Shakespeare Sonnet 110 Analysis

Shakespeare’s sonnet 110 describes the importance of true love, from a perspective of a person who lost love. The poem is written with iambic pentameter with regretful, yet repentant tone. Along with the shift of the focus, Shakespeare uses melancholic diction, juxtaposition, and connotation to effectively emphasize the regret of letting go of the true love, although it is too late. In the first quatrain, Shakespeare carefully picks words with negative connotation to create the remorseful tone such as: “made myself a motley” (110.2), as he lists out his wrongdoings in the past by calling himself motley, or foolish. Additionally, use of juxtaposition is evident in this quatrain: “Made old offences of affections new” (110.4). This line displays two words with contrasting meaning, “old” and “new”. Shakespeare compares the heaviness of his sin (offense) in the past to the new innocent friend to highlight how hideous his act was. This quatrain is overall written in a sorrowful tone, as Shakespeare wisely chose words with dissenting tone such as “offenses” and “motley”. This serves to effectively communicate the speaker’s emotion to the readers, as there is an emphasis on speaker’s lack of …show more content…
There is another juxtaposition in the second quatrain: “And worse essays proved thee my best of love” (110.8). As Shakespeare compares the words with opposite meaning, “worse” and “best”, in order to put an emphasis on his love, as he claims his true love to be the finest of all. In addition, Shakespeare uses hyperbole, explaining how significant his true love was. This hyperbole describes that his love gave him “another youth” (110.7), implying that he feels the vigorous passion and love just like when he was young. Adding on to the power of love, he calls his love the “best” (110.8), claiming that his true love is genuinely the most precious one in his