"Sonnet 104" by William Shakespeare

For this blog, I chose to analyze William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 104." Considering this is a sonnet written by the eminent William Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest playwright and poet in human history, it is hardly surprising that this particular sonnet follows the general form of an English, or Shakespearean, Sonnet (Shakespeare popularized this form of sonnet). "Sonnet 104" only slightly deviates from the general form of the Shakespearean Sonnet, with perhaps two lines diverging from the regular metrical pattern, and is thus comprised of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter with the following rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The volta, which in poetic terminology is defined as a rhetorical shift or dramatic change in thought and/or emotion, seems to occur in line 12 of the poem, where it serves to partially contradict what the speaker states in the preceding lines. Throughout most of the poem, the speaker (who I will refer to as a "he" throughout the remainder of this blog post to avoid the "he/she" redundancy since this sonnet was written by a man) consistently expresses that while the seasons may change with rapid frequency, the person whom he loves remains just as young and beautiful as when they first met. In line 12, however, the speaker conveys some doubt of the supposed ceaselessness of his lover's beauty and subsequently states that even though the beloved may eventually die, to the speaker, there will never be a person more beautiful.

I chose to analyze this sonnet for its deep, powerful reflection on the nature and potency of true, genuine love. As I briefly mentioned in my above evaluation, "Sonnet 104" concerns the speaker's unwavering love for another, which is expressed through the speaker's perception of youth and beauty in his lover. From the very beginning of the poem, the speaker announces that "To me, fair friend, you never can be old," indicating that the beloved will always remain dear and beautiful to the speaker despite age--an insinuation that seems to support the old adage that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." The speaker continues with this statement by contrasting his lover's beauty with the ever-changing  season, thereby further emphasizing the eternality of beauty when two people truly love each other; the seasons may change, yet beauty lasts. Although the speaker admits that he could possibly lose sight of his lover's beauty in the future, which highly doubts will be the case, he nonetheless states that while his lover will eventually die, there will never be anyone quite as beautiful to him.