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William ShakespeareSonnet 116
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1609A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
The sonnet form was invented by Giacomo da Lentini in the 13th century in Italy. The sonnet, which is derived from sonetto, which means “little song” in Italian, is traditionally a 14-line poetic form that includes a turn, also known as a volta, highlighting a change in direction of the poet’s thought. Shakespeare’s sonnets are among the earliest English sonnets. The English sonnet arose from the Italian sonnet, or Petrarchan sonnet, named after the famous Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca who popularized the form.
The English sonnet was invented by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who brought the Italian sonnet to England in the mid-1500’s. Wyatt innovated the sonnet by modifying it from its Italian version. By lowering the number of similar rhymes, the sonnet became better suited to the comparatively rhyme-poor English language, offering a greater variety of rhymes through the quatrain divisions. The Earl of Surrey, a follower of Wyatt, gained great popularity for his sonnets. The height of the sonnet’s ascendance in England was from 1580-1600. Though Shakespeare did not invent the form, it is given his name because his sonnets are considered some of the greatest ever written. However, upon their publication in 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets were largely ignored by the public, as the form had not been popular for approximately thirty years.
Shakespeare was influenced by Sir Philip Sydney, whose sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella was first published in 1591. Sydney’s sonnets discuss the tension between reason and passion, a theme that Shakespeare also explores. Astrophil and Stella feature fully developed characters rather than archetypes. Shakespeare similarly gives the characters within his sonnets greater depth than other previous sonneteers.
“Sonnet 116” is part of a sonnet collection that is divided into three groups: sonnets 1-126 (including this sonnet) are addressed to a young man who is a close friend; sonnets 127-152, are addressed to a woman known as “the dark woman,” a lover who has betrayed the poet by having an affair with the young man (an event that is revealed in “Sonnet 144”); and sonnets 153-154 are translations of Greek epigrams that feature mythological subject matter. The sonnet’s major subjects, from the mutability of life to the immutability of the spirit and art, from love as a soulmate bond to love as a painful experience, are topics that were popular among Renaissance poets. However, Shakespeare approaches these themes with a depth of insight and psychological acuity that distinguished him from his fellow poets. The many unusual qualities of Shakespeare’s sonnets within the literary canon, and especially when compared to the sonnets of his time, reflect his departure from the Petrarchan tradition. In Shakespeare’s sonnets, while the beloved is highly praised, she is not an impossible object of otherworldly perfection: she has flaws, and he is willing to point them out, as he famously did in “Sonnet 130.” Likewise, the platonic love for the young man does not cause the poet to ignore the young man’s flaws, and the poet feels a sense of shame and betrayal when he becomes aware of the affair between the two. The intriguing narrative thread between the two sections of the sonnets is another one of Shakespeare’s innovations.
Authorial Context
Outbreaks of the Black Plague devastated Europe during the last decade of the 16th century, and closures of London’s theaters from 1592 - 1594 meant that the theater was no longer a vehicle for Shakespeare’s financial and creative ambitions. In addition to the plague’s detrimental effects on the theater, another possible motive in Shakespeare’s shift toward writing poetry was the perception that the theater was not a serious artistic endeavor. In Elizabethan England, writing plays for the theater was not afforded the same literary merit or social clout as writing poetry. Critics hypothesize that Shakespeare was seeking to establish himself as a serious artist by writing in a form that was considered high art, as opposed to writing for the theater, which was considered popular entertainment. There was greater social mobility in England during this time, and London’s booming population meant that Shakespeare had increased opportunities to seek patronage for his poetry, which could serve as an additional source of income besides his playwriting.
In 1594, he began writing in a popular poetic narrative form with the goal of securing a wealthy patron. His first poem, Venus and Adonis, was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, a young courtier from whom Shakespeare was seeking patronage. It was immensely popular, and Shakespeare followed it up with a second narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, published in 1594. The second dedication to the Earl of Southampton in this poem is evidence that Shakespeare secured his financial support. During this time, Shakespeare began composing his sonnets, and he wrote them over the course of approximately seventeen years, starting in 1592 and ending in 1609, with the majority composed between 1593 and 1596. Following the re-opening of the theaters, Shakespeare returned to focusing on the theater and writing plays.
His sonnets are lyric poems, as opposed to narrative, but the sonnets read in succession carry the suggestion of a story that is unfolding as the poet is writing the sonnets. The sense of verisimilitude, or authenticity, that the sonnets have has created much controversy about whether the content in the sonnets was inspired by real life or simply the result of Shakespeare’s vivid imagination. There are numerous theories about who the young man and the dark lady could have been, and whether the betrayal depicted in the sonnet’s was based on a real-life situation. Regardless of the controversy surrounding how autobiographical the sonnets are, the poems remain among the most famous in English, known for their vivid imagery and lyrical power.
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By William Shakespeare
