Sonnet 2 is one of
154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
. It is a
procreation sonnet within the
Fair Youth sequence.
Structure
Sonnet 2 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet, which consists of three
quatrains followed by a
couplet. It follows the form's typical
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB r ...
: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Like all but one sonnet in the sequence, it is written in
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...
, a type of poetic
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions:
× / × / × / × / × /
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, (2.9)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
Analysis
Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
Sonnet 2 is the second procreation sonnet. It urges the young man to have a child and thereby protect himself from reproach by preserving his beauty against Time's destruction.
Sonnet 2 begins with a military siege metaphor, something that occurs often in sonnets and poetry — from
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
(‘he ploughs the brow with furrows’) and
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
(‘furrows which may plough your body will come already’) to Shakespeare's contemporary,
Drayton, “The time-plow’d furrows in thy fairest field.” The image is used here as a metaphor for a wrinkled brow. Trenches are also carved into a field when a farmer plows, and the agricultural connotation is touched on two lines later with the image of worthless weeds.
Livery is usually a uniform for a butler or soldier, which may suggest that the young man's beauty does not belong to him.
In the second quatrain, it points out that when the young man is old and asked where his beauty went, and he must then answer that his treasure is found only in his own self-absorbed “deep sunken” eyes, it would be a shame.
The third quatrain suggests that this waste and shame could be avoided if the young man were to have a child who could inherit his beauty.
Interpretations
*
Caroline Blakiston, for the 2002
compilation album, ''
When Love Speaks
''When Love Speaks'' is a compilation album that features interpretations of William Shakespeare's sonnets – some spoken, some set to music – and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians, released under EMI Classics in April ...
'' (
EMI Classics
EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...
)
References
Further reading
*Baldwin, T. W. ''On the Literary Genetics of Shakspeare's Sonnets''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.
*Hubler, Edwin. ''The Sense of Shakespeare's Sonnets''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.
External links
*
An analysis of the sonnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 002
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare