Analysis Of Literary Elements In Sonnet 33 By William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s poetry goes from writing about love, beauty, and youth to darkness, death, and betrayal. He uses imagery in many of his poems so the reader can better understand the scene playing out. In “sonnet 33”, he is describing the pain he felt when he lost a friendship with the young man in the poem. Shakespeare starts out describing a beautiful morning soon to be covered by dark clouds signifying they had hit an obstacle in their relationship. Shakespeare uses imagery and figurative speech to relay how this relationship goes between him and the young man. Shakespeare uses word choice such as, “golden” and “heavenly” to display the appreciation for the relationship he has with this friend. However, at the end of the first stanza the tone shifts to dark and cloudy, allowing the reader to assume that the young man had many interests other than the author leaving him feeling isolated and hurt. These feelings are conveyed in lines 5 and 6 which use words such as “ugly” and “basset” This conflict is shown using the word choice used by Shakespeare. He attaches effective use of syntax and creates a change in attitude toward the author’s friend as the poem progresses. Each stanza shifts from bright vibrant colors, to dark gloomy clouds, forcing the poet to question his own mortality in allowing this friendship to move forward. Even though he denies these thoughts in the last 2 lines saying, “my love no whit disdaineth” the poet still seems to resent his friend for causing pain in their relationship. The tone in this sonnet is regretful and saddened, yet still managing to stay positive about the future. The tone changes from hope and light-weight to darkness and uninteresting. This is proven by how vastly different the beginning is to the end. Shakespeare conveys the image of alchemy; that involves turning metals into gold. This is famed to the majority during this period as magic or trickery, relating back to the poet’s feelings of betrayal or “trickery” from a friend that caused him to suffer. This ongoing imagery reminds the reader of the poet’s present feelings and sadness he is faced with. Figurative language is found consistently throughout the entire poem. Such as metaphorically, Shakespeare writes that his friend is like the sun, and “with golden face” warms the entire earth. However, the sun got covered by “the basest clouds” to block its rays and the poet’s friend abandons him for other people. The author comes to terms that his friend betrayed him, but he also realizes that he is just as much to blame for assuming that his friend’s outward beauty was an exact reflection of his heart. This sonnet uses unstressed and stressed syllables, having exactly ten markings per line making this an iambic pentameter. For the first three stanzas every other line rhyme with each other, while the last two rhyme as well. The structure of the poem looks like this… ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. This artful construction of rhyming every other line conveys the mix of joy and sorrow involved in love.

A recurring symbol found in the entire poem would be the sun; the shift that it makes going from bright to cloudy, and briefly back to sunny before going dark again. This symbolism represents the ups and downs of affection within the poet’s relationship together with his friend. As mentioned before, the sonnet is organized into four different parts making it an iambic pentameter. If you read the poem out loud it sounds like you are listening to a song. The first line is about love, or the suns. While the last line is describing the fading color of the suns. It’s structured in a way that conveys Shakespeare’s poem into an emotional journey that brings out conflicting internal feelings. The structure of the poem shifts from the first four lines representing the good, to the second four lines representing the bad. Before transitioning on to the last half describing that the good will eventually shine through the bad. Shakespeare is trying to convey to the ups and downs of his present friendship using literary devices, diction, and sentence structure. His overall messages explain that human connection will eventually become dark, forcing you to move on so you can allow the sun to shine through the clouds once more.