Sonnet Forms and Interpretations: Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth
Sonnet Studies: Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth
This lecture focuses on deepening our understanding of sonnets, specifically examining Shakespearean and Petrarchan forms through selected works by Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth. The ultimate goal is to move quickly through sonnets to begin our study of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight next week. All discussed sonnets and the instructor's notes are available in OWL for further reference.
Approach to Sonnet Analysis
When analyzing sonnets, it's crucial to remember that there isn't one single, definitive interpretation. Many valid ways exist to understand, analyze, or interpret these works. The insights shared in this lecture represent one possible reading. When conducting your own analysis, focus on specific elements rather than trying to cover everything. Identify particular words, phrases, patterns of imagery, or literary devices. Then, synthesize these observations to articulate what you believe the poem conveys, forming a persuasive interpretation. Consider the sonnet's form, concrete images, and phonetic qualities to build your argument.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 29: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes"
Sonnet 29 opens with the speaker feeling a profound sense of disgrace and isolation. He weeps over his "outcast state," troubles "deaf heaven" with "bootless cries" (futile cries), and curses his fate, wishing to be like others who are richer in hope, more attractive, or possess more friends, art (skills), or scope (range of abilities). He feels discontented with everything he most enjoys.
The Figure of Fortune
Fortune as a Leveling Figure: The sonnet invokes "fortune," a widely recognized allegorical figure in the early modern (Renaissance) period. Fortune was depicted as treating all people equally, regardless of their social standing—from lowly peasants to emperors. Her blindfolded nature implies impartiality, as she doesn't consider rank or circumstance. She is often shown with a wheel, signifying the unpredictable ups and downs of life. For example, a king at the top of the wheel might soon drop to the bottom, just as a peasant might rise.
Reference in King Lear: This concept is echoed in Shakespeare's King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2, line 188, where the banished Kent, imprisoned in the stocks, directly addresses Fortune: "Fortune, good night. Smile once more; turn thy wheel."
Interpretations Linking to Shakespeare's Acting Career
One possible, though idiosyncratic, reading of Sonnet 29 connects the speaker's state to Shakespeare's early experiences as an actor. Shakespeare wrote all his plays for the stage, not intending them for publication or academic study, indicating his deep immersion in the theatrical world. Images in his work often reflect this background.
"Men's eyes": This phrase could refer to how people perceive someone's reputation, but it can also suggest the eyes of the spectators, the audience in a theater, looking at an actor on stage.
"Outcast state" and Self-Observation: The speaker's description of his "outcast state" and his act of "look[ing] upon myself and curse my fate" implies a self-distancing, almost as if he is a spectator watching himself perform or experiencing an out-of-body moment on stage.
"Trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries": Line 3 might allude to the theatrical setting. In Shakespeare's time, the roof over part of the thrust stage was called the "heavens," often painted with stars. Since most plays were performed outdoors (like the Globe Theatre), actors would project their voices and cries upwards toward the sky, effectively "troubling deaf heaven."
"Desiring this man's art and that man's scope": This line (line 7), expressing a wish for another man's skills and range, could reflect an actor's desire for greater talent or versatility, aspiring to be a more accomplished performer with an extensive acting range.
"Change my state with kings": The couplet's line, "I scorn to change my state with kings," further supports this interpretation. Actors frequently portrayed kings in plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Henry V, etc.), so for the speaker to disdain trading his state with kings could imply a rejection of the roles actors often play.
The Volta and Resolution
Volta: The turn, or volta, occurs definitively at the beginning of the third quatrain with the word "Yet." This signals a shift from despair.
Resolution: Despite his feelings of self-despair, the speaker finds solace when, "happily" (meaning by chance, not joyfully), he thinks of a beloved friend. This remembrance transforms his "state" (state of mind or being), making it rise "like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate." The friend's "sweet love remembered" brings a "wealth" that is not monetary but spiritual and emotional, leading him to disdain exchanging his state even with kings. The couplet thus resolves the initial problem of self-pity and envy through the power of friendship.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 30: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought"
Sonnet 30, following directly after Sonnet 29 in most collections, also begins with a "when" clause. This technique, similar to the epic tradition's in medias res, immediately plunges the reader into the speaker's thoughts and recounting of a specific moment.
