Sonnet 30

Sonnet 30 by Aireen Olinda
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
was an English poet,
playwright,
and actor,
widely regarded as the
greatest writer
in the English language
and the world's greatest
dramatist.
• an “English,” or “Shakespearean” sonnet—that is,
it is composed of three quatrains and a couplet of iambic
pentameter,
rhymed abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
• what is different about the structure of this sonnet is that
there is far less development from quatrain to quatrain than
is usual
for the overall collection.
• Shakespeare most often develops his sonnets by moving
his argument in three quite distinct steps to its concluding
couplet, or by developing three quite different images to
be tied neatly together in the closing lines.
• this sonnet, however, has far more repetition than
differentiation from quatrain to quatrain.
• the differences are subtle: the quatrains quietly move from
speaker of “Sonnet 30” has a lot of regrets and disappointm
d as soon as the speaker starts to reminisce about “things p
regrets and disappointments come flocking in, overwhelmin
er.
speaker broods over “the lack of many a thing I sought”—in
words, about missed opportunities.
speaker also weeps over old friends, long dead:
en can I drown an eye, unused to flow, / For precious friends
death’s dateless night.”
speaker grieves lost loves too: “love’s long since cancelled
first 12 lines of the poem thus constitute a long,
stive list of all the things the speaker grieves and regrets.
• Strikingly, these disappointments and sorrows
don’t seem to have faded with time.
• Time usually takes the sting out of grief and
disappointment, but that’s not the case for this
speaker.
• The speaker no sooner thinks of some “fore-
bemoaned moan”
than the speaker has to“new pay as if not paid
before.”
• In other words, the speaker endures the pain all
over again—
e first 12 lines of the poem are thus dark and full of despair
e speaker occupies a world in which no one ever really heal
here hurt and pain last forever without subsiding or becomin
arable. And reflecting on the past—remembering it—only
ngs that pain back with all its power and difficulty.
Figurative Devices
Alliteration
It is a stylistic device in
which a numbers of word,
having the same first
consonant
sound, occur close together
in a series.
Symbolism
an artistic and poetic
movement or style using
symbolic images and
indirect suggestion to
express mystical ideas,
emotions, and states of
mind.
Sweet can represent as
one of our physical
senses, taste,
symbolizing youth,
memories are happy
and soothing
Repetition
a literary device that
repeats the same words or
phrases a few times to
make an idea clearer.
Personification
The non-human objects are
portrayed in such a way
that we feel they have the
ability to act like human
beings.
"Drown an eye" (line 5) acts

as a metaphor for weeping
Theme and Tone
Memory and Reminiscence
The opening lines of “Sonnet 30” establish the
central theme of the poem as the speaker, writing to
a friend, shares “remembrances of things past” with
much heartache. Ironically, it is the vague way
Shakespeare handles this theme which many critics
cite as the poem’s fatal flaw. The speaker never
focuses his details enough for the reader to connect
on an emotional level and share these feelings of
“woe” and “grief.” Instead Shakespeare provides
abstractions, never telling us exactly what were the
“many a things” he sought during his life. Who are
the friends now “hid in death’s dateless night?”
Whose “love long since canceled woe” is making him
well up with tears? What are the “many a vanished
sight” and the “grievances forgone” which are
making him moan from line to line?
Friendship
The extended sequence of which
“Sonnet 30” was a part conveys a
strong theme of friendship. Many of the
sonnets were written to a young male
friend whom Shakespeare loved dearly
(and platonically), often commenting on
his beauty, urging him to marry a nice
woman and have children. “Sonnet 30,”
though too abstract to find any specific
mention of this common character in
the sequence, is most likely written as a
direct address to a friend.
Historical Content
Although it is one of the more abstract poems in
the sequence, our understanding of “Sonnet 30”
grows as we discover the context in which
Shakespeare wrote the poem and the rest of the
lengthy sequence. He wrote the poem less than a
decade before his death, an older poet reminiscing
back on his long life, reflecting on his regrets and
woes. Some critics point to the repeated use of
“legal” and “financial” terms peppered throughout
the poem to conclude Shakespeare is specifically
griping about his many debts. On the other hand,
since the speaker of the poem is remembering
himself as a younger man, the repeated use of
those terms may reflect the position Shakespeare’s
father held as the poet began his career in the
theater.
Historical Content
Having grown up with a father in one
of Stratford’s highest municipal
positions, bailiff and justice and
peace, he surely developed a strong
legal vocabulary. Also contradicting
the popular interpretation of the
poem is the evidence that
Shakespeare enjoyed prosperity from
childhood to retirement, sending his
children to the finest grammar
schools, profiting handsomely from
his long career in the theater and his
real estate investments.
Historical Content
• In order to gain a wider context surrounding
the publication of these poems, it is
important to note the drastic changes that
occurred across Europe. Shakespeare lived
and wrote his famous sonnet sequence
during the Renaissance, a period of sweeping
cultural, social, and political change. The
influence of the Catholic Church, an
institution that had dominated all aspects of
life throughout Europe during the medieval
times, was giving way to more secular, less
spiritual forces. The religious Reformation
challenged the absolute authority of the pope
in spiritual matters and emphasized

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What are some of the figurative devices used in the sonnets?

What are the main themes explored in the sonnets?

Sonnet 30 by Aireen Olinda

"Drown an eye" (line 5) acts

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