Narrative and Continuity in Shakespeare\u27s Sonnets

Abstract

William Shakespeare\u27s poetry has been renowned for centuries, both for its cultural impact on storytelling and its lyrical beauty. Although his plays are the most well-known — in particular the love story of Romeo and Juliet — the only one of his individual sonnets that is publicly known is Sonnet 18, another themed on love and often read at weddings. However, Sonnet 18 is deeply intertwined with the context of the 153 others, and this presentation will cover that context to give more meaning to the poetry already known and revered. It will specifically be analyzing sonnets 5, 6, 12, 15, and 16, and how the first \u27arc\u27 of sonnets function as a whole. Materials will be provided for all analyzed poems with no prior reading required