Episode 3 - The Sonnets Revealed

Hello Shakespeareans and welcome to the flagship episode of the podcast.  This is Episode 3: The Sonnets Revealed.  My goal today is to present Shakespeare’s Sonnets in such a way that everything ever written about these 154 poems will immediately become obsolete.  However, before I get started, I want to make sure you know that my email is sonnetspodcast@gmail.com and the website for the podcast is sonnetspodcast.com.  So, if instead of listening, you’d rather read the transcripts, you can do that by visiting the website.   

Okay.  Let’s begin.  I doubt you’ve stumbled into this episode with zero foreknowledge, but even still, let me give you a quick review.  There are 154 sonnets.  14x11=154.  That means there are eleven sections.  Each section has 14 sonnets and each sonnet functions as a line within a larger sonnet.  Beyond that, there are five acts.  Sections 1-3 form Act 1, and each subsequent act is comprised of two sections each.  You may already know this by having listened to earlier episodes.  It’s easy to look at these numbers and ask, “sure, the math adds up, but how does it change the way we read The Sonnets?”

This is an excellent question.  Maybe the most important question of the podcast.  In future episodes, I will do deep dives into each section individually and go sonnet-by-sonnet through the work.  There will be eleven of these episodes.  The deep dive series will reveal all the secrets, and I’m sure many people will enjoy them.  At the same time, I suspect those eleven episodes could run more than ten hours.  That’s a huge time commitment, and may not be for everyone.

That’s why I’m producing this episode.  It’s a streamlined summary of all my research.  I believe it’s a convenient one-stop-shop to get a feel for how the Secret Structure enables us to reimagine Shakespeare’s Sonnets.  Now, you may look at the length of this episode and laughably ask: “This is a summary?”  Well, the answer is yes.  At close to 40 pages double spaced, this is the short version.  I wish it wasn’t so long, but it is.  There’s a lot to reveal, we’ve got eleven different subjects to cover, and I want to make sure my points are crystal clear.  So yes, this episode is long, but you also have a pause button.   

Next, I’m going to assume you have some working knowledge of The Sonnets.  I’m not requiring you to read each and every one of them, but hopefully you’ve read 20 or 30 of the most popular.  Also, I’m going to assume you understand how a sonnet works.  If you don’t know or if you need a refresher, I encourage you to listen to “Episode 2: What is a Sonnet?” or do your own research online.  And finally, I’m only going to present my re-imaged interpretation.  This isn’t to overlook other ways to read these poems, but those resources are already available.

My goal today is to present three things.  One, I want to explain how each section functions as an individual unit.  Two, I want to share all the best secrets that I’ve found in my research.  And three, I want to respond to some obvious objections.

Okay, let’s go.  The first thing we need to do is introduce the dramatis personae.  There are three major characters in this work: the Narrator, the Young Man, and the Dark Lady.  Let’s examine these people because two of them are just personifications.  They aren’t people at all.

First, the Young Man.  He is a manifestation of the poems themselves.  In this way, The Sonnets is a long and complicated love story between a poet and his poetry.  Next is the Dark Lady.  She represents the Secret Structure.  Yes, you heard me right.  The Structure is actually a character in the work, and no one’s ever picked up on it.  As a character, she pops up three times in the work.  First, she’s foreshadowed in Section 1 as the type of woman with whom the Young Man should conceive children to pass on his beauty.  Next, she’ll make a cameo at the end of Act 1.  At this point, the Narrator gets mad at his poems because they’re more interested in the Structure than they are with him.  He feels betrayed.  Lastly, the Dark Lady is the central focus of Act 5.  In these two final sections, the writer will wrestle with himself and try to determine to whom his poems belong: the poet or the structure?

I should point out that there’s a certain fluidity to both of these characters.  Sometimes the Young Man is an individual sonnet on one page.  Other times, he’s the entire work.  The Dark Lady is more complicated because what exactly is the Structure?  Well, for us, it’s the secret elements that I’m revealing, but the text suggests Shakespeare may have had a more nuanced view.  Is the Structure the secret parts, the sonnet format in general, or a broader critique of all Renaissance literary conventions?  Well, I think there’s evidence for all three at different times.  So, in general, I think it’s best to keep an open mind and not always assume that these two characters are consistent.

The last character is the Narrator.  If you want to believe that these are the actual private thoughts of Shakespeare, you do you, but I choose to view this as a planned out romance written in the first person.  That’s not to say that the Bard wasn’t actually inspired by real-life events, but it’s impossible for us to parse out fact from fiction.  Furthermore, the Narrator is 100% not reliable.  As we will see, section to section, and even group to group, his feelings change or the situation flips without explanation.  This can be frustrating, but it’s also by design.  Shakespeare wanted an unreliable, highly emotional Narrator.  Instead of asking why, we should focus on a better question: what does this tell us?

Now we have a proper frame of mind for starting our overview journey, but before we do, if you didn’t listen to the ending of the last episode, you won’t understand my numbering system.  I won’t rehash the benefits, but it goes like this: the first number tells you the section number and the second number tells you the sonnet number.  So, for example, Sonnet 1 is also Sonnet 1.1 and Sonnet 15 is also Sonnet 2.1.  This is very helpful for figuring out where you are.  If I say, Sonnet 8.13, you will immediately know that we’re in Section 8’s couplet.  My numbering system might seem strange at first, but it makes everything so much easier.

Okay, let’s start.

Section 1 is, structurally speaking, very easy to understand.  There is only one central topic:  an older gentleman wants a younger man to make children so that his beauty will be passed on and not wasted.  Thematically, the narrator approaches this from multiple angles, but the focus is always on the Young Man needing to procreate.  If we read this literally, the Older Man starts out optimistic, grows frustrated, and then becomes both angry and sad.  At the end of the section, he summarizes his feelings and resigns himself to the fact that all is lost.

I’ve just listed four stages to this section.  Can you guess where I am going?  Quatrain 1 or Q1 for short is optimistic, Q2 is frustration, Q3 is anger and sadness, and the Sectional Couplet is a summary.  Straight-forward, right?  Well, yes, but do not assume that Shakespeare will stay this easy.  As a matter of fact, he will never repeat this version of the structure.  Now, I don’t want to spend too long on Section 1, but I do want to dive into the text to illuminate some hidden gems.

Focusing in, let’s talk about interpretation.  Here’s Sonnet 1, line 1: “From fairest creatures we desire increase that thereby beauty’s rose might never die.”  Or, “beautiful people should make babies to pass on their good looks.”  There is a literal way to translate this, that an older man has a strange infatuation with a young Adonis, but there’s a poetic interpretation as well.  First, the poet is beginning a sonnet sequence.  So, he needs more poems.  Sonnet 1 isn’t a one-off.  It’s a starting point.  Even if it is a beautiful poem, it needs successors, or else The Sonnets just become “The Sonnet.”  

Next, this can also be a reference to the sonnet/poet culture.  Sonnet writing in the 1590’s wasn’t exactly a cult, but this poetic form had a devoted following.  By writing this sequence, Shakespeare is contributing to this sonnet writing culture.  Additionally, he’s inspiring future poets to also want to write great poetry.  Last, the “fairest creature” can be a reference to the 11 Sections.  This may seem like a stretch to you right now, but you’ll be thinking differently after the episode.  Shakespeare thought enough of Sectional Sonnets that he wrote them into this work.  It’s very conceivable that he wanted to reference it from the beginning.  Act 1, Scene 1, raise the curtain, surprise.

Overall, I’m actually a big fan of Sonnet 1.  It often gets overlooked in anthologies, and that’s a huge oversight.  In a future episode, I’m going to take a deep look into Sonnet 1 and compare it to Sir Philip Sidney’s Sonnet 1.  In the meantime, this is a summary episode and I’m only on line 2.

In Sonnet 1.6, and I’m paraphrasing, Shakespeare states, “If you make a child, you’ll be ten times happier.”  The key line is line 10, “If ten of you were refigured ten times.”  Remember where we are.  We’re in Section 1.  There are ten more sections, and ten plus one equals eleven sections.  Maybe this is numerology, but I love the word, “refigured.”  This is Shakespeare telling us that no two sections will be the same.  So, if you think they’ll all be like Section 1, muhahaha, umm no.

In Sonnet 1.8, we see a clear reference to the Dark Lady.  As I’ve previously stated, she is a reference to the Structure.  This is an example of how we can re-read The Sonnets.  Here is the No Fear translation of lines 9-12: “Notice how the sound of two strings vibrating together in harmony is a father and child and happy mother, who all sing one pleasing note together.”  In other words, if poet, poetry, and poetic convention work together, they can create harmonious music that sounds like one sound.  However, at the end of the section, the Narrator gets frustrated at the Young Man and more less decides that all is lost.  This is how the section concludes, with the poet worried that this is the end.

Structurally speaking, Section 1 is generic.  There’s essentially one idea and there are no surprises.  I’m not suggesting this is bad, but it’s a direct juxtaposition of what we will see in the next section.  Now, I’d like to say more about Section 1, but it’s not that complicated and we have ten more sections, many of which are much more complex.  So, I’m moving on.

Section 2 is an absolutely wild ride filled with twists and turns.  It’s almost as if every sonnet   stands alone.  This isn’t to say that Section 2 isn’t structured.  It absolutely is.  The point though is, Shakespeare shows us that the journey through his sonnet sequence will always be, structurally speaking, different.

Since I don’t have time today to cover all the nuances of this section, I want to give you a taste of what happens.  Here’s a one sentence summary of each sonnet:

Group 1:

Sonnet 2.1: Life is short, but I will fight time by writing more poetry about you.

Sonnet 2.2: A child is still the best way to live forever.

Sonnet 2.3: Decades from now, no one will believe my poetry is true, but a child and my poems would help you live twice.

Sonnet 2.4: You are more beautiful than a summer’s day and will live forever in my poetry.

Group 2:

Sonnet 2.5: Time, do your worst to destroy the world, but my poems will always be young.

Sonnet 2.6: You have the masculine parts of poetry, but the feminine parts of the structure, and this is complicated for me.

Sonnet 2.7: Other poets use tired cliches and outdated writing formats to make money, but that’s not me.

Sonnet 2.8: How can you be young and I old, because we are actually one in the same?

Group 3:

Sonnet 2.9: Like a bad actor with stage fright, I’m not saying what I want to say because I’m beginning to fall in love.

Sonnet 2.10: My words have painted my poetry into the Structure.

Sonnet 2.11: I wouldn’t trade my place with a rich person because I’m embedded in the Structure.

Sonnet 2.12: I’m in love and I’m hiding out writing poems about you.

Couplet

Sonnet 2.13: I’ve exhausted myself thinking about you to the point I have insomnia.

Sonnet 2.14: I’m full of grief because I write about you all day and think about you all night.

Now, I think it’s easy to initially not see a section based on the sentences I just gave you.  That’s the main reason I’m zooming in here.  But I want to quickly note, this might be my favorite section and there’s nothing else like it in the work, so we should enjoy it while we’re here.

First, let’s look at the key sonnets.  Sonnet 2.1 does not mention making children at all.  Rather, it introduces the new idea of writing poems to immortalize the Young Man’s beauty.  This is a big narrative shift.  In 2.9, the Turn, the Narrator gets emotional in a somewhat erratic way.  He describes himself as “some fierce thing with too much rage.”  The level headed mentor of Section 1 is gone and now he is madly in love.  Lastly, the Couplet of Section 2 describes a man having a mental health breakdown.  He can’t sleep or think straight.  This is an amazing progression, but this is the narrative of Section 2.  The narrator decides to write love poems.  It consumes him in Group 2.  In Group 3 he becomes obsessed with his muse and falls in love.  In the Couplet, he breaks down psychologically.

Before I move on, there are two topics I must discuss and they both involve Sonnet 18.  First, there is only one Sonnet 18.  Considering how many derivative repeats are in the work, why didn’t Shakespeare linger on this theme for a few more poems?  We don’t know, but it’s a fascinating question.  The second topic is the traditional sectioning of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.  Usually, there were three sections.  Section 1 was Sonnets 1-17, Section 2 was Sonnets 18-126, and Section 3 was the Dark Lady.  It’s fair to ask what I see that differs from a system that’s existed for hundreds of years.  I think this is a great question that I must answer.

Sonnet 15, the first sonnet of Section 2, does not mention the key themes of Section 1, but it does introduce new important ones.  Sonnet 16 loosely mentions a woman, but only as quote, “maiden gardens,” and it implies procreation with the line, “to give yourself away.”  Obviously, these can be interpreted as extensions of themes from Section 1, but they’re more opaque and not the main point of the poem.  In Sonnet 17, the focus is on poetry.  A child is only mentioned in the couplet in conjunction with the poems.  Therefore, in Section 1, these topics were central, but now they are footnotes.  I do not believe the traditional sectioning is an impediment to the Secret Structure.

Lastly, I will make a quick note that will help you understand Section 2 and going forward.  The Narrator talks a lot about “eyes” throughout the work.  That’s e-y-e-s, eyes.  I myself typically interpret “eyes” to mean “words.”  It’s a clue that Shakespeare is talking about the poems.  A perfect example is Sonnet 24 or Sonnet 2.10.  In that poem, he uses the word “eye” or “eyes” six times.  Line 10 reads, “Mine eyes have drawn thy shape.”  If eyes means words, that reads as “my words have created the beauty of my poems.”  This is a valuable word to know.

Okay, so I can’t wait to get into the dive deep of this section, but I’m pushing forward because you should have enough to get a good idea of how it works.  Up next is Section 3, which will also be the end of Act 1.  Section 3, for me, is an example of a short story that you can just drop in and enjoy.

Group 1 is all praise and there are no complications.  The mental breakdown of Section 2’s couplet is not present.  There are no weird characterizations like master/mistress.  The poet just loves his poems.  In Group 2, some sort of problem is introduced.  We don’t get the details of what happened, but we do get the aftermath.  Shakespeare is not happy and thinks distance is the best option for both.  Group 3 is focused on forgiveness.  Clearly, the narrator believes his poems have acted inappropriately, but he’s willing to overlook that.  

We don’t really know what the transgression is until 3.12.  In this poem, the Narrator insinuates that the Young Man is of interest to many women.  This harkens back to when the Narrator wanted the Young Man to find a wife and make children.  Well, if we’re reading this literally, the Narrator either has a short memory or he’s had a massive change of heart.

Of course, I’m not reading this literally nor is it how I want to present it to you, which leads to Section 3’s Couplet.  In 3.13, the Narrator reveals that the Young Man is sleeping with his mistress, but, in 3.14, Shakespeare determines that he and the Young Man are one, so it’s not really cheating at all. 

Let’s unpack this and assume that the mistress, also known as the Dark Lady, is the personification of the Structure.  Therefore, this is a love triangle between poet, poetry, and format.  This will be the central theme of Act 5, the two Dark Lady sections.  Here, it’s just teased at.  The main idea is: the Narrator struggles with who is in charge and who actually has ownership of these sonnets.  Is it the writer or the format?  This is a complicated and multifaceted topic.  The poems don’t exist without the poet, but the poet couldn’t have written them without the format.  Furthermore, it’s not clear if the mistress represents the sonnet format, the Secret Structure, or Renaissance poetic conventions in general.  Then again, to the author, these three things could all be one-in-the-same.  I’ll further explore this theme when we get to Act 5.  The point I want to make right now is this conflict is introduced as the climax for Act 1.

One moment that sticks out is the revelation at the end of 3.14, that the poet and his poems are one.  This idea doesn’t stick around narratively, but it does show one way that the narrator tries to reconcile the love triangle.  In this view, poet and poetry are the same thing, so who cares about the format?

Structurally, Section 3 is easy to dissect.  Each group and the couplet are thematically similar within themselves while also being distinct from the others within the section.  This brings us to the end of Act 1.  Section 1 gives us 14 poems that basically have the same message.  Section 2 is 14 poems that are all almost completely different.  Finally, Section 3 looks at a situation three different ways before giving us a bombshell surprise ending.  Shakespeare wants us to understand that every section is going to be, as he put it, refigured.  Hence, we’re not going to see anything quite like what I’ve just described again.  There will be similarities, but no repeats.

Lastly, I must answer the question: why is this an act?  Why have acts at all?  Honestly, I’ve struggled with this question for years myself.  The answer is that in each of the subsequent acts, the two sections will either contrast or compliment each other.  In the case of Act 1, it’s an act, simply put, because it has a clear narrative.  Sections 1-3 present a story with a beginning, middle, and end.  On the contrary, as you’re about to see in Act 2, the narrative is going to become impossible to follow.

Having said that, let’s gallop into Section 4, which is a very strange section.  First off, Section 4 does not use the Structure.  Yes, you heard me straight: Section 4 does not follow the format.  There are two one-off sonnets and six couplets spaced throughout the section.  You might initially think: this is the weirdest thing going on, right?  Well, actually, no.  What’s weird is that Shakespeare tells us that he’s abandoning the Structure and then he also tells us why.

I must immediately focus on Sonnets 50 and 51, also known as Sonnets 4.8 and 4.9.  These two poems are not well-known.  Here’s a summary of both.  Sonnet 4.8 - Q1: I feel sad because I’m so far from the end of my journey.  Q2: The tired horse I ride walks slowly thinking I don’t prefer speed.  Q3: I can’t provoke a faster ride with my spurs.  Couplet: Because I realize that grief is ahead and joy behind.  Sonnet 4.9 - Q1: My horse slowly walks away from you and my reason is because there’s no need to hurry.  Q2: When I come back, no matter what, my horse feels slow.  Q3: No horse can keep up with my desire.  Couplet: Since my horse is so slow, I will abandon it and run to you.

Historically, these poems have been largely ignored because they’re a little peculiar.  What is Shakespeare talking about?  Why is the horse important?  Well, we, dear listeners, have a much more complex understanding.  The horse represents the Structure.  The Narrator feels encumbered by it and he feels that it’s inhibiting his ability to quickly write great love poetry.  So, he abandons it.  This is the central focus of Section 4: Shakespeare wrestling with the importance of the Structure and ultimately deciding he’s better off without it.  Of course, he’ll quickly decide he needs it again, but we’re not there yet.

Based on my research, Section 4 has three famous entries: “What is your essence, whereof are you made?,” “Not marble nor gilded monuments,” and “Sweet love renew thy force.”  These are Sonnets 4.11, 4.13, and 4.14.  Notice anything about those numbers?  These three sonnets are all at the backend of the section, the point at which Shakespeare is self-correcting and getting back on his horse so to speak.  Historically, I believe the rest of the sonnets in Section 4 have been overlooked simply because readers haven’t understood them.  However, once you know what to look for, they are quite fun to tease out.

Lastly, on Section 4, I want to look at the beginning and the end of this section.  I have declared that this section has no Structure, but that’s not completely true.  Sonnet 4.1 functions as a key sonnet.  In it, the Narrator abandons the love triangle narrative of the previous sonnets, and, instead, focuses on his love of the Young Man acting like everything is normal.  Next, Sonnets 4.13 and 4.14 function as a couplet and must be looked at together.  They are not sisters, but the message is transparent when they are looked at together as one.

The main idea of 4.13 is “my poems will live forever, longer than statues.”  4.14 has a more complex message.  Here’s the summary - Q1: Sweet Love, get strong today so that tomorrow you’ll be at full strength.  Q2: As you rightfully should be.  Don’t kill yourself with dullness.  Q3: Let this sad interim be a blessing like two lovers seeing each other after time apart.  Couplet: Or we can call it winter and make summer all the more welcome.

Is “Sweet Love” a reference to the poems or to the Structure?  I’m not sure it matters because both interpretations work.  The takeaway is what the Narrator confesses to the reader: Section 4 isn’t that good, but the structure will return and this winter won’t happen again.  Next, let’s juxtapose this with the main idea of the 4.13: “Not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme.”  The conjoined meaning is that, even at its worst, The Sonnets are timeless.  However, at its best, meaning when it uses the Structure, it’s one of the best things ever written.  Personally, I do not think there are weaknesses in this section and that this is just a plot point.  Regardless, Section 4 is a collection of unknown poems telling an unexpected story.

Subsequently, this leads us to Section 5, the second half of Act 2.  What is Shakespeare’s follow-up to the idea of abandoning the Structure?  Well, let’s go to Sonnet 57 or 5.1 and read the section’s opening lines: “Being your slave, what should I do but tend upon the hours and times of your desire?”  Again that’s, “Being your slave, what should I do but tend upon the hours and times of your desire?”  Hence, the new narrative for Section 5 is that Shakespeare is now the Structure’s slave.  A huge change, and obviously the work of a key sonnet.

Right now, you might be guessing where this new section is going, and you’d be wrong.  Sections 4 and 5 counterbalance each other in many ways.  Section 4 has a primary topic and every sonnet can be connected to it.  Section 5, however, is a journey filled with twists and turns.  It’s a trek from A to B, and it’s completely logical, but A and B have nothing in common.  It’s an evolution, and, in this way, Shakespeare shows us a new way to use the Structure.  Section 5 is a tightly crafted essay like Section 1, but it’s as unpredictable as Section 2.

I think this can best be demonstrated by quickly skimming through the section.  Here’s a one sentence summary of each sonnet in this part of the sequence:

Group 1

5.1: I’m your sad slave who doesn’t ask questions.

5.2: Because I’m your slave, you can do whatever you want and know you’ll be forgiven.

5.3: All writing is derivative.  I’m sure of it.

5.4: Even though death is relentless and time is fleeting, I want my poems to live forever.

Group 2

5.5: Is it your plan to stay away from me and give me insomnia?

5.6: I’m an old man who loves his youthful poems.

5.7: In preparation for when my poems will be old like me, I’m working to make sure their beauty isn’t lost.

5.8: I’m sad because life has taught me that time destroys everything and it will eventually cause my poems to decay.

Group 3

5.9: Since everything dies, how can something as fragile as beauty survive?

5.10: I’ve tried lots of bad things, and I would like to leave this world, but if I did, I’d leave my love alone.

