Sonnet 34


's Sonnet 34 is included in what is referred to as the Fair Youth sequence, and it is the second of a briefer sequence concerned with a betrayal of the poet committed by the young man, who is addressed as a personification of the sun.

Structure

Sonnet 34 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, composed of three quatrains and a final couplet. It follows the form's typical rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It is written in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. Line 12 exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

 × / × / × / × / × / 
To him that bears the strong offence's loss.

It is possible that for Shakespeare the couplet embodied a true rhyme even though seemingly the singular shed would not have made a true rhyme with deed.

Interpretations