Sonnet Formation/Rhyme Scheme
Sonnet 133 follows the traditional English sonnet formation: fourteen lines consisting of three quatrains and ending in a rhyming couplet. In addition, it follows iambic pentameter (abab cdcd efef gg).
Examining each of the three quatrains and the couplet that create the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet allows for further analysis. Helen Vendler describes the stages of the sonnet in that it begins with a listing of the conflict in Quatrain One then proceeds in Quatrain Two to show the effects and complications. Specifically the problem of this sonnet is the torture the dark lady has caused the two men to suffer. The effects and complications of this situation are pronounced throughout Quatrain Two indicating that the speaker may recover but the young man is reduced to her slave under her influence. In Quatrain Three, Vendler says that the “intolerable complication of effect” forces a request for relief and intelligibility which end in a helpless giving up reflected in the couplet.
Analyzing specific words within the sonnets gives further evidence of the Quatrain transition. It begins with the first line in which the speaker declares that he is separate from her by saying “that heart (of hers) makes my heart groan”. Although he declares himself separate from her, her cruel eye has taken the speaker from himself and not only this, but she has taken his “next self”, which refers to his friend as addressed earlier in the sonnets. Stephen Booth further explains this point arguing that the implied logic of lines 3 and 4 suggest that if the Dark Lady possesses the friend then she should release the speaker. He also addressed the cruel eye of the speaker saying that Sonnet 133 continues the theme of hearts and eyes from Sonnet 132, and Booth notes the shift from the friend's image of "mourning eyes" to the "cruel eye"(line 5) of the mistress. Booth continues his analysis with lines 10-11 of which he suggests that they, "add one more element to the verbal complexities and confusions by which the complex and confused three-way love affair is both reported and imitated". Helen Vendler emphasizes his point by explaining that now the friend is enslaved by her as well as the speaker as evidenced in the final line of the couplet, “Perforce am thine, and all that is mine" (Line 14). She says that because he belongs to her he is thus forsaken. Both Booth and Vendler suggest that everything that belongs to the speaker, including his friend's heart, bears the surrender to the dark lady.
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