This paper analyzes William Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 through the lenses of versification, prosody, and rhetoric. It begins by contextualizing the English (Shakespearean) sonnet form against its Italian (Petrarchan) predecessor, noting key structural differences in quatrain arrangement, rhyme scheme, and the placement of the volta. The analysis then examines how the sonnet's near-perfect iambic pentameter creates a sense of logical argument, how its alliterative sounds reinforce its central theme of lies and deception, and how Shakespeare's rhetorical playfulness — especially in the closing couplet's pun on "lie" — demonstrates his capacity to unite musicality with intellectual complexity.
The sonnet is one of the most rigid poetic forms in common use, and William Shakespeare is one of the undisputed masters of the English sonnet. He was far from the first poet to achieve greatness in this form, however; he was not even the first Englishman to popularize it. The sonnet had, in fact, been present in England since 1590, and in Italy for many centuries before that (Riverside 1840). Few poets of any language or era, however, have achieved Shakespeare's blend of musicality and emotion within the physical rigidity and intellectual complexity of the sonnet form. He also popularized the English sonnet form — also known as the Shakespearean sonnet — as opposed to the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet. Though these differences are not especially extreme by some measures, the differences in versification, and thus in prosody and rhetoric, are clearly observable.
Both English and Italian sonnets contain fourteen lines of iambic pentameter — five sets of feet where each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. In Italian sonnets, these lines are arranged in an opening octet (eight lines), with a "volta," or turn, in the ninth line that signals the beginning of the sestet, the closing six lines of the poem. In the English sonnet, the construction changes in ways that make it at once more simple and more complex. Instead of an octet and sestet, the lines in an English sonnet are divided into three quatrains of four lines each and a closing couplet, and "with three exceptions (99, 126, and 145), Shakespeare uses the sonnet in [this] popular English form" (Riverside 1840). This shift in versification creates a markedly different rhyme and rhetorical pattern, which affects the overall meaning and musicality of the sonnet, as Sonnet 138 clearly demonstrates.
The versification of this sonnet lends the poem a certain pace and the feeling of receiving discrete chunks of poetic information. The meter is completely regular except for one line, giving the impression of extreme regularity and the building of a very logical, precise argument. The one line of broken meter — "Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue" — has an inverted first foot (the "sim-" is stressed, "ply" unstressed), and this seems to mirror the meaning of the line: the speaker makes an allowance for falsehood just as the line makes an allowance for irregular meter (line 7). The division into quatrains and a final couplet also enables the logical progression and conclusion of an argument, as becomes evident in the discussion of rhetoric below. The versification likewise demands a different rhyme scheme and alters other aspects of prosody, both of which shape the overall musicality of the poem.
The rhyme scheme of this sonnet follows Shakespeare's usual structure, wherein the quatrains each carry an independent alternating rhyme (ABAB CDCD EFEF), and the final two lines form a heroic couplet (GG). This adds to the feeling of receiving discrete steps of an argument and enhances the structural divisions established by the versification. There is also a noticeable prevalence of l's and s's in the poem, particularly in the first and third quatrains. These sounds make up the basics of the word "lies," which is itself used as a rhyme and is repeated throughout the poem, and which forms one of the sonnet's major themes. In this way, the alliteration subconsciously reinforces the meaning and feel of the poem. There are also instances of repeated words, such as "love" in the lines "O love's best habit is in seeming trust, / and age in love, loves not to have..." (lines 11–12). Though this device is equally important to Shakespeare's rhetoric, it carries the musical effect of repetitive obsession.
"Rhetorical argument and the pun in the couplet"
Through his versification, prosody, and rhetoric, Shakespeare crafted musically and intellectually pleasing sonnets. The regularity of the rhythm combines with the unity achieved through word repetition and alliteration to give the poem an almost sing-song quality, which makes the intellectual depth of the poem feel almost ironic in the way it is perceived. Altogether, this makes for a very enjoyable read and helped to cement Shakespeare's reputation as a literary genius.
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