Sonnet 32 - Structure

Structure

Sonnet 32 is written in the English (Shakespearean) form. It consists of 14 lines: 3 quatrains followed by a couplet. The metrical line is iambic pentameter and the rhyming scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Literary critic George Wright observes how iambic pentameter, "however highly patterned its syntax, is by nature asymmetrical – like human speech”. Thus, the organization of a sonnet exists so that meaning may be found it its variation.

The purpose of a Shakespearean couplet is to analyze and summarize the author’s experience, as well as, to describe and enact it. In regards to the relationship of quatrain to couplet, "one must distinguish the fictive speaker (even when he represents himself as a poet) from Shakespeare the author". This is particularly significant in Sonnet 32 because the fictive author reflects on his ability to write poetry.

It’s also important to note how the structure of Sonnet 32 can be interpreted in light of its relationship to time. "The exact match created between events as foreseen by the poet (his death, the increasing poetic sophistication of the age and consequently of the beloved’s taste) and the beloved’s conjectured thought as he rereads the poet’s verse makes intelligible Shakespeare’s choice of a structure of superposition (in which lines 9-14 repeat lines 3-8 )."