Sonnets | The Friend
In the first excerpt, Stephen Spender suggests that the young man of the sonnets possesses a double or divided nature. Spender also discusses what he sees as the Friend's narcissism. In the second excerpt, Hallett Smith surveys the personality of the Friend and his relationship with the Poet as these are generally represented in Sonnets 18-126.
Commentators frequently maintain that the young man of the sonnets is an indistinct figure, presented suggestively rather than concretely. David R. Shore, for example, agreed with others that there is a remarkable lack of visual specificity about him: the speaker praises the Friend's extraordinary beauty but doesn't tell us what he looks like. Similarly, J. B. Leishman remarked that we don't know how tall he is or the color of his eyes and hair; nor do we ever see him in the midst of some activity where he displays the charms and graces the Poet ascribes to him. Heather Dubrow (1981)...
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