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Sonnets | Shakespeare's Career as a "Sonneteer"

Essay discussing the composition of the sonnets in the context of Shakespeare's life. Answers the question: Why did Shakespeare write the sonnets? Touches on how Shakespeare departed from the traditional sonnet style.

In all likelihood, Shakespeare wrote the 154 verse pieces that constitute his Sonnets at an early juncture in his career, and after 1598 or so, he abandoned both the sonnet form and the composition of non-dramatic poetry. Shakespeare's motives in engaging in this genre at a time when he had already written several plays was undoubtedly related to a short-lived fad in the court of Queen Elizabeth. In 1591, a year or two before Shakespeare began to write sonnets, Sir Philip Sydney's Astrophel and Stella sonnet cycle was first published, and its immediate popularity among...

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