Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Boy

A 21st century look into the circumstances of the writing, delivering, and eventual publishing of "Shakespeare's Sonnets". These extraordinary poems by the English language's extraordinary author appear to have been written primarily for an audience of one, the young Earl of Southampton, in late Elizabethan England. The present author deals straightforwardly with the dates and sexual contents of the sonnets, while taking into realistic account the true nature of Elizabethan society. He...
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A 21st century look into the circumstances of the writing, delivering, and eventual publishing of "Shakespeare's Sonnets". These extraordinary poems by the English language's extraordinary author appear to have been written primarily for an audience of one, the young Earl of Southampton, in late Elizabethan England. The present author deals straightforwardly with the dates and sexual contents of the sonnets, while taking into realistic account the true nature of Elizabethan society. He concludes that most of the sonnets were written on a strict weekly schedule between late April of 1591 and early October of 1594, with a few well-identified gaps ranging from a few weeks to nine months. Unlike many previous studies, the question of the so-called "dark Lady" is not treated at all in this work. The texts of sonnets #1 to #126 are included, with comments for many of them.