William Shakespeare Research Paper

William Shakespeare, one of the most influential writers of 17th century, was very well known for his work in theatre and as a poet. In his sonnets, Shakespeare uses imagery and objects of nature as metaphor in describing beauty through contrast and aging.
Sonnets were the pop songs of Shakespeare’s era, a very fashionable poetic; all gentlemen were required to learn them as a discipline and a sign of one’s education. A good sonnet alluded to a good education, conveying one’s upbringing as one of a wealthier status. Although the Shakespearean sonnet, written in iambic pentameter with three quatrains, a rhyming couplet, and a rhyme scheme a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g, was not crafted by Shakespeare, he made it popular and wrote many sonnets
W. H. is the only “begetter” of the sonnets. They were first published in quarto, this consisted of three divisions and a poem called “A Lover’s Complaint. It has “every appearance of having intentionally preserved the order in which the sonnets were written” with a few minor exceptions (Butler 8). “No second edition was called for” (Butler 9) and after this edition, the sonnets were not reprinted until 1640 when J. Benson published a work including most of sonnets but omitting 18, 19, 43, 56, 75, 76, 96, 126 and generally disarranging them. This was apparently an unintentional consequence due to his carelessness and lackadaisical attitude. In 1709, the sonnets were published with “the whole of Shakespeare’s poems” (Butler 11) in original order by Lintott. And so began the printing history of the sonnets. Many additional editions have been made and many analysis and commentary exist. As mentioned previously, the ambition of this paper is to show how in the sonnets Shakespeare describes beauty through contrast and aging. Several sonnets have been selected to emphasize his use of imagery and objects of nature as
The next few lines explain the discovery of the newly hot spring’s healing powers, it provides “Against strange malladies, a sovereigne cure.” Proceeding this revelation, it is revealed to the reader that the maid, that is the source of cupid’s love flame, is the speaker’s lover. He finds he wants to be cured of her love, but finds no relief from the bath. Sonnet 154 begins with Cupid still sleeping, now laying beside him is the “heart-inflaming brand”. In lines 3-5, many nymphs, who had vowed chasity, came by but only the fairest of them picked up the flame. She then, in lines 6-8, describes cupid as the “general of hot desire” and the nymph had “disarmed” him. The nymph then, just as the maid in the previous sonnet, quenched the brand in a cool well, giving it perpetual heat and “Growing a bath of healthfull remedy.” Just like in Sonnet 153, the writer claims the nymph as his mistress and he then goes to the bath for a cure, summed up in the last line, “Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.” Again, the speaker was not able to find a cure in the healing