English Literature

Thomas Wyatt who first introduced sonnets in England in1527. It was from Italy that he had brought back some poems by Petrarch. The poems were called sonnettos or short songs of love and were dedicated to a lady named Laura. Soon, Sir Thomas Wyatt began to write his own sonnets. And thus, started the tradition of the English sonnet. Soon they were the rage of the time.

Some terms that are used when reading and analyzing a sonnet include couplet or a unit of two lines and quatrain or a unit of four lines. Sestet is a unit of six lines and octave is a unit of eight lines. The units of a sonnet have a set rhyme scheme that is used. In an English sonnet the first and third lines rhyme (abab), as do the second and the fourth lines of the sonnet (cdcd). This is the characteristic style of the Elizabethan sonnet and this is also how Shakespeare wrote his sonnets. Shakespeares sonnets dont describe a specific philosophy but in fact are expression of his personal experiences at the time when he was penning them down. When one considers an underlying theme that sonnets share one can link them and their meanings.

While the first quatrain introduces the subject of the sonnet, the second quatrain develops the theme that it holds. The third quatrain completes the message that the poet wants to express while the fourth quatrain is something of a conclusion to the sonnet.

Shakespeares sonnets 139 and 144 were published along with three of his songs from Love Labors Lost in Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare. The publication also contained other sonnets, which were by other poets such as Marlow, Barnfield and Griffin.

Shakespeares Sonnets were not all written together or at the same time. They are independent and whole poems that mirror similar thoughts and themes. And when one reads his sonnets, underlying references and links are discovered. Shakespeares Sonnets focused on matters of love. He speaks of two different kinds of love, one for a friend and romantic love for a woman. While he speaks of his love for a friend in a positive light, almost idealizing it, his love for a woman speaks of a more sensual and erotic love, which is portrayed as being almost degrading. In sonnet 144 he
compares the two relationships and love in his life. Sonnet 144 describes his love for his friend to be virtually angelic, this is however not the case with his other sonnets.

Analysis of Sonnet 144
In the first quatrain of sonnet 144 Shakespeare describes his two loves. While one he calls comforting, the other brings despair. He goes on to say that both loves urge him quite like spirits would. The better angel is a man who is beautiful and handsome, while the worser spirit or angel is a woman who is dark in her coloring. It is quite clear that the poet prefers the companionship of the man over that of the lady. The man and woman seem to represent opposites in the life of the poet and are something of an antithesis to each other. He is good and light, and she is dark and corrupt. While he is fair, she is dark, he offers comfort and she brings the poet despair.

He says, in the second quatrain, that his female lover will soon send him to hell by tempting his better angel away from him. Here he doesnt mean hell in the literal sense, but the turmoil of having to choose between his shared loyalties and not understanding what would be the final result in this love triangle. He says that would corrupt his better angel into a devil and corrupt his soul with her pride. Interestingly, he places all the guilt of the relationship between his male and female lovers on the lady. The poet is unsure if his fair friend, the better angel, will turn enemy, but he suspects this to be true. He feels so because both the better angel and worser spirit are away from him and becoming friends and coming to close to each other.

In the last quatrain he says that one angel is the others hell. However, he will never be sure even though he has his doubts. And his doubts will be confirmed only when the bad angel drives the good one away.

Unlike his other sonnets this one doesnt have a light or humorous tone, but in fact is quite cynical. Metaphorically the sonnet talks of two different types of love, one offers adoration and the other is pure lust. Both tempt and appeal the poet and while he is anxious about the result of this tangled web, he is fairly sure that the dark lady will burn out the fair angel, Yet this shall I neer know, but live in doubt  Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

The sonnet may be interpreted in several ways there are those who think it is a clear depiction of Shakespeares bisexual orientation. in sonnet 144 bisexuality is figured in terms of conflict and struggle. This conflict it seems is two-fold. Its located in the speakers psyche, in his inability or reluctance to choose one love rather than the other. Yet, it exists outside him, in the battle between the other man and the woman which apparently centers on possession of the speaker, but in fact is still more complex than this. For the sexual puns which saturate the poem clearly indicate that the traffic of desire in this sexual triangle circulates in every possible direction.  The sonnet 144 is quite unlike most sonnets written in the same era as it presents a highly sexualized and erotic atmosphere. It depicts the speakers inner turmoil over his decision to favor the lady over the man or vice versa, and also the sexual energy between the other man and the lady. While many critics have focused only on the homosexual element in the sonnet, there are those such as Garber and Chedgzoy who prefer to bring out the bisexual tone in the sonnet. Furthermore, they focus on the fact that unlike other sonnets and speakers Shakespeare speaks his mind rather bluntly and without disguise.

There are of course other interpretations of the sonnet.  The sonnet begins with the speaker presenting a sort of allegorical psychomachia  a conceptual universe with himself placed at the center. The poet speaks of absolutes, comfort, masculinity and goodness on the one side and despair, femininity and corruption on the other. The sonnet discuses the eternal struggle between good and evil, man and woman and comfort and despair.

Sonnet 144 gives the reader a rather interesting view of Shakespeares writing and also his world. This is one of the few sonnets written during that age that clearly and quite outspokenly speaks of bisexuality and the turmoil and that it brings with it. There are of course those who dont want to acknowledge the sexual nature of the sonnet and choose to focus on the turmoil within the speaker, on the struggle between the right and the lustful, the social acceptable and the forbidden.

It is important to remember that in the Elizabethan era, as also often in the contemporary world, the fairer sex is blamed for most lustful emotions and outcomes. The sonnet is a personification of the poets inner turmoil between virtues and vices. The better angel is the side that abides by societys bidding, while the dark lady represents the poets sensual, erotic and dark side. The turmoil depicted is an expression of both sides trying to control the poet, and he is fairly sure that the dark lady or his repressed emotions may win.