Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 the Sonnet Essay

The rhyme scheme of this sonnet follows Shakespeare's usual structure, wherein the quatrains all have an independent alternating rhyme (ABAB CDCD EFEF), and the final two lines form an heroic couplet (GG). This adds to the feeling of receiving discrete steps of an argument, and enhances the divisions of the versification. There is also a noticeable prevalence of "l's and "s's in the poem, particularly in the first and third quatrains. these sounds make up the basics of the word "lies," which is itself used as a rhyme and is repeated in the poem, and which forms one of the major themes of the sonnet. In this way, the alliteration subconsciously reinforces the meaning and feel of the poem. There are also instances of repeated words, such as "love" in the lines "O love's best habit is in seeming trust, / and age in love, loves not to have..." (lines 11-2). Though this is also important to his rhetoric, it has the musical effect of repetitive obsession.

Shakespeare's true poetic genius lay in the fact that he could achieve such musicality while at the same time creating incredibly complex rhetorical arguments and images. There is not an instance of metaphor or other easily identified literary trope in the sonnet, but the overall argument Shakespeare lays out in the sonnet -- as well as the specific construction of some of these arguments -- demonstrates his extreme rhetorical skill.As Margreta de Grazia notes, "for both words and sentences, 1600 was a time of innovation and experimentation," and the complexity of Shakespeare's poetic sentences definitely demonstrates this (de Grazia 50). The poem has many examples of this -- nearly every line -- but the final couplet is the most intellectually playful and enjoyable: "Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, / and in our faults by lies we flattered be" (lines 13-4). Not only is there the play on the word "lie," which can be especially ribald in the second line, but the construction of this thought makes the payoff of the word "flattered" much better; the reader doesn't discover the ultimate conclusion of the argument until the last possible second. This final twsit casts humor on the entire poem.

Trough his versification, prosody, and rhetoric, Shakespeare crafted musically and intellectually pleasing sonnets. The regularity of the rhythm combines with the unification achieved through word repetitions and alliteration to give the poem an almost sing-songy feeling, which makes the intellectual depth of the poem almost ironic in the way it is perceived. All in all, this makes for a very enjoyable read, and helped to cement Shakespeare's image as a literary genius.

Works Cited

De Grazia, Margreta. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Cambridge University Press 2001.

Evans, G. Blakemore and M.….....