William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Shakespeare began his career as a poet, and his plays show the artistry developed in such forms as the sonnet. Written over a number of years, his sonnets were not published until 1609, considerably after the "vogue" for sonnets had passed.

With his sonnets, Shakespeare breaks from tradition in several ways:

• They do not revolve around a single female figure--as do Petrarch's, Sidney's and Spenser's--but they instead are written to three separate figures, male and female:
• a blond young aristocrat,
• a mysterious dark lady, and
• a rival poet.
• The tripartite focus gives Shakespeare's sonnets greater range.
• One of his major themes is the passage of time and its effect on people.
• While he adopts traditional Petarchan conceits (Sonnet XVIII), he also turns such conceits on their heads (Sonnet CXXX).
• The sonnets use compact language, a range of tone, and profound word play.
• The sonnets have a particularly moral bent or vision.
• He balanced his sonnets on a final couplet of rhyming lines.