5.11: Why should my poems exist, in this horrible world, especially if they’ll just be ripped off by lesser writers?

5.12: My poems feel classic unlike the cheap stuff of today.

Couplet

5.13: Your external beauty is well-known, but the inside can only be guessed.

5.14: People try to slander you because your purity makes you a target.

As you can tell, this narrative starts in one place and ends somewhere else completely unexpected.  From slavery, to the inevitability of death, to insomnia, to time destroying the poems, to frustration, and finally to the sonnets place in Shakespeare’s contemporary world.  There’s a lot of themes here and while there’s some overlap, there’s also room to ask tough questions about the viability of the section actually functioning correctly.

However, I believe the answer is clearly presented in the first two and last two poems of the section.  In 5.1 and 5.2, the narrator is clear that he’s a slave to the Structure.  In the sectional couplet, the sonnets are discredited as being too common, but having a good core.  The idea presented through the subtext is that the Narrator somewhat reluctantly believes that using the Structure is the key to greatness both for today and for eternity.  Furthermore, this provides us with the context with which to look at the other poems.  Ultimately, the Structure is the way to defeat time.  This is the main theme of Section 5.  Many readers may not agree, but this is in the text.

Now, let’s zoom out and look at Act 2, Sections 4 and 5 in unison.  These two sections are foils.  Section 4 treats the Structure as a hindrance that impedes the writer from saying what he actually wants to say.  Section 5 reasons that the Structure is the only way for The Sonnets to live forever.  Obviously, this is a complex struggle, but it’s also great rising action for Act 2.

Next, we’ll look at Act 3, Sections 6 and 7.  This is a messy act because it’s thematically all over the place.  Instead of looking at them as two sections, I want to begin by looking at these 28 poems together.  I’d like you to get an idea of how erratic the topics are in this act.  Here’s a list of recurring themes that appear in more than one sonnet.  They’re in order based on when they first appear.

-Forget me when I am dead.

-I’m dying.

-You’re the only thing that makes me happy.

-My poems are derivative.

-You inspire me.

-You’re too beautiful to be described.

-I have writer’s block.

-You slander me and I agree with you.

-Your love is better than anything else, and I need you to live.

-You deceive people with your beauty.

-Being away from you feels like winter.

That’s twelve themes that are mentioned in at least two sonnets in Act 3.  From the perspective of most readers, it’s fair to ask: how is this a coherent story?  Sure, many ideas are presented, but how are they organized?  What’s the connection?  However, that’s not the half of it.  Sections 6 and 7 also contain a notable supporting character: the Rival Poet.  This person seems to be a superior poet who’s also writing sonnets to the Young Man.  The Rival Poet enters the sequence at Sonnet 6.9 and exits at Sonnet 7.2.  The time for the entrance is perfect, you can’t do much better than the Turn, but the exit, 7.2, feels a little messy.  Based on how the first five and Dark Lady sections work, we would expect the Rival Poet to exit at the end of a section, not two sonnets into the next one.

So, based on the evidence I’ve just presented to you, I think it’s very reasonable to be suspicious about Act 3.  I think it’s justifiable to have doubts, especially when you hear more about Section 7 in a moment.  However, we must remember: arrangement matters.  It’s not always about which plot point comes after which.  It’s about how those ideas are grouped together.

A moment ago, I just mentioned Section 7.  It’s a unique section because Shakespeare breaks form again like he did in Section 4.  This time, instead of three groups of four sonnets, it’s four groups of three sonnets.  So, instead of 4x3, it’s 3x4.  This is the only time Shakespeare embraces this variation.  If a reader doesn’t know to look for this, they will be confused.  If they try to approach this as three quatrains, it won’t make sense.  In case you’re wondering why…if there’s a thematic reason, it might be connected to the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.  Or maybe Shakespeare just might be shaking things up to do something different.  I don’t have a definitive answer.

Either way, my broader point is that regardless of what you think about the themes, these two sections are very well structured.  After giving you that list a minute ago, let’s revisit them through the funnel of the Structure.  This is a condensed summary.

Section 6 - Group 1: I’m dying.  Forget me, but not my poetry.  Group 2: My poetry may be derivative, but it’s all about you.  Group 3: There’s a rival poet who’s better than me, and I can’t blame you for liking his poems more than mine.  Couplet: Your beauty is so incredible, a poet can be famous if they just describe you.

Section 7 - Group 1: Those rival poets are giving me writer’s block.  Group 2: If you want to slander me, I’ll insult myself too.  Group 3: Your love is better than wealth and I need you to live.  Group 4: You make destruction of your reputation look like a good thing.  Couplet: Being away from you feels like winter.

To oversimplify things, I’m going to divide listeners into two camps.  On one side is the faction that wants to dive in and try to figure out what Shakespeare is doing.  On the other are the skeptics who think these random ideas are not cohesive.  In truth, I find it hard to fit into either camp.  The skeptics are wrong because there’s Structure, but, in order to be a true believer, I’d have to believe an unreliable narrator.  What’s actually happening or not happening within the story?  It’s hard to know because the narrative isn’t clear.  There’s plenty of character development, but no plot.  I mean, yes, one can argue there’s a story here, but it feels quite avant-garde.  That’s fine, but the underlying narrative is, by design, basically impossible to follow.

Furthermore, unlike previous sections, the Structure does not appear to be a theme and it’s challenging at times to see the Young Man as a personification of the poems.  For example, can the poems slander the poet or would other poets write love poems about Shakespeare’s Sonnets in a way that both belittles and praises them?  Maybe, but this feels more intellectual than what’s actually on the page.  Ultimately, we’re dealing with a bunch of realistic situations that aren’t philosophical.  

Act 3 is a dramatic soap opera with a plot that reinvents itself with each new group.  We can prove this is an act because the sonnets are all thematically similar in that they are plausible real life situations that anyone can relate to.  Think back to the list I of themes I just read to you.  It is easy for us to imagine the poet struggling through these situations.  There’s no metaphorical horses running around.  All of these situations could theoretically happen in our contemporary times.  Any modern day songwriter could write a love ballad based on one of those themes, and it would feel completely natural.  In other words, the themes of Act 3 are timeless.  I recommend you remember that for when we get to Act 4.

Lastly, I want to talk about the Rival Poet because he’s a frustrating character.  The poet enters in 6.9, and this is great for creating a key sonnet, but there’s next to no introduction otherwise.  Beyond that, the character is hard to understand.  Sometimes he is superior.  Other times, he is mediocre, all fluff.  Sometimes there’s just one Rival.  Other times, there is a group of Rivals.  This character is not explained or fleshed out, and he disappears unexpectedly.  As readers, we want more from this character, but all we get is a one-dimensional person who feels under-utilized.  Oh well, I guess.  Sections 6 and 7 are a little messy, but they’re also tightly structured and unique.

Up next is Section 8, but before we explore this section, I have to spotlight Sonnet 99.  Of all the 154 poems, Sonnet 99 is the biggest unicorn in the sequence.  The reason for this is because it’s actually part of two sections.  Sonnet 99 is both 7.15 and 8.1.  How is this possible you might ask?  Well, it uses the flowers and spring imagery from Section 7’s couplet, but it’s also a self-contained allegory and invocation to the muse that’s completely unrelated to Section 7’s couplet.  This invocation to the muse sets up the themes of Section 8.  

