and scholars disagree about whether the sonnets are autobiographical.

The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a man with the initials W. H. Scholars conjecture that W. H. may be the inverted initials of Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare had dedicated his earlier poems, or they may stand for William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, or for someone else entirely.

The remaining poems are addressed to the so-called “dark lady” of the sonnets, since it is made clear that she is dark in hair and complexion. Guesses have been made as to who she might be. Some think it was Mary Fitton, a maid of honor at court and mistress of William Herbert, but the supposition does not have enough evidence to prove it.

Recurring Themes

Only by analyzing the entire set of sonnets, some critics say, is it possible to fathom Shakespeare's intent. For example, a sonnet with a certain meaning may be followed immediately by a sonnet conveying the opposite message. The first cannot be discussed without the second because the contradiction between the two defines their nature. The sonnets build on, cancel out, and are formed by each other. The meanings of the sonnets are all relative, but in general they are marked by the recurring themes of beauty, youthful beauty ravaged by time, and the ability of love and art to transcend time and even death.

In the first twenty-seven sonnets, Shakespeare proposes one method to outwit the passage of time. He urges the young man to have children so that his beauty will be preserved in posterity and therefore time will not have won the battle. The first two lines of the first sonnet present this theme:

In Sonnet 11, Shakespeare tells the young man that when he grows old he will be young in his children and that:

The poet goes on to explain to the young man that nature has given him a gift of beauty so that he may reproduce it. The couplet sums it up:

Shakespeare's suggestions to the young man sometimes turn into accusations that he is hoarding the beauty, which he was lent, and therefore abusing the lease. After Sonnet 17, when it becomes apparent the young man is unwilling to marry, Shakespeare presents another way in which to wage war against time.

He says that his poetry will always exist and be read and that through his poetry his love will be forever alive. In Sonnet 15, Shakespeare writes in the last four lines:

Homosexuality or Platonic Love?

In the last of the sonnets, Shakespeare writes of the love between the writer and the young man, and the poet and his mistress. They describe a number of circumstances in the poet's relationship with these people. The final opponent of time is presented in Sonnet 116:

Some scholars suggest that the sonnets betray homosexuality between Shakespeare and another. The word homosexual had not yet been invented and would not be invented until the early twentieth century. Elizabethan law, however, condemned any act of sodomy. Whether Shakespeare expresses or does not express same-sex love in the sonnets cannot be proven. Readers, however, should also take into account both the concept of platonic, nonphysical love between men prevalent in the Renaissance and the more permissive attitudes toward same-sex love held by Renaissance playwrights, despite sixteenth-century magistrates.

Hallet Smith, writing in The Riverside Shakespeare, commented that, “the attitude of the poet toward the friend [the handsome young man] is one of love and admiration, deference and possessiveness, but it is not at all a sexual passion. Sonnet 20 makes quite clear the difference between the platonic love of a man for a man, more often expressed in the sixteenth century than the twentieth, and any kind of homosexual attachment.”

Regardless of the uncertainty about who, where, when, and why, when it comes to Shakespeare, scholars agree that several of these poems are among the most perfect ever written.