Sonnet 154 - Structure

Structure

Sonnet 154 seems to possess the traditional structure of the Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet contains twelve lines followed by an indented couplet. The lines are written in iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme follows the format: abab cdcd efef gg. Although it appears that Sonnet 154 follows traditional Shakespearean sonnet form, Paul Ramsey wrote in The Fickle Glass: A Study of Shakespeare's Sonnets that Sonnet 154 is a rare example of a situation when Shakespeare breaks away from the form he had established in his last 153 sonnets. Ramsey notes some differences in form: Sonnet 154 is one of eleven sonnets where the fifth line does not start a new clause; 154 is one of only six sonnets in which the ninth line does not start a new clause; and 154 is one of three sonnets where the couplet loses its "distinctness" because the thirteenth line does not begin a clause. Ramsey points out that the fifth line begins actions that should not have been stated in the first quatrain, the ninth line continues actions from the second quatrain's conflict, and the thirteenth line continues the actions from the third quatrain and shows no conclusion to the quatrain's conflicts.