Poetry Packet

The Shakespeare sonnets all were based on different aspects of love. Some of them were joyful and others melancholy. Of the sadder sonnets sonnet 117 is an interesting one. It is a repent for mistakes made the first line does an excellent job of setting the topic of the poem. Accuse me thus-that I have scanted all It shows that Shakespeare is sorry for something. He uses metaphor at lines 5 and 6 to tell the reader why he is sorry. 

That I have Frequent been with unknown minds,

And given to time your own dear-purchased right;

His apology is for cheating on his lover. Shakespeare's use of heavy metaphor and iambic pentameter force the reader to search somewhat for his meaning, another interesting example of his work is Sonnet 130. This poem is a satire of Petrarchan poems which over romanticized women with wild comparisons. The poem seems insulting until the couplet at the end of the poem. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare!

This poem attacks the false standards of beauty that others had set up while still saying that his lover is beautiful and exactly what he wants. Shakespeare's sonnets have a romantic feel but describe a great array of emotions typically the joy and sorrow that comes from love. He is clearly one of the greatest English poets of all time, obviously why his works have been studied for nearly five hundred years.