Sonnet 14

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Sonnet 14
Sonnet 14 1609.jpg
The first twelve lines of Sonnet 14 in the 1609 Quarto
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Q1



Q2



Q3



C

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well,
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As “truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert”;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
“Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.”

Contents




4



8



12

14

—William Shakespeare [1]

Sonnet 14 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence.

Structure

Sonnet 14 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, which consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet. It follows the traditional rhyme scheme of the form: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Like many of the others in the sequence, it is written in a type of metre called iambic pentameter, which is based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions per line.

Typically English sonnets present a problem or argument in the quatrains, and a resolution in the final couplet. [2] This sonnet suggests this pattern, but its rhetorical structure is more closely modeled upon the older Petrarchan sonnet which arranges the octave (the first eight lines) in contrast to the sestet (the final six lines).

Line 3 exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

 ×   /   ×  /   ×   /    ×  / ×   /  But not to tell of good, or evil luck, (14.3) 
/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.

Historical Context

Some critics argue that the Fair Youth sequence follows a story-line told by Shakespeare. [3] Evidence that corroborates this is that the sonnets show a constant change of attitude that would seem to follow a day-by-day private journal entry. [3] Furthermore, there is an argument that the Fair Youth sequence was written to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. [4] Critics believe that Shakespeare would like him to marry and have an heir so that his beauty would live forever. [5] To this day the relationship between Henry Wriothesly and Shakespeare is debated due to the fact that some believe it was romantic in nature, and not platonic. [6] Regardless most critics agree that Shakespeare wrote this sonnet in order to convince him to produce an heir. [5]

Exegesis

Sonnet 14 contains a speaker that may not know how to predict the future or what will happen, but they do know the value of procreating to retain one's beauty throughout the ages.

Quatrain 1

Quatrain 1 has multiple references to astronomy, and other literature. Edward Dowden argues that Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is an influence in this sonnet due to the nature of both of the sonnets. [7] For example, Sonnet 26 of Sidney's Astrophel and Stella has a line "though duskie wits doe scorne Astrology.. who oft bewares my after following case, by only those two starres in Stella's face." [8] A. L. Rowse points out in both of these poems the speaker is unable to predict the future by using astrology, and can only predict the future through the object of their poem's eyes. [9]

According to Frederick Fleays, lines 3-4 are possible references to plagues that occurred in 1592–1593, and the dearths that followed in 1594–1596. [10] Alfread Rollins also states there was an irregularity in the seasons in 1595–1596, which all could have influenced these lines from Shakespeare. [11]

Quatrain 2

Lines 8–9 have influences from Ovid's Amores and Shakespeare's own "Love Labor's Lost". George Steevens points out that Shakespeare's early comedy included a line stating "From women's eyes this doctrine I derive." [12] In the context of Sonnet 14 it is explaining the importance of procreation, and that it is necessary. [11] Ovid's Amores has a similar line "at mihe te comitem auroras usque futuram- per me perque oculos, siders rostra, tuos." [13] Both Samuel Johnson and George Steevens noted the similar meaning and that it indicates Roman influence on Shakespeare's poetry. [12]

Quatrain 3

Lines 10-11 are saying that one can see that truth and beauty would thrive together; if only you would focus on the business of making provisions for yourself. [14]

Couplet

Shakespeare uses the portentous polysyllabic verb prognosticate with the alliteration 'doom and date' which is the stock in the trade of astrologers. [15] This is Shakespeare's prognostication, and it is delivered with a smile. West believed this due to the emphasis against the metre on 'this'. [15] Line 14 is saying that when one is dead, their truths and beauties come to an end as well. [14]

Interpretations

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 12</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 12 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a procreation sonnet within the Fair Youth sequence.

