Overview of Act 1 (Sonnets 1-42)

Hello Shakespeareans and welcome back to the Secret Five Act Structure of the Sonnets Podcast.  In this episode, I’m going to give you a quick overview of Act 1.  The purpose in doing this is to give you all the backstory you’ll need to better understand how to put Act 2 into perspective.  For the purpose of Season 2, I’m just going to be glossing over the first 42 sonnets.  In effect, I’m skipping over them.  It’s not that I don’t think they’re good, but I wanted to hurry up and focus on Act 2.  However, in this episode I will go back to the beginning.  Afterwards, you’ll have the knowledge necessary to better enjoy Act 1 when you read it yourself.  

However, before we begin, I want to remind you that my email is sonnetspodcast@gmail.com and the website is www.sonnetspodcast.com.  You have to put in the www or else it won’t work.

Okay.  So, let’s slow down and start with a warm up thought exercise.  Imagine the first 42 sonnets as a one-act play with three scenes.  Instead of seeing 42 different poems, I want you to imagine 3 groups of 14.  Inside each of these 14 poem sections, you need to understand that they are grouped into a 4442 format.  This is the structure: three quatrains with a dramatic turn after eight sonnets and a couplet at the end.  

One of the main ideas for you to take away from this episode today is that each section uses 4442 differently.  Let me explain: Section 1 is basically a single idea and the couplet is a summary.  This is the most basic form of a sonnet.  One idea for twelve lines with a two line recap.  Is this the most interesting thing that happens in the work?  No, but take notice because Shakespeare doesn’t ever again repeat this story beat pattern because, in Section 2, 4442, is like 14 completely different story beats.  

It’s a wild ride through some of the most well known poems in the entire collection.  Highlights like Sonnet 18 are some of the most famous lines The Bard ever composed.  In my numbering system, it’s Sonnet 2.4…which places it as the last line in the first quatrain of Section 2.  We must remember though that “Shall I Compare thee to a summer’s day” is not the only standout.  “When I consider everything that grows,” “Who will believe my verse in times to come,” “Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paw,” “A woman’s face, with nature’s own hand painted, hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion.”  It’s a murders row of heavy hitters and that’s just from poems in the first half.  “As an unperfect actor on the stage” and “Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed.”  These are the most recognizable entries from the second half.  So that’s 7 of the top 50 most anthologized poems from this sonnet sequence, and none of them are similar.  These poems are so diverse, completely juxtaposing the simple single story beat of Section 1.  

In other words, Shakespeare begins his story with two story beat patterns that are complete polar opposites.  The first is one idea with a summary couplet.  The second is almost 14 different ideas grouped into four separate story beats.  The Bard is showing us his narrative range.  However, he is not done beause Act 1 is the only act to have 3 sections.  All the others just have two.  Section 3, similar to Section 1, is mostly about a single idea, but it’s examined from different angles.  The difference however is that, in Section 3, we get a surprise ending.  There’s a reason Sonnets 3.12-3.14 are called the Betrayer Sonnets.  Section 3’s couplet is so powerful because it reshapes the way we view the entirety of Act 1.

And also, before we move on, while we’re on this topic, let’s talk about Sections 4 and 5.  I want to bring them in so that we can also put their story beat patterns into context.  In Section 4, Shakespeare breaks his own 4442 rules and goes with something like 16232.  If you listened to the last episode, you’ll know that Section 4 has a pretty clear narrative.  There are interweaving storylines and it all comes together at the end.  Plus, the couplet is a reflexive conclusion that adds new ideas while also ending the story and setting up the next one.  It’s not just a simple summary.

Lastly, Act 5 is also new in terms of story beats.  Shakespeare returns to the 4442 format.  However, this time, his variation is to group up sonnets so that they are thematically similar, except that each of the 4442 storybeats is completely different.  So while Section 2 feels like 14 different poems grouped into 4 story beats, Section 5 is closer to something like 4 ideas grouped into 4 groups.  There’s lots of overlap inside each group.  Some people think that Section 5 is a bit repetitive, with many sonnets seemingly derivative, but I believe I can show that this was very intentional.  It only seemed boring because readers didn’t properly understand the story they were seeing.  

