Analysis Pages

Literary Devices in Shakespeare's Sonnets

To learn more about the sonnet form and the literary devices used in the sonnets, visit our Guide to Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Literary Devices Examples in Shakespeare's Sonnets:

Sonnets 1–10

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"Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee: Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, Leaving thee living in posterity?..."   (Sonnets 1–10)

The speaker employs repetitive language to arrive at the crux of his argument in the sixth of the “Fair Youth” sonnets. Here, the speaker beseeches the fair youth to procreate and have “ten times thy self,” meaning ten children. With the repetition of the word “ten,” the speaker fervently urges the fair youth to have children, saving him from losing his beauty by replicating it in posterity.

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"tender churl..."   (Sonnets 1–10)

By employing an oxymoron, the speaker links two seemingly opposed terms. The former adjective “tender” suggests the expression of soft emotions while the latter noun “churl” refers to a medieval, rustic peasant or countryman. The word “niggard” describes someone who is overly stingy. In his comparison of a “tender churl [who] mak’st waste in niggarding,” the speaker claims that the fair youth wastes his beauty by refusing to procreate.

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"No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;..."   (Sonnets 31–40)

Sonnet 40 repeats the word, or variants of the word, “love” more than any other sonnet. By repeating the word “love” nine times, the speaker expresses his concerted, even obsessive, effort to regain his distant beloved after their separation in Sonnet 39.

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"O absence! what a torment wouldst thou prove, Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave,..."   (Sonnets 31–40)

The volta, which begins here at line nine, demonstrates the main theme of sonnet 39. Following the fair youth’s mistake, the speaker decides it is in both his and the fair youth’s best interests to separate. The volta demonstrates the dual nature of such a decision: the speaker is both tormented with the prospect of separating but knows that it is the right decision. The combination of the words “sour” and “sweet” in the following line, as in sonnet 35, highlight this dichotomy.

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"Although..."   (Sonnets 31–40)

Through coordinating conjunctions like “although,” “though,” “yet,” “lest,” “nor,” “unless,” and “but,” the speaker demonstrates his hesitancy and uncertainty following the fair youth’s error. The speaker, unsure whether to be “one” or “twain” with the fair youth, peppers his diction with tentative language, revealing his inability to reach a concrete resolution.

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"tears are pearl..."   (Sonnets 31–40)

As in Sonnet 33, the speaker employs imagery of storm clouds blemishing the “beauteous” day to mirror how the fair youth’s fault has cast clouds over their relationship. Although the fair youth repents, the speaker continues to shed tears “of pearl.” Pearls often represent wisdom gained through experience. Here they symbolize a penance for the fair youth’s sin. The speaker believes that although the fair youth has caused him pain, that pain is “ransom[ed],” or redeemed, by the youth’s tears.

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"O! then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:..."   (Sonnets 31–40)

Highlighted with the exclamation “O!”, line 9 marks the sonnet’s volta. As he morosely contemplates death and the loss of physical love between himself and the fair youth, the speaker prays that their love might survive through his poetry in an abstract sense. However, the inclusion of a quote in the following lines and the choice to use the word “vouchsafe”—which means to grant, either in a grateful or a condescending way—demonstrate irony in the speaker’s words. The speaker claims that others might write more stylish poetry, but that his should be appreciated for his honest words of love. Most modern readers will likely recognize the speaker’s self-deprecation as irony: after all, the sonnets demonstrate a high degree of literary and stylistic competency.

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"And thou—all they—hast all the all of me...."   (Sonnets 31–40)

This sonnet suggests that through the fair youth, the speaker can harness all the love of his own past lovers. The fair youth’s bosom, “endeared with all hearts,” contains all of the love the speaker has previously experienced. This sentiment is finalized in line 14 when the speaker repeats the word “all” to demonstrate the circuitness and all-encompassing nature of love, which he envisions lies in the fair youth, himself, and all his past lovers.

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"And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,..."   (Sonnets 61–70)

The speaker employs anaphora, a literary tool whereby the first word of a phrase is repeated in successive clauses to add emphasis. Here, the use of the anaphora, which operates through the repetition of the word “And” at the beginning of lines three through twelve, demonstrate the magnitude of ill-wills the speaker endures. These challenges cause him to cry for “restful death.”

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"O!..."   (Sonnets 71–80)

The sharp and sudden contrast, emphasized by the interjection of “O!” in line nine, alerts the reader to the volta, or turning point, of the sonnet. With this volta, the speaker resolves the sonnet on a more lighthearted note, wishing for the fair youth to find resolve and comfort even after the speaker dies.

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"for I love you so..."   (Sonnets 71–80)

The phrase “for I love you so” is striking in its simplicity. The speaker arrives at this phrase after the morbid imagery about the “vile world with vilest worms,” offering an unexpected turn of hope as the speaker comes to terms with his own death. The “sweet thoughts” in the following line are made all the sweeter against the backdrop of death and decay.

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"sweet birds sang..."   (Sonnets 71–80)

The consonance of three s sounds in "sweet," "birds," and "sang," helps to create the auditory imagery of birds chirping. The image of songbirds alludes to the joyful and poetically productive past that the speaker nostalgically laments.

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"Sweet thief, ..."   (Sonnets 91–100)

In a continuation of Sonnets 97 and 98, Sonnet 99 associates the fair youth with the natural beauty of various flowers. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker alleges that the violet, personified as a “sweet thief,” has dipped its petals into the fair youth’s veins and stolen his color and vitality. Unlike the previous sonnets, however, Sonnet 99 stands out for its 15-line structure. The sonnet opens with a quintain, or five line stanza, thus forming a fifteen line sonnet. Readers and scholars can only conjecture for the reason behind this anomaly.

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"Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness; Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;..."   (Sonnets 91–100)

In order to bookend Sonnets 91-96, which deal with the fair youth’s faults, the speaker employs the same literary device used at the beginning of the sequence: anaphora with the repetition of the word “some” at the beginning of successive clauses. This literary device demonstrates society’s perception of the fair youth as someone who is sexually immodest.

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"Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,..."   (Sonnets 91–100)

The first stanza of Sonnet 91 is built on anaphora, a literary device whereby the speaker repeats the same word at the beginning of successive clauses. Here, the speaker distinguishes himself from those—or “some”—who find pleasure in material things like clothes or horses. Unlike “some” people, the speaker derives his joy from the love he shares with the fair youth. In the second and third stanzas, the speaker disparages their material obsessions. However, the sonnet takes on a more menacing tone in the final couplet. His love for the fair youth, unlike material love, is easily retractable. The fair youth, as readers may observe in the “Rival Poet” sequence, can easily “take” his love away.

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"When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her though I know she lies..."   (Sonnets 131–140)

Sonnet 138 deals with the common literary trope of transgression and lying. The speaker readily admits in the first line that he knows his lover is lying, but he stays quiet and the “truth [remains] suppressed.” However, he admits that he is lying as well. At the end of the sonnet, the speaker employs a double entendre to highlight how he and his love “lie” together and therefore feel mutually “flatter’d” despite their obvious faults.

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