September 28, 1993 A Not-Too-Critical-Essay of Shakespeare's Sonnet Number 126 Shakespeare's sonnets, as poems, have been obscured by the enormous amount of speculation, much of it unjustified, that has grown up around the problems presented by the dedication. The following sonnet is commonly grouped with 125 others that are believed to have been written to a much admired young man, who was Shakespeare's junior in both years and social status. The form in which the poem is written is …
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…do his plays conform to our standards of good English. Shakespeare didn't write his sonnets for publication and that makes them all the more valuable to the reader. These sonnets are much more a part of the poet than the plays. Thanks to Thomas Thorpe, who arranged the sonnets in 1609 for publication at the end of Shakespeare's dramatic career and without his consent, we have some of the finest poetry not intended for the public.