As you may remember, Sonnet 99 is the only 15 line poem in the sequence.  My theory is that this length serves two purposes.  One, the extra length is a marker for the start of Act 4.  And two, it’s fifteen lines long because it’s literally the fifteenth sonnet of Section 7.  Sonnet 99 is an often overlooked and hard to understand poem, but the writer clearly desired for it to stick out.  This unicorn, which is placed at the climax of the story, is both a denouement for Section 7 and a total reset for Section 8.

I will come back to this poem in a minute, but first I want to set up the entire framework for the section.  For many years, before beginning my research, I felt Act 4 might be a graveyard of lesser sonnets.  Only a few of these poems are famous.  I feared the rest might just be filler.  However, as you’re about to discover, that’s not correct.  Act 4 is a tough nut to crack, but there is an answer at the end of this equation.

The next poem we will spotlight is Sonnet 107 or 8.9.  This is Section 8’s Turn.  Though this poem isn’t as famous as many others, it is infamous to scholars and has generated a decent amount of historical speculation.  The premise of the poem is that the narrator’s true love has been released from imprisonment after the death of a female monarch.  Scholars speculate that this may be a reference to the Earl of Southhampton and Queen Elizabeth.  Many believe he was the inspiration for the Young Man.  Factually, we do know in real life that he was locked up, and then freed after the death of the queen.

Now, I have no idea if this poem is about that.  It’s also possible that this could be an allegory that the poems are now free from the Structure’s cage.  Or, both could be true.  We don’t know, and I don’t want to get too deep into speculation about it.  The point is that this changes the narrative.  Hence, Sonnet 8.9 is a perfect example of a key sonnet.

Next, let’s jump to the end of Section 8 and look at the Couplet.  These two poems can be looked at together as one.  In them, the narrator laments that he has a bad reputation as the result of being a public figure.  This is believed to be a reference to Shakespeare’s work as an actor.  Again, like 8.9, regardless of whether or not this is actually a reference to real life, the point is that there are no other poems like these, and again they change the narrative.  Sonnets 8.1, 8.9, 8.13, and 8.14 are all unicorns in their own way, but they all do their job.  So, now that I covered the key sonnets for Section 8, let’s look at what it’s all about.

In Group 1, Shakespeare appeals to the capital “M” Muse to inspire him to write good poetry.  Up until this point, the Narrator has always looked to the Young Man for inspiration.  Therefore, this is a notable new topic.  At the end of Group 1 and the start of Group 2, the poet suggests his poems aren’t that good anymore and he’s better off not writing.  Then, Shakespeare suggests this love affair has lasted three years.  After that, he defends his aging lover and says all the poets of yesterday were just prophecies of The Young Man.  In Group 3, the Narrator celebrates the release of his lover and then makes some statements about his poetry:

1. They will live forever.
2. What can he say that hasn’t already been said?
3. There is nothing fake about the Narrator’s love and he wouldn’t trade the universe for the poems.
4. He’s described the poems in many different ways, some of which are strange.

Last, we finish with the Couplet, which gives a potential explanation for understanding the entire Section.  The idea is that maybe the stress of his job at the theater caused him to falter as a poet.  The Couplet may give us some context for understanding the entire section or it might be a red herring to distract us.  Alas, for us as readers, overall that's sort of how Act 4 functions.

In aggregate, I feel like Section 8 is a peek behind the curtain.  It’s sort of like the director’s commentary on the DVD.  He’s telling us what he actually went through to make this sonnet sequence.  It took three years, and, at times, he suffered from a lack of inspiration, but he always believed the final product would be the greatest thing ever written.  All the while, his job at the theater was a hindrance to the creation of this work.  On top of that, he coped with the death of a longstanding monarch and the release of his imprisoned lover.  Now, we obviously don’t know if any of this is true, but it certainly feels possible.  

The main point is that Section 8’s poems are incredibly personal.  They are similar to Sections 6 and 7, but with one major difference.  Section 8 is specific to the real Shakespeare, whereas Act 3 could be about anybody.  Without a doubt, this difference between Acts 3 and 4 is one of my biggest discoveries.  Moreover, these fourteen sonnets are unified in such a way that there’s no way to doubt that this is a high functioning section.  I believe these fourteen sonnets are more interesting in aggregate than they are individually.  This narrative hopefully caught your attention.  Arrangement matters, and the Structure allows us to see new things.

The last non-Dark Lady section is Section 9.  It’s pretty easy to establish that it’s going somewhere new with the first four words of Sonnet 9.1.  They read, “Since I left you.”  These four words are essential for setting up the context for all the successive poems in this section.  Unfortunately, nothing is easy with Section 9, and there are two reasons why.  The first is that these poems are hard to read.  Like literally.  They are very opaque and I need a modern translation for assistance.  Heck, even the translators are confused in a few places.  For me, this is the hardest section to understand.  The second reason is that Shakespeare references strange things that the reader cannot possibly know about.  To put it simply, there’s some weird stuff here.

Let’s go back to the beginning.  What does “Since I left you” mean?  What kind of break up is this?  Did the Narrator finish writing the poems or, as is suggested in 9.4, did he give the poems away?  As in, he left them somewhere.  Alas, it’s not really clear.  However, let’s look past this guesswork and focus on the poems.

In Group 1, Shakespeare keeps thinking about his poems and realizes he loves them even more.  This leads the reader to the very famous poem, Sonnet 9.4, “Let not the marriage of two minds.”  Taken in context, if the marriage is between poet and poetry, the narrator declares he will never point out the poems’ flaws and they will never do the same to him.  I think this is an important detail for this section.  In Group 2, the Narrator says he’s caused the poems to hate him, but it was a test.  The following three poems are about the sonnets themselves taking bitter medicine.  The implication is that the poems previously hurt the poet, so this balances the scales.  In Group 3, Shakespeare starts off by embracing evil in 9.9, the Turn.  Then, in 9.10, he suggests he threw away The Sonnets so that they could exist only in his mind.  In 9.11, he curses Time and says he will beat it.  Then, he finishes the group by saying his poems are timeless.  Obviously, this is a bit all over the place.

Then there’s the couplet.  In these two poems, Shakespeare basically inserts in every major theme of work so far.  These should all be familiar.

1. The Narrator doesn’t want the recognition of kings because his words will outlive stone.
2. He only loves his poems and they are intertwined with him.  
3. He is old and aging, but his poems are forever young.
4. There’s references to Time and Nature, both of whom have been characters.  In these poems, the poet finally realizes that Time will eventually beat Nature.  (Muse doesn’t make a cameo, but there’s only so much space in 28 lines.)

This list of themes in the Sectional Couplet is The Sonnets in a nutshell.  They encompass most of what Shakespeare wrote about for the previous 124 poems.  He even works in a reference to a child instead of just calling the Young Man “my love.”  In my eyes, this is a very successful and appropriate couplet for Section 9.  They are more than the sum of their parts.  Overall, the section has a solid structure.  Group 3 isn’t cohesive thematically, but the arrangement is mostly clean.  Effectively, Section 9 creates an ending to the love story between the narrator and the Young Man, but what else is actually going on?

