What is a Sonnet? 📜 | PLUS analysis of Sonnet 18 | That is The Question | Shakespeare's Globe

Did you know Shakespeare DIDN'T invent the sonnet? Join Dr. Will Tosh in an exploration of the history and structure of this poetic form made famous by the Bard.

In this episode, we'll learn about the unexpected italian origins of the sonnet, and how Shakespeare put his own innovative spin on the traditional form to popularize it. Restructuring the rhyme scheme and meter to beautifully to express complex ideas and emotions in a mere 14 lines!

Then we'll put this learning into practise, and analyse Shakespeare’s (arguably) most renowned sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to see his poetic mastery in action. What does it mean? Who is it about? And is it truly as romantic as we have been led to believe?

Lastly we’ll delve into the intriguing story behind his sequence of love sonnets dedicated to his mysterious “fair youth” and “dark lady” muses to whom Shakespeare's sonnets are dedicated.

In this episode we’ll dive into the lyrical world of William Shakespeare’s sonnets and discover, what makes a sonnet a sonnet?

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction from Dr. Will Tosh
00:53 Original definition of the sonnet
01:42 Who invented the sonnet?
02:00 What is a Petrarchan sonnet?
02:25 What is a Shakespearean sonnet?
03:31 Reading Sonnet 18
04:33 What does 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day' mean?
05:31 Who is Sonnet 18 about?
06:08 Who is the Fair Youth and Dark Lady?
06:36 Conclusion
06:55 Further Reading

FURTHER READING:
• Don Paterson, Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary (Faber and Faber, 2012)

• Hannah Crawforth, Elizabeth Scott-Baumann and Clare Whitehead (eds.), The Sonnets: The State of Play (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2017)

• Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells (eds), All the Sonnets of Shakespeare (Cambridge University Press, 2020) https://bit.ly/AllTheSonnetsCS

• Carol Mejia LaPerle, ‘The Racialized Affects of Ill-Will in the Dark Lady Sonnets’ (2022) https://bit.ly/RaceAndAffectBlog
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