Okay, so that covers all the big ideas for now.  Let’s slow down and quickly walk through Act 1 and look at it from a different angle.

Section 1 is, structurally speaking, very simplistic.  There is only one central topic: an older gentleman wants a disinterested 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.

If you listened closely, you’ll have noticed that I’ve just listed the 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 remember what I just told you - Shakespeare will not stay this easy, and, as a matter of fact, he will never repeat this version of the story beats.  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 procreating offspring, but there’s also a poetic interpretation.  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.  So, even if it is a beautiful poem, it needs successors, or else The Sonnets just becomes: “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, action.

Overall, I’m actually a big fan of Sonnet 1.  It often gets overlooked in anthologies, and that’s a huge oversight.  Someday, in a future episode, I’d like to take a deep look into Sonnet 1 and compare it to Sir Philip Sidney’s Sonnet 1.  Sidney was also a famous sonneteer and it’s easy to see how Shakespeare’s Sonnet 1 is heavily influenced by his predecessor.  In the meantime, this is a summary episode and I’m only on line 2.

So, let’s move on.

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, and, as we just covered, the first five sections are all quote “refigured” in different ways.  Looking ahead, Sections 6-11 all have unique beat patterns, but they won’t help you with Section 4.  So, I’ll save that conversation for another day.  In the meantime, if you want to know more, listen to “The Sonnets Revealed,” Episode 3 from Season 1.

But for now, let’s recenter.

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 form 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 or less decides that all is lost.  This is how the section concludes, with the poet worried that this is the end, which is itself a signal of finality.

Section 1 may seem repetitive and dull, but part of the joy of re-reading it is understanding the new story that the Secret Structure reveals.  These aren’t just poems about a young bachelor who refuses to marry.  Rather, if you look at this framework as a metaphor, you’ll see that the poet wants his poems to embrace the structure to create the most beautiful volume of poetry ever written.  However, the poet realizes that the poems won’t do it on their own.  Additionally, the poet discovers that writing The Sonnets is more than just a literary exercise.  Rather, it is a passion that will consume him.  I believe that all references to the prospective wife in Section 1, the mistress in the betrayer sonnets, and the Dark Lady in Act 5 are personifications of the Secret Structure.  In general, Shakespeare is crafting a story in which the poetry is masculine and the form is feminine.  As such, this entire work is an analysis of the relationship between poet, poetry, and form.

Moving on, Section 2 is an absolutely wild ride filled with twists and turns.  It’s loaded with surprises, as if almost every sonnet stands alone.  This isn’t to say that Section 2 isn’t structured or cohesive because it is, but Shakespeare shows us that the journey through his sonnet sequence will always be, structurally speaking, “refigured.”

This is a taste of what happens.  Here’s a simplified 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 is probably my fourth favorite section, behind Sections 4, 10, and 11.  Section 2 creates its uniqueness by being diverse, and there’s nothing else like it in the work. 

Next, let’s look at the key sonnets.  Key Sonnets are the 1st, 9th, 13th, and 14th poems in a section.  Key Sonnets are the poems most responsible for creating the shifts that enable the structure to work.  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 quote “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 such an amazing progression from where the story started, but it’s what we should expect from the narrative arc of Section 2.  In Group 1, the narrator decides to write love poems.  Next, it consumes him in Group 2.  And finally, in Group 3, he becomes obsessed with his muse and falls in love.  In the Couplet, he is overwhelmed and 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 have an exact reason, but it’s a fascinating question to ponder.  My best guess is that Shakespeare wanted every sonnet in Section 2 to feel unique.  Otherwise, had the poem been in any other section, it’s possible that Sonnet 18 would have been a two or three parter.  Of course, I cannot prove this, but my speculation is derived from reading between the lines of the structure.  

The second topic is the traditional sectioning of Shakespeare’s Sonnets.  Usually, scholars have siphoned the 154 poems into 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, and, to be honest, I think this is a great question that I must answer.

