Shakespearean Poetry

The sonnet we read in class is Shakespearean because of its tone and structure. The poem consists of several sets of four lines with ab-ab rhyming schemes, then shifting to an aa rhyming scheme in the last couplet. The other characteristic that makes it Shakespearean is the shift in tone in the last couplet from satirical and insulting to geniuine and almost sweet. The first lines of the poem make fun of love poems by realistically describing someone in a seemingly insulting way. However the shift in the last couplet makes it real. By describing a persons imperfections and then saying that the author still loves the woman shows a new type of "real" love poem, over a fake mushy poem saying how unrealistically beautiful someone is.