Sonnet 29

“Sonnet 29” is a Shakespearean sonnet. This 14-line form is written in iambic pentameter, meaning each line consists of 10 syllables that alternate between stressed and unstressed.

As it typical, this sonnet contains three quatrains and ends on a rhyming couplet. These distinct sections organize the content and storytelling of a sonnet much like chapters or paragraphs in a work of prose: The first quatrain lays out the speaker’s abject despair, the second quatrain delves into his various jealousies, the third quatrain describes his change of mental state, and the final couplet dispels the original problem. The poem’s escalating structure allows readers to fully understand the weight of the speaker’s feelings, so that when the last quatrain and final couplet reverse the momentum of the poem by resolving the speaker’s misery, this ending carries immense impact and a clear conclusion.

Unlike other Shakespearean sonnets however, “Sonnet 29” has a more oblique volta or turning point. Typically, a volta is usually identified by a period near the beginning of the third quatrain; however, here, the volta is indicated by the grammatically contrarian conjunction “yet” in Line 9, which shows that a transformation in

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