This is where we really need to look at the weird stuff.  In 9.6-9.8, in the bitter medicine poems, there’s a big emphasis that Shakespeare is getting back at the poems for hurting him.  Why would the poems hurt him, and why does he want them to suffer?  Next, in 9.9, why is the Narrator embracing evil?  What is the purpose of doing this?  It’s not really explained.  And even if it was, a poem about becoming evil feels out of place in this work.  At the end of 9.12, guess who Shakespeare calls forth as witnesses to his defense?  Would you have guessed reformed criminals?  Really?  Reformed criminals???  Because I didn’t even know that the Narrator was metaphorically on trial.  Moreover, why even mention reformed criminals at all?  Lastly, the two poetic couplets at the end of the section really stick out.  In 9.13, Shakespeare rebukes a paid informant who’s otherwise never mentioned, and for 9.14, there’s no couplet at all.

In total, we haven’t seen this before.  Section 9 is loaded with question marks.  What’s notable though is the sheer number of them.  So, here’s my question: is Shakespeare faltering or is this intentional?  Personally, if I’m gambling, my money’s on deliberate.  If you want a reason, my theory is that in this final Young Man section, these ideas are put here to remind us that we know nothing about William Shakespeare, his creative process, or what actually happened in his life while creating this work.  It’s a mystery because The Bard is a mystery.  He knows it and he’s teasing us here with confusion.

At this point, we’ve finished the Young Man sonnets.  I believe we need to pause here and review.  It’s actually the perfect time.  Act 1 is a three part story about a poet falling in love with his poetry.  In the first half of Act 2, the poet believes the Structure is a burden, but in the second half, he decides it’s essential.  Act 3 is filled with emotional situations that we can relate to.  Act 4 is personal in a different way.  The first half gives us clues that we think we can discern, but the second half doesn’t.  Act 3 and Act 4, in some ways, juxtapose each other.  One is filled with experiences that we can imagine happening at any time in history.  The other is loaded with red herrings about a stranger we’ll never know.

This brings us to where we are now.  It’s time to talk about the Dark Lady.  Some of these poems are very famous, and it’s easy to understand why.  There’s a clear narrative about a superficial, physical relationship that ends bad.  The Narrator gets angry and judgemental towards his girlfriend.  For us, this is fun reading.  However, my assertion is that this is only one interpretation, and therefore I propose that the Dark Lady is also a personification of the Structure itself.  Shakespeare concludes his masterpiece about writing by examining poetic form.  At times, the Dark Lady seems to be talking about just the sonnet format.  Sometimes, she’s the Secret Structure.  And other times, she’s Renaissance poetic conventions in general.

For you, as a listener, I imagine you fall into one of two camps.  Either you think this is a jaw dropping revelation or you believe it’s utterly ridiculous.  If you fall into the second camp, my question is: how else can we interpret these final 28 poems?  Shakespeare has been on message about writing for 126 sonnets.  Now, for the last act, do you think he’s going to go off on an unrelated misogynistic tirade?  That doesn’t line up with everything we’ve discussed.  So, you must decide: are the final 28 sonnets a retrospective look at poetic form by the greatest structural writer of all time?  Or, is the Dark Lady completely unrelated?  Ultimately, this is for you to decide, but, if you have an open mind, Act 5 is about to blow you away.

To start, I want to present to you decoded versions of two of the most famous poems ever written: “In old age black was not counted fair” and “My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun.”  These are Sonnets 127 and 130 or Sonnets 10.1 and 10.4.  I’m certain that most listeners have read these poems.  If not, or if you need a refresher, you can pause and read them now…Okay, in order to make this easier for you, I will present translated versions that I’ve written.  To be more accurate, these are reimagined versions.  That way you can hear what I believe Shakespeare is saying without coded language.

Here’s Sonnet 10.1:

“Q1: In the times of antiquity, poets didn’t use structure or rhyme, but, now, it’s considered the only way to write poetry.  Q2: But alas, any random wannabe can use metered verse and say they’re a great writer.  Q3: My use of Renaissance poetic conventions is the most advanced possible.  The admirers who praise it do-so without fully understanding my accomplishment.  Couplet: They look on sadly and declare that all poetry should be modeled after mine.”

Let’s really zero in on that first line, “In old age black was not counted fair” or, as I put it, “In ancient times, structured poetry was not considered beautiful.”  The big question is: why does black equate Renaissance poetic conventions?  I think the best answer is that it ties in with multiple interpretations of the Dark Lady.  A simple word like “black” is easy to use and creates all sorts of thematic opportunities.  It’s a matter of convenience.

Getting past that, let’s consider the ideas of Sonnet 10.1.  Shakespeare is comparing Renaissance poetic conventions to that of classic times.  From the narrator’s perspective, this new style of writing is the only way to be good, but it’s leading to a glut of pretenders who think they’re great poets because they can use rhyme and meter.  From my perspective, this is an amazing revelation.  If you want to check this, read the poem yourself and decide if these ideas are there?  Oh, and I’ve got some good news, we still have 27 more sonnets to go.  The fun of Act 5 is just getting started.

Let’s skip ahead to 10.4.  Here’s my re-imagined decoding of “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”

 Q1: The style I use isn’t that amazing.  It’s just a combination of convention and cryptic numerology.  Q2: I’ve dissected natural beauty, and I don’t see that in my poems.  Q3: I love the way my poetry sounds, but it’s not divinely inspired.  It’s not even as good as music.  Couplet:  However, I think my poems are rare and can’t be compared to any others ever written.

First, I want to establish that there are three characters in this poem: the Narrator, the Dark Lady, and the Young Man.  In the couplet, when he’s talking about “my love” I believe that’s a reference to the poems.  Yes, the Young Man pops up in this act.  Whenever that happens, the poet is generally toying with the relationship between his poems and their format.  The main idea of this poem is that Shakespeare doesn’t think the Structure is all that amazing, but he still loves his poems.  Therefore, the mistress is the Structure and his love is his poems.  Historically, the lover here has been the mistress, but if you read closely, there’s enough room here for a love triangle.

Now, let’s go back and look very closely at the first line: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”  Do you remember when I previously said that the word “eyes” usually means “words?”  Well, that’s important here.  One way to read this is that the Structure is not transparent, like sunlight for example.  This is the first clue we get where Shakespeare suggests he wrote this work knowing the Secret Structure would be a secret.  The sun sees everything, and the Structure is nothing like that.  Potentially, Shakespeare’s disclosing that he’s hiding something that’s hard to spot.  400 years of deception tells us it’s a pretty good secret.  

Next, I need to zoom out a bit.  I think full analysis of Act 5 is a standalone book.  Imagine the premise: the greatest writer of all time analyzes the poetic conventions of the most famous writing period of English using coded language.  That’s a book that needs to be written, and I’d like to read it.  These poems, in particular, need to be dissected with a scalpel and a microscope.  Alas, unfortunately, this is supposed to be an overview.

So, let’s summarize Section 10.  In Group 1, the Narrator has mixed feelings about the Structure.  Yes, it helps him write poems, but the sonnet format is so commonplace that it’s not special.  In Group 2, frustration grows as the poet feels trapped by the Structure.  Eventually, he believes his poems belong more to the Structure than they do to him.  In Group 3, the Narrator starts off defiantly declaring that he’s the reason the poems are good because they are filled with many layers of William Shakespeare.  However, he immediately questions how his poems can stand out if everyone is writing sonnets?  In the end, he makes an arrangement with the Structure: she won’t acknowledge that many other poets write sonnets and the Narrator won’t admit that he’s almost done as a poet.  In the Sectional Couplet, the Narrator returns to the theme of frustration and begs the Structure to be nice because she almost killed him and drove him crazy.

