Written language has long been used to express a person’s love for another – modern day, we typically see this in music rather than poetry or prose. However, we still look back at these great romantic poets with much admiration and regard. Shakespeare is one of the most iconic of these writers - his sonnets are some of the most popularized expressions of written love to exist in history, ranging from topics of passion to heartbreak.
In late celebration of Valentine’s Day, here are three of Shakespeare’s best sonnets about love!
Sonnet 73: “That Time of Year thou mayst in me Behold”
In this sonnet, the narrator ponders on old age, beginning to express his fearfulness on growing old and dying. He dreads the passage of time, for he knows that it only brings him closer to his inescapable, eventual death. As the sonnet continues, though, we see the narrator experience a change of heart. He begins to interpret time as sacred, realizing that rather than dwell on the inevitable, he should instead pour this energy and passion into his lover.
What begins as a discouraging tale of fear and dread turns into a beautiful expression of intensified love.
2. Sonnet 18: “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”
Widely considered one of Shakespeare’s most memorable and beautiful pieces, this sonnet expresses the connection that love holds with eternity. He spends the majority of the sonnet illustrating his beloved’s magnificence, describing her as more beautiful than a summer’s day. He expresses his belief that, unlike the seasons, love is an eternal, undying force.
3. Sonnet 116: “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
Often recognized as the wedding ceremony sonnet, this piece once again enforces Shakespeare’s idea of love as being eternal and enduring. He discusses the marriage of “true minds”, implying that love goes beyond a simple, ritual ceremony. The line, “Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks” returns to the notion that genuine love does not falter, nor does it weaken to the passage of time.
Links:
Sonnet 73 - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45099/sonnet-73-that-time-of-year-thou-mayst-in-me-behold
Sonnet 18 -
Sonnet 116 -
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