Analysis of Shakespeares Sonnet 29 - Essay Example

? Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 Number Number Teacher’s Due Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 is one of the most analyzed and famous of his poems. The sonnet talks about the fickleness of fate and this is seen in the dramatic shift that results from the poem’s octet to its sestet. The first part of the poem talks of the poet’s complete disgrace. Shakespeare then beautifully channelizes the intensity of the sonnet form to talk of redemption for the narrator figure in the love of his beloved. This ability to emerge from difficulties for the lover has been seen by some as a reference to the difficulties that were encountered by Shakespeare during the days when the theatres of London had shut down due to the plague (Mabillard). The sonnet, however, is also important for the fact that conventional tropes of the sonnet are employed by the poet to create a new idea. The narrator here does not pine away for the beloved. The love of the beloved is assured him and this is what gives him the confidence to deal with the rest of the world and his own troubles. Shakespeare’s trouble during the period in which Sonnet 29 was written was mainly due to the shutting down of theatres is London due to the plague. This meant that he had to tour the outskirts of London in order to find any sort of work. The financial misery of this time was great and caused him great worry. He devoted a large part of his energies to the production of his sonnets as well. However, it has always been ambiguous whether the troubles that Shakespeare talks of during the course of the poem are those that are reflected from his life or the ones that love sonnets usually talk of (Mabillard). The difficulties of understanding this arise primarily from the conflict and tension that builds up in the first half of the poem. This subsequently eases as one moves to the sestet where the poet speaks of the respite that he is able to achieve from his lover. The narrator turns from his misery to happiness like a “lark at break of day arising/ From sullen earth” (Shakespeare). The likening of the narrator to a lark complicates the situation as one may look upon the lark as an embodiment of the artist. This makes one wonder whether the figure of the narrator is largely derived from the person of William Shakespeare or not. There are however, certain interpretations that argue against an association between the persona of the narrator and the persona of the poet. Such biographical interpretations only serve to localize the focus of the analysis, thus reducing the depth of the analysis. The importance of the poet, according to such commentators, is limited to providing the text of the poem after which the poem is free for interpretation by the numerous readers of it. The importance of this interpretation stems from the theories that were advanced by the French thinker, Roland Barthes, who argued against biographical information being a part of analyses of literary works. According to such analyses, the work of art needs to be placed in its historical and formal sites and analyzed in those aspects (Stubbes). The poem, while analyzed through the formal aspects too, yields many meanings. The lament of the lover is expressed in the first part of the sonnet. Worldly possessions are spoken of with envy and bitterness in the first half. Even here, however, wealth as it is known in conventional terms is denounced and it is mostly expressed in transcendental terms. The poet is unhappy not about the lack of wealth but about the fact that heaven would not answer his “bootless cries” (Shakespeare). He wishes to be similar in state, to not a person who is wealthy, but to one who is “more rich in hope” (Shakespeare) than he. The ideas that are outlined in the first half, thus, if analyzed, keeping out the biographical references, do point back to a few of the concerns that Shakespeare as a poet had. The poem’s break in the second half is one where the transition is effected smoothly. This is because a close analysis of the first half would reveal that the narrator’s interests lie not in wealth as it is understood in conventional terms. The narrator is always interested in success of kinds that are not entirely materialistic. As a result of this, the sestet of the sonnet does not come as a surprise to the seasoned reader of poetry. The narrator’s inclination towards wealth of other kinds is revealed in the sestet. He revels in the love of the beloved. The attentions of the beloved are what sustain him in his misery. The beloved’s love is despite the fall from grace and the lack of wealth on the part of the narrator. The love of the beloved, thus, contrasts with the ostracization that the narrator has had to face from the rest of the world. The attitude of the narrator and that of the beloved regarding wealth can thus be equated in a certain sense and can be placed outside the materialistic designs of the mundane. The sonnet is, thus, different from many of the earlier sonnets in history that were written in praise of women of high stature, with materialistic intentions. The real surprise and shock for the reader thus comes from the attitude of the beloved and not the lover. In the second part of the sonnet, we see a woman who conventionally does not have any power in the society rising to the level of the male lover, a position that was denied to women in traditional society and also in literature. Shakespeare, thus, is able to provide his female protagonist with an empowered voice, even in her absence from the work of art. The heroine of his poem is able to navigate the mazes of power to attain agency for herself and this is where the surprise of the poem lies - in the agency that is granted to the beloved. She has the power to bestow her attention on the narrator, who is impoverished from a worldly point of view. This is the only wealth that the lover possesses and the love and attentions of the woman is considered to be equal and even better than the wealth that is owned by royalty. The importance of sonnet 29 lies in the importance that the beloved is granted by the poet in the scheme of things. The lover is unable to live without the beloved’s love and loyalty and the allegiance that the lover owes to her is based not only on the sexual instincts of man but also on the emotional connection that the two feel. Unlike in Petrarchan sonnets, the beloved is not raised onto a pedestal and a relationship of equality is maintained between the lover and the beloved (Miller). Shakespeare, thus, creates a form for the sonnet that is entirely his own. The innovations that he introduces into the form of the sonnet are, however, not only formal but also thematic. The questions of the impoverished poet and his relationship with his art are also something that is explored in the sonnet. These issues had not been explored in earlier forms of the sonnet. Shakespeare, as he does in his plays, provides his female protagonists with a certain amount of agency and makes the male protagonist aware of the dynamics of the relationship, which are liberal for the times that Shakespeare wrote in. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. ‘Sonnet 29’. Shakespeare-online.com. Web. 16th March, 2012. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/29.html. Mabillard, Amanda. ‘An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 29’. Shakespeare-online.com. Web. 16th March, 2012. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/29detail.html Stubbes, Philip. ‘Shakespeare’s Sonnets’. Shakespeares-sonnets.com. Web. 16th March, 2012.http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/29 Miller, Nelson. ‘Basic Sonnet Forms’. Sonnets.org. Web. 16th March, 2012. http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm Read More