Hamlet, Act 3, Scene III, Line 87, No.

To Quote Hamlet, Act III, Scene III, Line 87, “No.”

(A discussion on my three favorite sonnets of Shakespeare)

It is ordinary, everyday knowledge that Shakespeare was a renowned playwright and author. Despite this, many people do not recognize that the illustrious Shakespeare was also a poet, and wrote over a hundred sonnets in his lifetime. In fact, he penned exactly one hundred fifty-four sonnets, with fourteen lines each, and totaling in two thousand, one hundred fifty-six lines. These multitudinous verses have perplexed scholars and readers for centuries, as the meaning of some of the sonnets is unclear. This confusion also pertains to the subject of the myriad of sonnets. The majority of them, about one hundred twenty-seven of the poems,

In, “Lo, in the orient when the gracious light, Lifts up his burning head,” (William Shakespeare, Sonnet VII, lines 1-2) it is divulged that the poet is connecting the youth to the sun in an effort to persuade the man to procreate. The youth is affectionately welcomed by all in the beginning of his life, akin to people worshiping the sun as it rises. However, after he grows old and becomes decrepit and unprepossessing, the people will not greet him as they once did. This is, once again, like the sun, as no one venerates the star as it sets. However, the sun always rises each day, and humans cannot live after they die. The solution to this is stated by Stephen Booth in, “The pun on ‘sun’ capsules the paradox by which the dying father lives again in—is—his child,” (Booth 144) it is shown that the closest process to resurrection the youth has is if he has children and passes his likeness, and his handsomeness, to these offspring. Therefore, if the youth does not become a father and have a son, then he will not be able to be like the sun and rise again, with beauty, through his progeny. In truth, the scale of this extended metaphor is not matched by any of the sonnets preceding it. While the other poems do utilize this figure of speech, it does not continue and expand with each line as the metaphor in sonnet VII. Plainly, the