Sonnet 54 (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Shakespeare's Sonnet 54 uses an extended metaphor to develop the theme of the beauty of the beloved and the preservative power of verse. Sonnet 54 is one of 154 sonnets written by English playwright William Shakespeare. It is in part of Sonnets 1-126, which are called the Fair Youth sonnets. These sonnets are written from the perspective of an elder man displaying his fondness of a younger man. The sonnets were first published together in 1609, although evidence points to Shakespeare finishing them at least 12 years earlier. A. Kent Hieatt, Chales W. Hieatt, and Anne Lake Prescott published an article in Vol. 88 of Studies in Philology detailing a computer assisted study which partially confirmed this conjecture. It determined that Sonnets 1-60 were first composed sometime in between 1590 and 1595, but then likely revised after the turn of the century. In order to determine this, they looked at how Shakespeare's use of words changed over time and what current events and works he references.