Legal and Financial Diction
In contrast to Sonnet 29's theatrical allusions, Sonnet 30 is rich with diction drawn from the worlds of law and finance. Words like "sessions," "summon," "sought," "dear" (meaning expensive), "canceled," "expense," "grievances," "tell o'er" (to count up or review accounts), "account," and "pay" evoke a formal, almost bureaucratic world. The speaker reflects on "sweet silent thought" about "remembrance of things past," sighing over "the lack of many a thing I sought" and mourning "old woes" and "dear time's waste."
Shakespeare's Financial Realities
This legal and financial imagery is not surprising when considering Shakespeare's life. While he was an actor and playwright, his significant wealth came not from selling plays or poems, but from his shares in his theater company and box office receipts. Historical records, such as his will (famously leaving his wife his "second best bed") and documents related to property ownership in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, confirm his practical concerns with finance. This poem reflects the universal human concern with money and debt, demonstrating that poetry, despite its artistic nature, is not entirely removed from such pragmatic realities.
Musicality and Sound Effects
The sonnet also demonstrates striking sound effects. Alliteration of soft consonants creates a whispering, hushed tone in lines like "sessions of sweet silent thought, I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought." This contrasts with the harder consonant sounds in words like "woes, wail, waste," and the charged "precious friends hid in death's dateless night," contributing to the poem's musicality.
The Volta and Resolution
Volta: The turn in Sonnet 30 occurs precisely with the opening of the couplet: "But if the while I think on thee, dear friend."
Resolution: The speaker's contemplation of his dear friend brings immediate relief. All past "losses are restored and sorrows end." Figuratively, the remembrance of this friendship acts as a kind of spiritual financial resolution, wiping out his emotional "debts" and making him feel "wealthy." This is a figurative, not literal, restoration of money, but it underscores the profound emotional value of his friendship.
Milton's Sonnet 19: "When I consider how my light is spent"
Moving to the 17th century, John Milton (1608-1674) presents a Petrarchan sonnet, distinct from Shakespeare's form.
Milton's Historical and Religious Context
17th-Century Poet: Milton was a significant 17th-century figure, known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
Deeply Religious and Iconoclastic: He was a staunch Puritan, intensely religious but often disagreeing with established religious norms. He was perceived by some as having a "religion of one."
Anti-Monarchist: Milton was a fervent anti-monarchist, notably writing pamphlets like Icon Basilike advocating for the execution of unjust kings. He was deeply disappointed by the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 after the English Revolution.
Blindness: Crucially, Milton went blind. This sonnet directly addresses his personal experience of losing his eyesight.
Petrarchan Sonnet Form
This sonnet's rhyme scheme – ABBA ABBA for the octave (first eight lines) and CDE CDE (or sometimes CDC DCD) for the sestet (last six lines) – confirms it as Petrarchan, which is different from the Shakespearean form of three quatrains and a couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG).
Problem Articulated: Blindness and Service to God
The sonnet, opening with a "when" clause, immediately situates the speaker's predicament. It directly reflects Milton's personal struggle with blindness. The speaker considers "how my light is spent ere half my days in this dark world and wide," referring to his lost vision. He laments that his "one talent" (meaning his ability to write, echoing the New Testament parable of talents, which concerned money management) is "lodged with me useless." He feels a deep desire "to serve there with my Maker" and present his "true account" (of his life's work) but questions how he can do so without his sight. He foolishly ("fondly") asks, "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?" – wondering if God expects continued labor from someone who cannot see.
The Volta and Resolution: Patience
Volta: The turn occurs subtly with "But patience, to prevent that murmur, soon replies." Here, "Patience" is personified (often capitalized), functioning as an allegorical figure representing the abstract quality of patience.