One major topic that I must cover is the introduction of a new character, well sort of.  Sonnet 10.9, the Turn, introduces the Will Character.  Clearly, this is a play on the author’s name: William Shakespeare.  However, I think it’s more than just a pun.  I believe this is a reference to the real Shakespeare because the Narrator is, after all, just a persona.  Considering that Shakespeare is one of the most ambiguous writers of all time, this is big.  And here’s his message: All the layers of The Bard are layered into this work.  Let’s also remember the moment, where we are in the sequence.  Sonnet 10.9, due to its heavy play on words is a bit tough to follow, but it seems that Shakespeare is saying that he’s more than the poetic conventions of his times.  Additionally, the Narrator, the poems, and the Structure are all definitive Shakespeare.  This is incredibly bold if it’s what’s actually on the page, but it might be the only time the Bard ever directly addresses the reader.

Structurally speaking, Section 10 is easy to dissect.  Each group has a central idea, and the couplet focuses on what might be the main idea while also setting up Section 11, the finale.  Section 11 isn't unique structurally.  It has 3 groups and a couplet.  However, that’s just the backdrop to the secrets in plain sight.  Shakespeare gives us so much information, but, at the same time, some of these poems are a bit cryptic.  There are moments when these poems appear to contain a jaw dropping revelation.  However, it’s fair to question if these ideas are text based or just wishful thinking. Either way, for our final section, I’m going to make some of my most ambitious claims so far.  They aren’t, however, baseless and they do make sense within the context of the work.

For Section 11, let’s begin with Group 1.  In these four poems, Shakespeare heavily criticizes the Mistress.  At times, it’s hard to discern if she’s the personification of the sonnet format, the Secret Structure, or Renaissance poetic conventions.  Of course, it’s also possible that Shakespeare didn’t distinguish between the three.  Regardless, Group 1 is a critique of her flaws and shortcomings.  Sonnet 11.1 begins: “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, for they in thee a thousand errors note.”  Again, “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, for they in thee a thousand errors note.”  As I’ve said before, the word “eyes” is often a stand-in for “words.”  Hence, those two lines could be read as: “I do not love you with my words because they see one thousand errors in you.”  Shakespeare is either displeased with the Structure or Renaissance poetic conventions.

Regardless though, he’s not completely unhappy with them because he reconciles this in the couplet.  When he says, “I count my gain that she that makes me sin awards me pain,” it’s clear that the Narrator can put up with the downside because he likes the poems that he’s producing.  I’ll repeat that line, “I count my gain that she that makes me sin awards me pain.”  His relationship with the structure has become sadomasochistic.  

In 11.2, Shakespeare continues with this theme, but the last six lines of the poem give us some fun nuggets to chew on.  In them, Shakespeare debates whether or not it’s right for him to act as if he’s the only poet writing sonnets.  At the same time, he’s hiding the Structure, not allowing others to see it.  I could quote these lines to you, but you really have to examine them like an archeologist to see this.  (Which is why I gave you the disclaimer a minute ago.)

One point that we can ponder together is the couplet, which I will modernize for our convenience.  “If you seek to have what you hide, by self-example may you be denied.”  Again, “If you seek to have what you hide, by self-example may you be denied.”  This could mean many things, especially within a broader discussion of the entire poem, Group 1, and Section 11 as a whole.  The takeaway for us is that something is hidden.  If this is a reference to the Secret Structure, then that’s a major clue to explain why the Structure was a secret.  Furthermore, it signals that the secret was the intent of the author, and that he didn’t want it to be obvious.

Next, let’s skip forward to Sonnet 11.4, and I will quote some famous lines:

“Two loves I have, of comfort and despair

Which, like two angels, do suggest me still;

The better angel is a man right fair

The worse spirit a woman colored ill.”

The point I want to make is that the “man right fair” is the Young Man or the poems and the “woman colored ill” is the Structure or Renaissance poetic conventions.  For the rest of the poem, these two sides wrestle, but ultimately the conventions of his time are stronger.  This makes sense because art is always limited by its medium.  Regardless of how you feel, these very famous lines obviously have a new meaning, and I hope you enjoy these Easter Eggs as much as I do.

Next is Group 2.  In these four sonnets, the Narrator simultaneously has bad things to say while also admitting that he can’t write poetry without his Mistress.  To demonstrate this, I want to present two more of my full translations.  One of these poems is famous.  The other isn’t.  Now, it’s fair to criticize my translation as being too fast and too loose, but let me present my ideas.  Later on, we can debate and you can dispute them.  

Up first is Sonnet 11.7, “My love is a fever, longing still.”  A very well read poem.  Here’s my interpretation:

Q1: My love for the structure is like a sickness, and I’m addicted to it.  My heart feeds on the structure, and it keeps me sick while also keeping me hungry.  Q2: My brain is my heart’s doctor and it’s furious that my heart won’t abandon the structure.  As a result, my brain has left me.  I want to be dead, and that’s what my brain expects will happen.  Q3: I can’t be cured and I don’t care.  I’m erratic, talking and thinking like a madman, randomly separated from the truth which is that: sonnets are bad for me.  Couplet: I have sworn the structure is both smart and beautiful.  However, it’s actually evil and destructive.

There’s many potential takeaways here, but I believe we should consider the toll art puts on artists.  Writing The Sonnets, especially with what we know now about the Structure, had to have been an unbelievable challenge.  It wasn’t just the 154 poems.  They were also meticulously arranged into 11 refigured sections.  Surely, there had to have been some dark times when he hated the Structure.  However, the artist pressed on even though it may not have been good for his mental health.  Traditionally, this sonnet has been read as an intense love poem about a toxic relationship.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but I want you to also see that this famous poem can be about the struggle between artists and their art.

Up next is the immediate successor to the one we just read, Sonnet 11.8.  It’s filled with so many secrets, or at least that's how I see it.  “O me! What eyes hath love put in my head,” is not a popular poem, and it’s surprisingly hard to dissect even though none of its lines are in-and-of-themselves hard to understand.  However, I want to share it and here’s my interpretation:

Q1: O my, what words has the structure put into my head?  They seem to mean one thing, but don’t correspond with my secret subtext.  Or, maybe these poems are actually about a woman and my judgment has failed.  Or I might be writing great poems about the structure while denouncing it for the wrong reasons.  Q2: If my double meaning words are actually good, how come the world doesn’t notice?  If the sonnets aren’t good, then the poems are pretty clear: the structure is not special compared to the achievements of other poets.  No, wait, that’s wrong.  Q3: How is this possible?  Can the structure be good while also being impossible to see?  This makes me sad because it’s not a marvel, and my vision is mistaken.  The structure is as invisible as the sun on a cloudy day.  Couplet: The structure is deceptive.  I’m sad it’s invisible.  At the same time, this is good because my use of the structure in this sonnet sequence isn’t perfect, and smart readers would just point out the flaws.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but my main goal is to show that the Narrator is struggling with what this all means.  Are The Sonnets good or are they not?  This shows us how much he’s wrestling with his creation.  What is Frankenstein’s monster?  The Narrator wanted to write timeless poetry.  Now, he’s not sure if any of it is any good.  Maybe he was so busy using the Structure to fill pages that he never bothered to make sure the poems were worth reading.  Is it possible that he made a big mistake?

Then, there’s the original couplet, “O cunning love! With tears thou keep’st me blind, lest eyes well seeing thy foul faults should find.”  Again, that’s “O cunning love! With tears thou keep’st me blind, lest eyes well seeing thy foul faults should find.”  The suggestion is that Shakespeare kept the Structure a secret so that no one would point out its faults.  Taking this further, one conclusion is that the Structure was hidden because it would ruin The Sonnets.  Instead of focusing on the poems, readers would just zero-in on the Structure.  So, he hid it.  

