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Sonnet 154 from the 1609 Quarto.

Sonnet 154 is the last of all Shakespeare’s sonnets and the last sequence dedicated to the “"Dark Lady”. The Fair Youth ceased to be the poet’s focus since Sonnet 127 and the woman has been central. Her identity is unknown and, as with the boy, it is a matter of academic debate as to whether she is fictional or a woman he loved in real life. The story behind this change remains a mystery. The Fair Youth sonnets were more spiritual and concerned with the pain of love, whereas the “Dark Lady” sonnets deal more with sexual passion.

In Shakespeare’s time many sonneteers wrote as an intellectual exercise intended for friends and other writers who were also producing sonnets, though it is believed by many not to be the case with Shakespeare’s sonnets and that they reflect the true events of his life. Others, though, dispute this.

Sonnet 154, like Sonnet 153, tells the Roman mythological story of Cupid, the god of Love. The two sonnets are so close that one might wonder why the second one was written. And like the previous sonnet the speaker longs to master his feelings for the Dark Lady but finds that “water cools not love”. And so he remains trapped.

ABOUT SONNETS
A sonnet is a poem which expresses a thought or idea and develops it, often cleverly and wittily.

The sonnet genre is often, although not always, about ideals or hypothetical situations. It reaches back to the Medieval Romances, where a woman is loved and idealised by a worshipping admirer. For example, Sir Philip Sydney in the Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence wrote in this mode. Poems were circulated within groups of educated intellectuals and they did not necessarily reflect the poet’s true emotions, but were a form of intellectual showing-off. This may not have been true of all; it is a matter of academic debate today as to whether Shakespeare’s sonnets were autobiographical.
BBC Podcast, Melvyn Bragg, “In Our Time” Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Sonnets are made up of fourteen lines, each being ten syllables long. Its rhymes are arranged according to one of the following schemes:

• Italian, where eight lines consisting of two quatrains make up the first section of the sonnet, called an octave. This section will explore a problem or an idea. It is followed by the next section of six lines called a sestet, that forms the ‘answer’ or a counter-view. This style of sonnet is also sometimes called a Petrarchan sonnet.

• English, which comprises three quatrains, making twelve lines in total, followed by a rhyming couplet. They too explore an idea. The ‘answer’ or resolution comes in the final couplet. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern. Edmund Spenser’s sonnets are a variant.

At the break in the sonnet — in Italian after the first eight lines, in English after twelve lines — there is a ‘turn’ or volta, after which there will be a change or new perspective on the preceding idea.

Language
The metre is iambic pentameter, that is five pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables to the line. The effect is elegant and rhythmic, and conveys an impression of dignity and seriousness. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern.

Rhyme Scheme
The rhyming pattern comprises three sets of four lines, forming quatrains, followed by a closed rhyming couplet.

In Sonnet 154 it forms ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. This is typical of Shakespeare’s compositions.

See Don Paterson – Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Faber & Faber, 2012
Helen Vendler The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Harvard University Press
Shakespeare’s Sonnets with Three Hundred Years of Commentary, Associated University Press 2007
BBC Podcast, Melvyn Bragg, “In Our Time” Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

  1. 154.
    Sonnet 154
Credits
Release Date
January 1, 1609
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