Poetry Essay

‘Sonnet 20’, is considered as one of Shakespeare’s most controversial sonnets with regards to the poem’s nature, often depicted as ambiguous. Subject to interpretation, the sonnet pushes certain boundaries of the time it was written – a time when homosexuality was repressed and not generally accepted which makes it particularly interesting to analyse. Shakespeare’s innovative use of formal features such as rhythm and metre, stanza form and rhyme and the use of the literary devices imagery and symbolism, make powerful contributions to the unravelling of the sonnet’s plot which may have been Shakespeare openly revealing his love for a male.

Shakespeare begins ‘Sonnet 20’ with a description of the attractive, yet feminine, qualities the object of desire in question, (perhaps his) possesses. “A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted/Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;” (1-2) This instance of imagery tells of how the ‘master mistress’ has a face as beautiful as that of a woman’s - ‘painted’ like a work of art by Mother Nature herself, implying that the subject does not need make-up to enhance his complexion or perhaps mask in the way that some women do. This may suggest that Shakespeare believed that men can be just as appealing as women but are more true and pure as they have nothing to hide and thus make better partners than women.

The use of the term ‘master mistress’ indicates that the person is indeed a man and the powerful word ‘passion’ implies that Shakespeare is sexually attracted to this man as this word has sexual connotations and shows the extent of how strong his affections are. Thus being said, a particular focus could be placed on the word ‘Nature’ as perhaps Shakespeare was not only making reference to ...

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...love he possesses for this man will never be ‘perfect’ as society forbids this love to be reciprocated and that because of their genders they do not fit together ‘perfectly’. Shakespeare’s clever use of trochaic inversion, sees all the end syllables of each line unstressed, creating a feminine ending. This ties in with the description of his beloved having ‘feminine’ qualities and the way he has slightly changed the natural form of the iambic pentameter, signifies that he wishes to change people’s opinions towards homosexuality and push the boundaries of social norms.

Towards the end of the sonnet, the tone changes from passionate to pessimistic. Shakespeare describes how the man he loves was initially supposed to be born a woman but Mother Nature, after falling in love decided to make his love a man, therefore shattering all hope of their love becoming a reality.