‘The Dark Lady’ behind the sonnets

Inside Shakespeare’s mind:

Full many a glorious morning have I seen.
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye;
Kissing with golden face the meadows green
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

With ugly rack on his celestial face
And from the forlorn world his visage hide
Stealing unseen to west with disgrace ... Sonnet – XXX111

Sometimes anthology prove an acceptable partner to sonnets because it gives an opportunity to those who do not have an intiminate knowledge to discover the magic of his writing. His matchless knowledge of human nature and its infinite range of variety with their felicitous expressions, sit immaculately on his sonnets.

However, his sonnets have always remained very mysterious like their central character.

What was it that Shakespeare had in mind when he put together those wondrous magnificant lines of mystery to evolve the sonnets?

Was it to mislead the readers
To keep them guessing with no answer
Shield thew Dark Lady from speculation
Or, just simple impulse ...

Writing of lyric verses in this form, was fashionable in the Elizabethan England but the time he wrote the sonnets are not clear. Could have been around 1593 to 1599. They were believed to have been circulated among his friends rather than for publication in 1598 but a publisher named Thomas Thorp collected them together into text and published the first volume in 1609 and dedicated the collection to ‘Mr W H’ providing an isoluable riddle as to who it was. Many scholars have reached into conclusion that the disguised identity of the handsome youth, the dark lady or a rival poet about whom Shakespeare writes:-

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a day;
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shine
And often is his golden complexion dimm'd.

And every fair from fair sometimes declines. By chance of nature's changing course, untrimm'd ..... Sonnet – XV111 No poetic writing of any author or for that matter, age have evoked so much ardour and speculation as found in the flowing commentry of Shakespeare's sonnets, and there can never be such unparallel poetic beauty in as found in his works.

His genius has won the admiration of the world and will continue forever and ever. The matchless understanding of human nature are in some of the passages found, discovered in the English language that surfaced and established the Shakespearean English found in all literary works of other writers too. They gladly accepted his genius change.

He had set the pattern without injuring the existing texts. Of course this type of course must be read in the context of the sonnets. Stratford-upon Avon, the literary Mecca of the world is the unique attraction not only for scholars and students but to millions of people the nations of the world judging by their never-ending visits.

‘Lord of my love to whom in vassalage, Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit
To thee I send this written a message, to witness duty not to show my wit
Duty so great which with as poor as mine
Make seems bare, in wanting words to show it .... Sonnet XXV1

Most of Shakespeare's addresses are flawed and inconsistent with the sequences found in most sonnets. He fails to draw depth and complexity and remains anchored in human spirit. He takes the risk in being false to many matters. For instance, he sets out to praise a young man and questions ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer's day'? Here, Shakespeare struggles to compare a summer day to his subject and end in disaster.

‘So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee’

Shakespeare may be referring to the Earl of Southampton, the good looking young man who sponsored Shakespeare, speculating his ‘love’ for the nobleman as found in the sonnets. The possible reference ‘dark lady’ could be him on whom he lavishes such praise. But he also refers to a woman of his dreams that could lead us to this mysterious ‘dark lady! He slam at her for her vanity and sneers at her personality.

‘My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red.
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head’ ..... Sonnet 13.

So, it reveals that the poet has two loves; an intense ardour with a young man though in tone, he denies homosexuality (as I see in Sonnet 20) but with a sexual relationship with a woman but on whom he is harsh on her sexuality with disgust and scorne.

You will find a hint of this in Sonnet 129. And in Sonnet 144 he bares his mind to reveal his suspicion that this man and woman tie up to betray him.

He is so disgusted that he declares the woman to be hell and charge them with vicious, sexual significance. But there is no doubt the sonnets consist of pleas addressed to a hard-hearted but an idealized woman.

However, there are many sonnets taken apart by themselves no necessary relation to a man or a woman directly but whatever Shakespeare meant when unloading his hidden desires, there are discerible connections between truth and desire. They help develop a story in the mind of the reader who will pause to analyse what he has put into the sonnets. Most of the sonnets differ one from the other and on certain instances, Shakespeare face the ardous task of setting them on line and verse. He tends to go haywire and the result on such an occasion, is disaster.

He makes it hard for the average reader to understand what he is trying to imply. That is not a good idea when one is writing sonnets, let alone the great Shakespeare or the normal writer.

There are good reasons why the experience of sonnets should be fragmentary because time is the central problem.

Shakespeare himself found it hard to set the sonnets in a manner more appealing to the reader. Instead, he muddled up what was in his mind that made readers and researchers more inclined to discover more of the young man and the dark lady.

The poet is aware that what she means to him and what she actually is, are two different things.

On the basis of this finding, I find Shakespeare cracking up in some sonnets while getting into deep frustration in the rest. Apparently, he has never been at ease with his sonnets’ structure.

‘Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep... A maid of Dian's this advantage found;

And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep.... In a cold valley-fountain of ground Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love ... A dateless lively heat still endure.

Sonnet CL111

A sonnet is a 14-line poem although in Shakespeare's collection Sonnet 99 contain 15 lines and in Sonnet 126, it has 12 lines and together they make up a sequence as accepted by researchers.

Where Shakespeare led, others followed.