Patience's Counsel: Patience answers the speaker by stating that "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts." God is self-sufficient and requires nothing from humanity. Instead, those who serve him best are those who "best bear his mild yoke" – patiently and calmly accept the burdens of life that God has placed upon them without complaint. The famous concluding lines, "Thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait," emphasize that quiescent endurance and devotion are as valuable to God as active service. This provides consolation, suggesting the speaker should passively await God's plan.
Connection to Paradise Lost: This theme of seeking inward light is also found in Book 3 of Paradise Lost, where the poet/speaker invokes celestial light, asking for an inward illumination to compensate for his physical blindness, writing: "So much the rather thou Celestial Light Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers irradiate."
Wordsworth's "Surprised by joy—impatient as the wind"
This sonnet transports us to the Romantic era with William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Like Milton's, this is a Petrarchan sonnet and a deeply personal one, but it offers a stark contrast in its resolution.
Wordsworth's Context and Poetics
Romantic Poet: Wordsworth's dates place him in the late 18th and early to mid-19th centuries.
Deist, Not Deeply Religious: Unlike the devout Milton, Wordsworth was a deist, experiencing God more in nature ("every flower and everywhere") than through formal religious tenets. Consequently, traditional religious consolation, as found in Milton's sonnet, is not available to him.
Autobiographical Elegy: This sonnet is a poignant elegy, a poem of mourning for a loved one. It is autobiographical, dedicated to his young daughter, Catherine, who tragically died of tuberculosis in 1812 at the age of three. The poem reflects a search for consolation, yet it avoids easy sentimentality or religious dogma.
Wordsworth's Theory of Poetry: In his preface to Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" and the "emotion recollected in tranquility." While tranquility might be absent here, the poem vividly demonstrates the recollection and return of powerful emotions.
The Problem: Ephemeral Joy and Lingering Grief
The sonnet opens with Wordsworth experiencing a sudden, unexpected surge of "joy." Impatiently, "as the wind," he instinctively turns "to share the transport" (his great elation). However, this spontaneous movement is immediately met with the devastating realization: the person he wishes to share it with is his daughter, "long buried in the silent tomb." The phrase "that spot which no vicissitude can find" emphasizes the permanence and inaccessibility of death; he can never recapture or return to that past state of sharing joy with her.
Guilt and the Return of Pain
His faithful love for his daughter recalls her to his mind. This then leads to a profound moment of self-reproach: "But how could I forget thee? Through what power Even for the least division of an hour Have I been so beguiled as to be blind To my most grievous loss?" He feels immense guilt for even a fleeting moment of forgetting her death, viewing it almost as a dishonor or a failure of love. This "gravest loss" refers to the profound grief caused by her passing.
Comparison of Sorrows
The Worst Pain: The return of this thought, the sudden re-remembrance of her death after a moment of joy, is described as "the worst pain that sorrow ever bore." This is the second-worst pain.
The Absolute Worst: He qualifies this by saying "Save one, one only" – the single worst pain was the initial moment he stood "forlorn, knowing my heart's best treasure was no more" when she first died.
Lack of Consolation
No Resolution: Unlike the Shakespearean sonnets' clear resolutions or Milton's religious consolation, Wordsworth's sonnet offers no such comfort. The closing lines underscore this bleak reality: "neither present time nor years unborn Put to my sight that heavenly face restore." He acknowledges that she is permanently gone; no future time, nor even the promise of an afterlife (which is not presented through a Christian theological lens despite the phrase "heavenly face"), will bring her back into his sight. This contrasts sharply with Milton's speaker, who anticipates divine reward and restoration through patience.
Return and Recollection: The poem is characterized by a continuous action of "return" and "remembrance," grappling with the impossibility of restoring what is lost through the power of imagination. Wordsworth frequently returned to places he had visited, metaphorically attempting to bring back past feelings, but here he confronts the ultimate loss that cannot be reversed by memory or imagination.
Next Steps
Next lecture, we will continue our exploration of sonnets by examining a work by Keats, determining whether it adheres to the Petrarchan or Shakespearean form. This concludes our session on sonnets for today.