Sonnets | Themes

The first 126 sonnets in Shakespeare's sonnets are said to constitute a cycle, having controlling themes and a narrative progression that implies a dramatic plot of sorts. We do not know for certain that the order in which the first 126 sonnets were first printed (and are still printed) is the order that Shakespeare himself conceived. Yet there is indirect evidence to indicate that Shakespeare was consciously following the sonnet cycle model of earlier poets (including Sidney), so that certain themes and implied dramatic situations unite sections of the Sonnets and then give way to...

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