This would be like judging a formulaic movie exclusively on its use of the formula.  Most filmmakers agree, three act structure aside, that their films should be judged based on its acting, directing, cinematography, story, and dialogue.  Seemingly, 11.8 suggests that revealing the structure 400 years ago would have ruined the entire work.  This is an essential answer to a monumental question.  Why did Shakespeare make the Structure a secret?  Because he feared it would have sabotaged the end product and undermined the way the author intended the work to be read.  Maybe the Narrator is being coy and we can’t take this seriously.  Or else, maybe this is honest commentary from the Real William Shakespeare.  Either way, this is a show stopping sonnet that history has cruelly undervalued.

After this is Group 3.  Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Shakespeare completely reverses the dynamics of the situation.  Now, the Narrator is afraid the Structure doesn’t love him, and this is all he cares about.  His poems are just a means to an end: to be one with the Structure.  For Sonnet 11.9, a modernized version of the last line is: “Those that see you love it, and I am blind.”  This can be read as, “those who find the Secret Structure will love it, but I hid it.”  In a sense, readers of The Sonnets have been blind for 400 years.

After this comes another poem that we must examine in full.  Here’s my interpretation of Sonnet 11.10:

Q1: The structure is not flawless, but it has the power to make me lie about its existence.  How can I swear it’s not as obvious as sunlight in the day?  Q2: Where does this negativity come from?  The weakest parts of my sonnet sequence show such strength and skill that they exceed the best parts of all other poets?  Q3: Who taught you to make me prefer you secretly over public transparency?  I love the structure more than most poets, but I don’t want the structure to love other poets more than me.  Couplet: If the structure, imperfect though it is, raised great love poems out of me, I hope I am worthy of its affection.

In this poem, the Narrator suggests that the Structure ought to be easy to see and that the worst parts of his sonnet sequence still best all other poets.  Then, in the third quatrain, he gives us another reason for the secret: so that other poets wouldn’t copy it and therefore outclass the Bard.  He just hopes his poems are worthy of the Structure.  When you read Sonnet 150 or Sonnet 11.10, I’m sure you’ll ask yourself if this is all there?  That’s fair and I encourage you to do your own research.  My question though is: if not my interpretation-what’s going on here?

Sonnet 11.12 gives us one more final take on the subject.  The couplet reads, “For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured eye, to swear against the truth so foul a lie.”  I’ll repeat that, “For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured eye, to swear against the truth so foul a lie.”  This can be interpreted to mean that Shakespeare has tirelessly praised the beauty of his poems while hiding the full truth of its beauty.  He describes this secret as a “foul lie.”  Let’s think about this for a second.  Shakespeare wrote all these sonnets, with many declaring these poems to be the best ever and timeless.  Yet, he intentionally hid and lied about what may be his greatest achievement.  This is really worth highlighting because it’s Shakespeare’s final statement on the topic.

Moving on, I know we’re deep into a long episode, and I took a long time with the last twelve poems, but I felt it was necessary to demonstrate that my conclusions aren’t based on just one poem.  There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence to support my claims.  Sonnets 11.1-11.12 are jam packed with juicy nuggets that explain a lot while also creating new questions.  It’s a tough section to gloss over.

Finally though, we’ve come to the end, our last Sectional Couplet, Sonnets 11.13 and 11.14.  Historically, these poems have mostly been ignored because nobody has known what to do with them.  Obviously, they are some sort of ending, but what do they mean?  What is Shakespeare doing?  These two poems are such a unique pair that I’ve seen them partitioned off as their own section.  Sonnets 153 and 154 tell a story focused on Cupid, the god of love, and Diana, goddess of the hunt.  Obviously, these two characters are nice stand-ins for the Young Man and the Dark Lady.  However, these poems also function as a riddle.  To show you what I mean, I will read both poems using the NoFear Shakespeare translation.  And, to give you a heads up, let’s imagine that these poems are a prophecy.

“Cupid put down his torch and fell asleep. One of the nymphs who serve Diana took advantage of this situation and quickly plunged Cupid’s love-inducing flame in a nearby cold spring, which thus acquired a never-ending heat and became a bubbling hot bath that men still use to cure diseases. But at a glance from my mistress, Cupid’s torch fired up again, and Cupid decided to test whether his torch was working by touching my heart with it. I became sick with love and wanted the bath to ease my discomfort. I went to the spring as a sad, sick guest but found no cure. The only thing that could help me is the thing that gave Cupid his new fire: a glance from my mistress’s eye.”

“Once, while sleeping, little Cupid put down his love-inducing torch while many of Diana’s nymphs, who had all made lifelong vows of chastity, came tripping by. But the most beautiful of Diana’s nymphs picked up that fire that had warmed the hearts of legions of faithful lovers. In this fashion, the commander of hot desire was disarmed by the hand of a virgin as he was sleeping. She quenched this torch in a cool spring nearby, and the spring took a perpetual heat from love’s fire. It turned into a hot bath and healthy remedy for diseased men. But when I, enslaved by my mistress, went to the bath to be cured, this is what I learned: Love’s fire heats water, but water doesn’t cool love.”

I know this is a long quote at the end of a long episode, but we need to figure out: what does this mean?  I’ve boldly argued that every poem in the sequence has a purpose.  Well, what about these two?  In short, my personal best guess is that these two poems are a prophecy.  The idea is: what happens when the Structure is eventually discovered?  The secret has been sleeping for centuries.  For the Narrator though, the revelation of the Structure is a somewhat negative experience because he gets nothing out of it.  If the pond or body of water is meant to symbolize the poems, his literal body of work, we have a way to understand the last line of the work.  “Love’s fire heats water, water cools not love.”  Or, the Structure makes poems better and cannot detract from them in any way.  In this reading, Cupid is the poems and Diana is the Structure.  

It's a tough pair of poems to decode, but the main takeaway is that the Narrator doesn’t particularly care if the Secret Structure is ever discovered.  It’s a very sad ending.  If we can believe Shakespeare’s persona, he was only interested in writing and didn’t care about his audience.  Think about it.  The audience is never mentioned once in these poems.  We aren’t important in the Sonnets.  So, for us to discover the Structure is, to Shakespeare, an unimportant event. 

You may have a different way of reading these last two poems.  That’s okay.  The point is that they are telling us something, and we need to look at them through the prism of the Structure.  Scholars have long agreed that Sonnets 153 and 154 are some sort of an ending.  Unfortunately, there was no consensus of what they meant.  Well, maybe now we have “an answer.”

And there you have it.  This is a brand new way of reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets.  As I stated in Episode 1, I believe this makes everything ever written about the work obsolete.  Clearly, this overview is not a sonnet-by-sonnet line-by-line analysis.  That needs to happen, and my plan is to eventually make individual episodes on each section.  My goal today was to cover the main points while also spotlighting a collection of both well-known and unknown sonnets in the sequence.

However, that’s not how I want to close the episode.  In conclusion, I just have one simple question, “what now?”  What happens next?  Well, that’s a great mystery.  For two decades, I’ve wondered what would occur if this theory was taken seriously and given proper attention.  It probably doesn’t surprise you that I have some theories, but that’s a subject for a future episode.

Before I go, I just want to remind you that the website for the podcast is sonnetspodast.com and my email sonnetspodcast@gmail.com.  See you next time.