Topic > Shakespearean Astronomy: Analysis of Sonnet 14

Fertility can be the foundation of a society. As a natural production of offspring, the idea of ​​fertility drives a nation. It creates, quite literally, the next generation and, in doing so, offers the reality of innovations and the continuation of a culture. Shakespeare's Sonnet 14 explores this very idea of ​​the necessity of procreation. In true Elizabethan style, Shakespeare writes sonnet 14 in the traditional rhyme scheme of an English sonnet. As usual with his early sonnets, he implicitly addresses a young man, offering commentary on the role of the heavens in the young man's life regarding his fathering future generations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It is first important to understand that at the height of Shakespearean literature, the word "astronomy" was negligibly dissimilar to the use of the word "astrology", and thus the two words were used interchangeably. The meaning of this pun occurs in the denotation of the two words. While astronomy is a rather scientific study of the heavens, astrology can be defined as a more “divine” reading of the stars, less factual and instead more spiritual. This note unfolds in the sonnet creating a double meaning in which the word "astronomy" is spoken. Although the speaker of Sonnet 14 acknowledges his understanding of "astronomy", he rejects his scientific knowledge in the face of judgment by making it clear that he does not use the sky as a basis for his decisions, even if he is knowledgeable enough to do so. This reassures the reader that although the speaker is intelligent in this area, he recognizes his potential biases and refrains from submitting to them, offering a perspective of realism to the sonnet. However, due to the implied astrological meaning, the narrator also denounces his transcendent abilities in that statement. He realizes his inability to foresee the bad omens that the future holds. Claiming that predicting “good” and “bad” is beyond him humiliates the narrator, allowing the reader to more fully appreciate his subsequent warning. Similarly, the individual's personal problems, or “thunder, rain, and wind,” are not something the narrator can describe with certainty, nor with accuracy. It also cannot predict the importance of a kingdom. His own analysis of what he might find in the sky is unreliable at best for telling the fate of an entire kingdom. In this second quadrant, the speaker does not claim that the heavens dictate the lives of anyone, from common people to royalty, but he also denies that answers to life's questions can be found by studying the stars. By explicitly describing the extent to which the stars cannot determine his judgments, the speaker emphasizes the significance and weight of his subsequent detailed ability to predict the future in the boy's eyes. Despite all this, there is one thing with which the narrator affirms absolute certainty, and he makes this decision not with science, but starting from the eyes of the young man to whom he addresses the sonnet. In the boy's eyes he sees stars: a fortune of the future. These are "constant stars" that leave the narrator without doubts while reading. Although he is unable to predict the events of nature or personal experience from the real stars of reality, the narrator knows from the figurative stars in the boys' eyes that if he does not pass on the gift of life and does not have children, then the artistic values ​​of boy they will be truth and beauty will end together with him. In essence, truth and beauty are principles that “thrive” through the act of fertility. The death of.