Shakespeare's Poetics Seen From His Sonnets

Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist and poet of the Renaissance, made great contributions not only to the world literature but to the literary theory. He expressed his attitude towards plays and poetry indirectly through the mouth of his characters in the plays and sonnets though he wrote no specific works on literary theory. This thesis endeavors to make a study of Shakespeare's poetics by the analysis of his sonnets.The thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter one explores one aspect of Shakespeare's poetics: poetry as mirror reflecting nature. In other words, the poet insists on the true portrait of life. The poet regards fairness, kindness and truth as the argument of poetry and the youth as his inspiration. He is against of affectation.Chapter two by the analysis of some sonnets we find that in the poet's opinion, poem is a powerful weapon against mortality. In his sonnets, time is depicted as a tyrant, whose injurious hands destroy everything. But poems can defeat time and preserve youth and beauty.Chapter three examines the relation of Shakespeare's sonnets with the tradition. Sonnet, in its origin, developed as it did from the love songs of the Troubadours, who were traveling poets and singers in the south of France and the north of Italy in the 11^th to the 13 ^th century. In the 14th century, it was maturated by Petrarch, an Italian lyric poet. Petrarchan sonnets spread throughout Europe and influenced Shakespeare and his contemporaries. With his unique poetic art, Shakespeare developed the Petrarchan sonnets and became another outstanding sonneteer after Petrarch.In sum, this thesis has done some preliminary researches on Shakespeare's poetics by the analysis of his sonnets.