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Sonnet 138 Analysis Essay

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In order for a poem to be classified as a sonnet, it must meet certain structural requirements, and Sonnet 138, "When my love swears that she is made of truth," is a perfect example. Shakespeare employs the traditional rhyme scheme of the English sonnet, the poem is made up of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, and iambic pentameter is the predominant meter. However, it would be an error to approach this poem as a traditional Shakespearean love sonnet. It is a ‘love' poem in the sense that a relationship between two lovers is the central theme, but the reader is offered a somewhat unexpected viewpoint. The stylistic constraints of the sonnet form are extremely advantageous here, for they serve as a backdrop against which the …show more content…

The phrase is also a paradox, for the poem has committed the reader to a world of intellectual complexity and sophistication, in which "truth" has become elusive and problematical: not simple at all. In this respect, the reader is able to feel the speaker's nostalgic yearning for an innocent world of simple verities.

The third stanza begins with questions from the speaker:

"But wherefore says she not she is unjust?

And wherefore say not I that I am old?"

These questions are not asked out of curiosity but posed rhetorically, so that the speaker himself can answer them. Figurative language is used to achieve this: the speaker uses a clothing metaphor when he states that the best covering love can possibly wear (and the best routine behaviour to sustain love between lovers) is an appearance of trustfulness. "Told" in the next line draws on its more literal meaning as well, reinforcing the issue of "youth" by informing the reader of the older partner's reluctance to have their age discussed, even in private. Shakespeare also uses personification when referring to "love" in these two lines, making the statements seem

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