ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Shakespeare’s sonnets are composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. This sonnet form and rhyme scheme is known as the ‘English’ sonnet.

Detailed explanation-2: -The couplet of this sonnet renews the speaker’s plea for the young man’s love, urging him to “love well” that which he must soon leave. It is important to note that the couplet could not have been spoken after the first two quatrains alone.

Detailed explanation-3: -Finally, in the final couplet, Shakespeare is telling the young man that if he doesn’t reproduce, his beauty will eventually die out, and that he will be a “glutton” by wasting it.

Detailed explanation-4: -Ideal love is maintained as unchanging throughout the sonnet, and Shakespeare concludes in the final couplet that he is either correct in his estimation of love, or else that no man has ever truly loved.

Detailed explanation-5: -The couplet plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas, often creating an epiphanic quality to the end.