First off, Sonnet 14 creates finality.  The word “end,” as in this is the end, can be found in the last line of the poem.  It’s there for a reason.  More importantly though, Sonnet 15, the first sonnet of Section 2, does not mention the key themes of Section 1, but it does introduce new important ones.  The word quote “new” is in the last line of the poem and it signals a new narrative arc.  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 the themes from Section 1, but they’re more opaque and not the main point of this 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 here they are footnotes.  I do not believe the traditional sectioning is an impediment to the Secret Structure.  For us it’s perfectly reasonable for a major theme to cross into the next section.  Technically, this happens in four out of the five acts.  However, it’s essential to recognize that, in the early part of Section 2, the childbearing theme is much less important and less clear.

Lastly, I will make a quick note that will help you better understand Section 2 going forward.  The Narrator talks a lot about “eyes” throughout the work.  That’s e-y-e-s, eyes.  I myself typically interpret quote “eyes” to mean quote “words.”  It’s a clue that Shakespeare is talking about the poems because the words are what we see with our eyes.  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.  So, eyes means words, got it?  Good.

Up next is Section 3, Act 1’s finale.  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.  We’re starting a new narrative arc.  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 first of the Betrayer Sonnets, 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 us 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 or interchangeable depending on the sonnet.  Personally, I think Shakespeare tends to be flexible because he’s working on many levels and hiding in shadows.  Plus, it’s could’nt have been easy working within the confines of the 11x14 construct. To further explore this you really need to read Act 5 in context, but we don’t have time for that today.  The point I want to make right now is this conflict is introduced as the climax for Act 1, and the groundwork for this revelation goes all the way back to Sonnet 1.1, “From fairest creatures we desire increase.”

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 speaking, Section 3 is easy to dissect.  Each of the three groups and the couplet are thematically similar within themselves while also being distinct, yet narratively coherent.  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 single 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, as I’ve already told you, 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?  To be completely honest, I 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 while also being completely unrelated to the other acts.  Plus, Shakespeare gave us two big clues that Act 4 and Act 5 are acts and not separate sections.  The Dark Lady Sonnets are obviously one story.  It’s split into two parts, but it’s one narrative.  Act 4 is also delineated, but in a completely different way.  Sonnets 99 and 126 or Sonnets 8.1 and 9.14 are 15 and 12 lines long respectively.  That's the first and last poem of the act both being not 14 lines.  Literally, these two poems stand as bookmarks clearly indicating that Sections 8 and 9 are one act.  

So, coming back to this episode, in the case of Act 1, it’s an act, simply put, because it has a clear 3 part narrative that’s unrelated to Act 2.  Sections 1-3 present a story arc with a beginning, middle, and end.  On the contrary, as you’re about to see in Act 2, the new narrative is going to abandon realism and every poem will basically be a soliloquy.  Section 4 especially is loaded up with deep thoughts spoken in private.  Another reason that the five act structure makes sense is because it mirrors the way Shakespeare wrote his plays.  Many start in the first location, go to a second location, and then return the first.  For example, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  It starts in Athens, goes to the forest in Act 2, and then returns to Athens for Act 5.  This arrangement is very consistent across many plays like Othello and Much Ado about Nothing.  In other words, this style is, for lack of a better word, very “Shakespearean.”

In closing, the purpose of today’s episode was to give you a quick overview of Act 1.  If you’re interested, I highly encourage you to read these 42 sonnets and see what you can see.  It’s very easy for you to test everything I said to decide if it works.  Additionally, there’s a lot I didn’t cover.  Therefore, you can look for connections that I didn’t lay out.  For example, Sonnet 2 starts with, “When forty winters have besieged thy brow.”  Well, two plus forty, equals 42, the exact number of sonnets in Act 1.  Is Sonnet 2 plus forty winters a reference to the story arc of the first 42 poems?  Is that a random coincidence or is there something deeper for you to discover?  If you want to find out, you’ll need to read it yourself.  Mostly though, on a first read through, my question for you would be: do you see three sections of 4442?

Okay, we’re done, but you’ve got homework.  I highly encourage you to read Act 1 before starting Act 2.  It’s not a required prerequisite, but it will help you better appreciate the insanity of Act 2, which we’re going to start next episode.  Thanks for listening.