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Sonnet 16 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is among those sonnets referred to as the procreation sonnets, within the Fair Youth sequence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 19</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 19 is one of 154 sonnets published by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare in 1609. It is considered by some to be the final sonnet of the initial procreation sequence. The sonnet addresses time directly, as it allows time its great power to destroy all things in nature, but the poem forbids time to erode the young man's fair appearance. The poem casts time in the role of a poet holding an “antique pen”. The theme is redemption, through poetry, of time's inevitable decay. Though there is compunction in the implication that the young man himself will not survive time's effects, because redemption brought by the granting of everlasting youth is not actual, but rather ideal or poetic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 22</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet 24 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, and is a part of the Fair Youth sequence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 26</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 33</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 35</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 37</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnet 37 returns to a number of themes sounded in the first 25 of the cycle, such as the effects of age and recuperation from age, and the blurred boundaries between lover and beloved. However, the tone is more complex than in the earlier poems: after the betrayal treated in Sonnets 34–36, the speaker does not return to a simple celebration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 43</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 employs antithesis and paradox to highlight the speaker's yearning for his beloved and sadness in their absence, and confusion about the situation described in the previous three sonnets. Sonnet 27 similarly deals with night, sleep, and dreams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonnet 67</span> Poem by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 67 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man and is a thematic continuation of Sonnet 66. In this poem, the speaker's anxiety about the social difference between him and his beloved takes the form of a criticism of courtly corruption. This sonnet was placed first in the pirated and mangled edition of 1640.

References

  1. Pooler, C[harles] Knox, ed. (1918). The Works of Shakespeare: Sonnets. The Arden Shakespeare [1st series]. London: Methuen & Company. OCLC   4770201.
  2. "Basic Sonnet Forms". www.sonnets.org. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 Crosman, Robert (1990). "Making Love out of Nothing at All: The Issue of Story in Shakespeare's Procreation Sonnets". Shakespeare Quarterly. 41 (4): 470–488. doi:10.2307/2870777. JSTOR   2870777.
  4. Akrigg, G. P. V. (1968). Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton . England: London: H. Hamilton. ISBN   0-241-01506-5.
  5. 1 2 Boyle, W (1999). "Shakespeare, Southampton and the Sonnets: conference presentations explore competing theories". Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter.
  6. Thomson, Walter (1938). The sonnets of William Shakespeare & Henry Wriothesley, third earl of Southampton, together with a lover's complaint and the phoenix and turtle. England: Oxford : Printed and sold for the editor by B. Blackwell, and H. Young & sons, ltd., Liverpool.
  7. Dowden, Edward (1881). Shakespeare: A Critical Study of his Mind and Art. New York: Harper and Brothers.
  8. Marquis, T (1 January 1896). "Sidney's 'Astrophel and Stella'". Poet Lore.
  9. Rowse, A. L. (1973). Shakespeare's sonnets- the problems solved: a modern edition with prose versions, introduction and notes . New York: Harper and Row. ISBN   9780060136949.
  10. Fleay, Frederick (1892). A biographical chronicle of the English drama. England: B. Franklin.
  11. 1 2 Rollins, Hyder Edward (1951). Sonnets. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.
  12. 1 2 Shakespeare, William (1780). Supplement to the edition of Shakspeare's plays published in 1778 by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. In two volumes. Containing additional observations ... to which are subjoined the genuine poems of the same author, and seven plays that have been ascribed to him; with notes by the editor and others. England: London.
  13. Turpin, William (May 2014). "Ovid's new muse: Amores 1.1". Classical Quarterly. 64: 419–421. doi:10.1017/S0009838813000876. S2CID   170607213.
  14. 1 2 Paterson, Don (2012). Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets. Essex, United Kingdom: Faber & Faber. pp. 45–46. ISBN   978-0-571-26399-8.
  15. 1 2 West, David (2007). Shakespeare's Sonnets: With a New Commentary by David West. London, England: Duckworth Overlook. pp. 53–54. ISBN   978-1-58567-921-8.

Further reading

First edition and facsimile
Variorum editions
Modern critical editions