19 pages • 38 minutes read
William ShakespeareSonnet 73
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.
Background
Authorial Context
Most of Shakespeare’s sonnets are dedicated to the Fair Youth, a person whose identity has been the subject of scholarly speculation for hundreds of years. Nobody can definitively identify who the Fair Youth actually was, but even more interesting than the Fair Youth’s identity is the question of whether the relationship between Shakespeare and this unknown person was platonic or romantic.
This question of the nature of their relationship comes about because of the nature of the sonnets dedicated to the Fair Youth. In these poems, Shakespeare often describes him in romantic, loving terms; however, most of these poems can also be read as poems of advice where Shakespeare relates wisdom to a young mentee. For example, in “Sonnet 73,” Shakespeare seems to both be telling the Fair Youth to love him more because of his aging while also telling the Fair Youth to appreciate youth because it is fleeting.
These dual meanings pop up quite often in many of the sonnets dedicated to the Fair Youth, and because there is so little historical record about Shakespeare’s life, it is almost impossible to come to a final decision about the nature of this relationship. What is clear, however, is that Shakespeare’s sonnets show a strong attachment and dedication to this person.
Literary Context
The English or Shakespearean sonnet has its origins in the older Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. Whereas the Petrarchan sonnet utilized two stanzas (an octave and a sestet), the modification in the English sonnet is four stanzas: three quatrains and one couplet. Another difference is in the rhyme scheme. Originally, sonnets were an Italian poetic form, and because Italian is an easy language to rhyme in, the rhyme scheme allowed for more depth. The traditional Italian sonnet follows an abba, abba, cdecde rhyme scheme. In English, it is more difficult to rhyme, so the variation shifted to abab cdcd efef gg. While this might seem like a similar number of rhymes, the variation in the pattern allows the English poet to space the rhymes a little wider than in the Italian version while also avoiding the complexity of the sestet’s rhyme scheme.
Another variation between the two formats is in the placement of the volta, or turn. In the Italian sonnet, the volta comes at the end of the octave; in the English sonnet, the volta comes at the end of the last quatrain. By placing the volta so much closer to the end of the poem, the English sonnet allows for more buildup than its Italian counterpart while also creating a more jarring shift because the conclusion is expressed in two lines instead of six.
While these and other rules govern traditional sonnets, the structure can be and has been modified with different rhyme schemes, rhythmic patterns, and other variations over the years.
Related Titles
By William Shakespeare
