Question

In Shakespeare's "Sonnet LXVI" (66), what literary techniques are used?

Accepted Answer

While there is the apparent observation of the fourteen-line structure and rhyme scheme of the Elizabethan sonnet, the most salient literary techniques of Shakespeare's Sonnet LXVI are repetition and parallelism.  After these, the use of synedoche and antithesis exists, a usage prevalent in the Sonnets.
repetition and parallelism - Lines 2 through 12 begin with the word And, after which is a parallel structure of (adjective) noun + adverb + verb.
alliteration - Along with the breathless pace of so many lines being joined by the conjunction and, a hurried pace is also created with the use of alliteration with the beginning cosonant sounds of /b/ in line 2 with "behold,"and "beggar born"; the /n/ in line 3 ["needy nothing"];/t/ in line 9 /s/ with "tongue-tied"; in line 11 with "simple" and "simplicity; and /c/ with "captive" and "captain."  
framing/parallelism - Lines 1 and 13 frame the sonnet with feelings of melancholy and despair; then the other lines are all structured in similar patterns.
personification - In line 7 "right perfection" is given the human quality of being "disgraced wrongfully", while in line 12, "good" is characterized as being "captive";"ill" is a "captain."
antithesis, a contrast between two things, is certainly apparent in this poignant sonnet.  For instance, most of lines 2 through 12 exhibit opposing opposites.  For example, line 7 has "right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd"; and, line 10 has "folly (doctor-like) controlling skill".
rhyming couplet - The last two lines are a conclusion to the sonnet, often a summarizing statement, such as the one in Sonnet LXVI:

Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Thus, Sonnet LXVI is a meditation upon the speaker's despair and a desire to end his life that is only deterred by his love for his friend who would be alone without him.

Answer

The speaker in this sonnet is weary of the world; he feels that justice in the lives around him and that nothing ever seems to change. Thus, he pelts the reader with alliteration to further this sense of repetitive behaviors:

As to behold desert a beggar born,And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,

These hard consonants help to develop the tone of bitterness toward a world where it seems there is no rationale behind the success of some and the misery of others. These repetitive sounds are further developed through consonance in lines like this one:

And strength by limping sway disablèd

And this one:

And simple truth miscalled simplicity,

In both lines, we hear the speaker almost hissing through the repetition of the s sound as he analyzes how truth is often misunderstood and the strong are often "disabled" by weaker authority figures.
Metonymy, or the substitution of one object for a closely related idea, is also used:

And art made tongue-tied by authority

In this example, the word art is standing in for the idea of artists. Those in authoritative positions force artists to "hold their tongues," or restrain their artistic expression. 
Anastrophe is a poetic device which deviates from the natural word order of sentence structure (which typically follows subject-verb-object patterns). In the first line, the speaker begins with the object:

for restful death I cry

This inversion shifts the focus away from the speaker and to the object: death. Again, this choice supports the speaker's tone of dejected hopelessness as he longs for death to steal him from a world where injustice reigns.

Answer

Shakespeare utilizes two primary literary techniques in Sonnet 66: parallelism and repetition. According to Merriam-Webster, a sonnet is "a fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically 5-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme."
The word "and" begins ten of the lines, which illustrates repetition. Why repeat a word over and over again? It helps drive the idea home and make it unforgettable. There are several types of repetition, and this one would be classified as anaphora, which is the repetition of the words at the start of clauses, lines, or sentences. In this sonnet, the narrator wants to escape the corruption of the world by death. His only hesitation is that he doesn't want to leave his love.
Parallelism is when parts of sentences are syntactically similar, which adds symmetry to the poem, as in the excerpt below:

As to behold desert a beggar born,And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,And purest faith unhappily forsworn . . .

In the above lines, "born" and "forsworn" contribute a consistent rhythm to the poem and follow the typical Shakespearean rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Answer

One of the most striking literary devices Shakespeare uses—a device which a reader visually registers even before reading the poem—is anaphora. This is when consecutive lines in a poem begin with the same word. In this sonnet, Shakespeare uses anaphora in spades: the word "and" is repeated at the beginning of a line (a whopping ten times in a row). Anaphora creates a sense of litany. Shakespeare catalogues a list of woes about the corruption of the world, which seems to go on and on and on endlessly—wearying us as it wearies the speaker.
The second most striking literary device in the sonnet is antithesis; not only is a good set against an evil (which overwhelms the good) in each line, Shakespeare goes out of his way to use antonyms or opposite words to emphasize the contrast: honor against shame, chastity against promiscuity, strength against limping. It is notable too that Shakespeare often sets an adjective/noun combination against a adverb/verb combination that draws attention to the vice. The vice is active (a verb) and is placed at end of each line where the emphasis falls: the good of "purest faith" is not only "displaced" but "unhappily displaced," and "right perfection" is "wrongfully disgraced."
Finally, the litany of woe created through the monotonous "and"s that begin each line makes the redemptive power of love in the last two lines stand out more starkly.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

In Shakespeare's "Sonnet LXVI" (66), what literary techniques are used?

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