William Shakespeare wrote a great many sonnets hundreds, most likely from around 1580 to 1610. I would like to believe that everyone has read at least some of them, even if they do not remember doing so, since they are usually taught in schools throughout the world. Unfortunately, I did not have that opportunity as a student.
Less well known than his plays, however, and bearing almost no resemblance to them, Shakespeare’s sonnets are imbued with an intimate and confessional tone that encourages the reader to believe that the poetic voice belongs to the author himself.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets must be the most uneven work in the entire wealth of English literature, shifting from gentleness to thunderous intensity, like a kind of theatre of voices in which a Renaissance rhetorician, a Neoplatonist philosopher, and an immature lover can be heard in different combinations and tones.
The fact that Thomas Thorpe, a poet, publisher, and admirer of Shakespeare, published this collection casts a shadow over the sequence of the sonnets and their supposed narrative. Are they the product of literary artistry, or an expression of the poet’s feelings and experiences?
It’s not important..
After all, Shakespeare himself says that everything is temporary and that everything will eventually fade.
Lest the wise world look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.Sonnet 71 by William Shakespeare.
Continue the Journey
Subscribe to receive future issues.
If you’d like to support the work behind Monday Steps, you can buy me a coffee.