Structure
In his article, “Shakespeare’s Sonnet 126,” Graves explains, "this sonnet is formally aberrational because its terminal ‘couplet’ appears as two empty lines, enclosed by italicized parentheses. Oddly, too, its substantive part comprises six rhymed pentameter couplets, instead of the usual three quatrains with alternating rhyme". As a twelve line, alternating couplet poem, Shakespeare's Sonnet 126 does not fit the sonnet form, a form adhered to throughout the majority of the collection.
Along with Sonnet 99, Sonnet 126 is an exception to the rule of cross-rhyming quatrains followed by a couplet, a formative rule that all other Sonnets follow diligently. Instead, it is a structurally odd poem with 12 lines made up of 6 rhyming couplets (Sethna 46). In addition, Sonnet 126 fails to fit the outward verse pattern in similarity with both Sonnet 99 and Sonnet 145 . Sonnet 126 thus stands out as a unique poem in the sequence, not fitting a strict sonnet structure, but also not following any sort of deviance pattern seen throughout the rest of the series.
Read more about this topic: Sonnet 126
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