Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609) : The Theme of Desire in the Sonnet Sequence and `A Lover's Complaint'

Abstract

Shakespeare's Sonnets, published in 1609, is composed of 154 sonnets and a longish poem `A Lover's Complaint'. This form of composition of a sonnet sequence and a longish narrative poem usually of complaint was modeled on Samuel Daniel's Delia (1592). When we read this book of Shakespeare's as an organic whole, we come to understand that Shakespeare's realistic observation of human nature led him to replace the Petrarchan idea of love as Cupid with men's innate force of desire. This replacement of Cupid with human desire seems to be an aspect of the rising modern individualism.