form a complete body of work. Because they seem so
complete within themselves and because Shakespeare
hints at such interesting characters, the sonnets, espe-
cially, have elicited many questions to which they pro-
vide few, if any, answers. Critics have questioned
almost everything about the sonnets, from their author-
ship and arrangement to their references to Shake-
speare’s personal life to the identities of the LOVELY BOY,
the DARK LADY, and the rival poet to whom they refer.
Although the sonnets form a roughly coherent body,
no autograph copy of them exists, but there is no doubt
that Shakespeare wrote sonnets. Francis Meres, a cleric
who recorded pithy sayings and interesting works,
comments about Shakespeare’s “sugred Sonnets among
his private friends” in Palladis Tamia, Wit’s Treasury
(1598), and two Shakespeare sonnets (138 and 144)
appear in William Jaggard’s Passionate Pilgrim (1599).
Shakespeare’s contemporaries record that he did not
approve Jaggard’s publication. Shakespeare probably
wrote sonnets during theater closures generated by the
plague, and thus prior to their publication. In fact,
publication of the sonnets occurred during the theater
closure between 1608 and 1609. All 154 sonnets,
including the two that previously appeared in Passion-
ate Pilgrim, appeared in 1609, published by Thomas
Thorpe. Scholarly debates abound as to whether or not
Shakespeare authorized this printing, and it is still
unknown if the dedication to “Mr. W. H.” refl ects
Shakespeare’s or Thorpe’s views. There are only refer-
ences to the sonnets before they appeared as a sequence,
but some of the event references and parallels to early
plays suggest their earlier composition. The fi nal
arrangement of the SONNET SEQUENCE, however, seems
to have been set in this printing, even though critics
still question whether or not Shakespeare authorized
the 1609 printing. Some attempts at rearrangement
have been made, but none seem more satisfactory than
that of the original.
Although often treated as a sequence, Shakespeare’s
sonnets do not seem to follow a typical sequence pat-
tern. Usually, the poems in a sequence progress
through a particular experience or emotion and refl ect
a theme, often one of unrequited love. In contrast,
Shakespeare’s sonnets seem to break into two smaller
sequences. The fi rst subsequence, from sonnets 1 to
126, expresses love for a young man sometimes
referred to as the “lovely boy” or the “fair lord.” The
second subsequence, from 127 to 154, expresses love
for an anti-Petrarchan “Dark Lady.” The fi nal part of
Shakespeare’s poetic sequence is A LOVER’S COMPLAINT,
a single, longer poem that mirrors the sonnets in tone
but records the voice of a female, rather than male,
lover. Readers may also fi nd two minisequences within
the fi rst subsequence: Sonnets 1–17 focus on urging
the young man to marry and to beget children (the
“procreation sonnets”); sonnets 76–86 focus on com-
petition with a rival poet. All but three of the sonnets
(99, 126, 145) maintain the traditional length—14
lines—and traditional English meter—IAMBIC PENTAME-
TER. (This is a pattern of an unstressed syllable fol-
lowed by a stressed syllable. An unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable comprises one iamb.
Five iambs make one line of iambic pentameter.) Shake-
speare’s sonnets follow the Elizabethan or Shakespear-
ean rhyme scheme—abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Usually a VOLTA,
or turn, appears at the end of the eighth line, a shift
frequently marked with a period ending the line and a
word at the beginning of the ninth line indicating con-
trast or conclusion. This move subtly reinforces the
octave and sestet divisions, which distinguish PETRARCH’s
sonnets and those of his imitators.
In addition to the two subsequences, many of the
sonnets, regardless of their position in the sequence
itself, are arranged around certain themes or image
patterns, including time, death, writing, and fame,
though many sonnets reference multiple themes and
use multiple images. Most of the images are strongly
anti-Petrarchan. For instance, the address of a sequence
to a young man represents a signifi cant inversion of the
Petrarchan tradition, and Shakespeare never names his
beloved. However, the poet also uses images that are
essentially Petrarchan, but inversely applied. For
example, the sonnets to the Dark Lady address a
beloved woman who is dark, not fair; sexually experi-
enced, not virginal.
Critics have often attempted to identify the mysteri-
ous Master W. H. to whom the whole volume was
dedicated, the lovely boy, and the Dark Lady. Early
interpretations of the sonnets, including reactions by
such Shakespeare’s contemporaries as Ben Jonson,358 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS