During the Renaissance, the intellectual movement Humanism gained popularity. A significant portion of Humanism dealt with how a human could lead a good life. Shakespeare’s sonnets were influenced by this aspect of Humanism. This was especially true when Shakespeare wrote about love. Although love is the topic of Shakespeare’s Sonnets 29, 73, 116, and 130, it is treated differently in each one. Each sonnet treated love differently as Sonnet 29 treated love as an antidote to self-pity, Sonnet 73 treated love as withstanding the ravages of time, Sonnet 116 treated love as unchanging, and Sonnet 130 treated love as something
