Sonnet 66
Encyclopedia
Sonnet 66 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare
. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.
Lines 4-7 portray disgraced trust and loyalty, unfairly given authority, as by an unworthy king "Gilden honour shamefully misplaced", and female innocence corrupted "Maiden virtue rudely strumpeted".
Lines 8, 10, and 12, as in lines 2 and 3, characterize reversals of what one deserves, and what one actually receives in life.
As opposed to most of his sonnets, which have a "turn" in mood or thought at line 9, (the beginning of the third quatrain
(See: Sonnets 29
, 18
) the mood of Sonnet 66 does not change until the last line, when the speaker declares that the only thing keeping him alive is his lover. This stresses the fact that his lover is helping him merely survive, whereas sonnets 29 and 30 are much more positive and have 6 lines in which they affirm that the lover is the fulfillment of the poet's life.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.
Synopsis
Sonnet 66 is a world-weary, desperate list of grievances of the state of the poet's society. The speaker criticizes three things: general unfairness of life, societal immorality, and oppressive government. Lines 2 and 3 illustrate the economic unfairness caused by one's station or nobility:- As, to behold desert a beggar born,
- And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
Lines 4-7 portray disgraced trust and loyalty, unfairly given authority, as by an unworthy king "Gilden honour shamefully misplaced", and female innocence corrupted "Maiden virtue rudely strumpeted".
Lines 8, 10, and 12, as in lines 2 and 3, characterize reversals of what one deserves, and what one actually receives in life.
As opposed to most of his sonnets, which have a "turn" in mood or thought at line 9, (the beginning of the third quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
(See: Sonnets 29
Sonnet 29
Sonnet 29 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. This is one of his more ambiguous sonnets: one does not know who the speaker is referring to or if the word "love" in this sonnet refers to a romantic love or a platonic love.- Structure of Sonnet 29...
, 18
Sonnet 18
Sonnet 18, often alternately titled Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare...
) the mood of Sonnet 66 does not change until the last line, when the speaker declares that the only thing keeping him alive is his lover. This stresses the fact that his lover is helping him merely survive, whereas sonnets 29 and 30 are much more positive and have 6 lines in which they affirm that the lover is the fulfillment of the poet's life.
Interpretations
- Alan BatesAlan BatesSir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
, for the 2002 compilation albumCompilation albumA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, When Love SpeaksWhen Love SpeaksWhen Love Speaks is a compilation album that features interpretations of William Shakespeare's sonnets and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians, released under EMI Classics in April 2002.-Track listing:...
(EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
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