16 pages • 32 minutes read
Sonnet 29
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Sonnet 29” is a Shakespearean sonnet. This 14-line form is written in iambic pentameter, meaning each line consists of 10 syllables that alternate between stressed and unstressed.
As it typical, this sonnet contains three quatrains and ends on a rhyming couplet. These distinct sections organize the content and storytelling of a sonnet much like chapters or paragraphs in a work of prose: The first quatrain lays out the speaker’s abject despair, the second quatrain delves into his various jealousies, the third quatrain describes his change of mental state, and the final couplet dispels the original problem. The poem’s escalating structure allows readers to fully understand the weight of the speaker’s feelings, so that when the last quatrain and final couplet reverse the momentum of the poem by resolving the speaker’s misery, this ending carries immense impact and a clear conclusion.
Unlike other Shakespearean sonnets however, “Sonnet 29” has a more oblique volta or turning point. Typically, a volta is usually identified by a period near the beginning of the third quatrain; however, here, the volta is indicated by the grammatically contrarian conjunction “yet” in Line 9, which shows that a transformation in tone, mood, and subject is about to take place.
Rhyme
The rhyme scheme is a very important formal aspect of a sonnet. “Sonnet 29” has the characteristic ABAB rhyme scheme of Shakespearean sonnets in each of its quatrains, ending on the traditional rhyming heroic couplet. However, unlike other sonnets which feature a new set of rhymes in each quatrain, “Sonnet 29” partially repeats its rhymes: Lines 10 and 12 in the third quatrain rhyme with lines 2 and 4 in the first quatrain, repeating and thus placing special emphasis on the word “state.” This highlights the depth of the speaker’s despair and its transformation to contentment.
Apostrophe
An apostrophe poem is a poem addressed to an absent person or idea. In “Sonnet 29,” the speaker is writing about the object of his love, whom he directly addresses twice: “Haply I think on thee” (Line 10) and “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings” (Line 13). By using the informal and personal form of the second-person pronoun (in Shakespeare’s time, “thee” was the familiar form, only used for close friends and family), the poem brings the reader into an intimate space with the speaker and the object of his love. However, though it feels as if the readers are overhearing a private and special conversation of love and gratitude from the speaker to his lover, the lover is not present. The point of the poem is that is that even the thought of the love the speaker and addressee share is enough to dispel depression.
Unlock all 16 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By William Shakespeare
