Shakespeare makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Sonnet 20’. They’re sometimes used to answer a question posed in the previous twelve lines, shift the perspective, or even change speakers. They often bring with them a turn or volta in the poem. There has been much speculation about what this means, even relating back to the question of sexuality.Īs is common in Shakespeare’s poetry, the last two lines are a rhyming pair, known as a couplet. In all of Shakespeare’s sonnets this is only one of two that has an extra syllable at the end of each line. The poem follows a consistent rhyme scheme that conforms to the pattern of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and it is written in iambic pentameter. It made up of three quatrains, or sets of four lines, and one concluding couplet, or set of two rhyming lines. The poem is structured in the form which has come to be synonymous with the poet’s name. The speaker discusses in the last lines of the poem how the listener’s body was made for women, meaning he has male genitalia, but that the speaker will love him all the same. He says that their face is as beautiful as a woman’s but their mind is less fickle. It is unclear at first as the speaker is discussing this person’s beauty if they are in fact a man or a woman. The poem combines male and female attributes in the first few lines. ‘Sonnet 20’ by William Shakespeare is one in the series of Fair Youth sonnets that acknowledges the young man’s body, beauty, and presents questions about the speaker’s sexuality.
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