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One of the most famous poets in the world is William Shakespeare, renowned sixteenth-century writer of plays, sonnets, and poems which are still enjoyed by people around the world. In his home country of England and elsewhere in the English-speaking world, his works are read and studied, while translations of his poetry have brought his words to people in countries around the globe. Through his plays and sonnets, Shakespeare helped form and mold more than just poetry; he also helped to influence the formation of the English language.
Shakespeare’s Influence on Literature and Language
English vocabulary and grammar have changed considerably in the past four hundred years, and the language of Shakespeare's works can be hard for modern readers to comprehend. However, there is no doubt that Shakespeare's works have influenced modern poetry and even everyday language in many ways, and people unknowingly quote the famous playwright every day. As the Shakespeare Online website states, many common phrases originate with Shakespeare. “It’s all Greek to me,” for example, comes from Julius Caesar, while everyday expressions such as “vanished into thin air” and “tongue-tied” also came from Shakespeare’s pen.
Shakespeare’s influence on the forms of poetry is just as great. Together with other Renaissance poets, he helped change the writing style from the ancient Greek fourteen-line sonnet as written by Petrarch and his contemporaries to a new, freer form. Shakespeare’s sonnets broke from the old rigid format, while they also brought a new subject matter into vogue.
Much of the surviving poetry from before Shakespeare's time was either religious or heroic in tone; in his sonnets, however, Shakespeare celebrated the ordinary, speaking to regular people just trying to get through each day. His sonnets are about human emotions and the struggles of love and relationships, with over half of the sonnets dealing with love and romance. The vocabulary and images modern poets use may have changed, but many of the themes have remained largely the same since Shakespeare’s time: ordinary people struggling with day-to-day issues.
The Publication of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
As significant as Shakespeare’s sonnets were in their day, they gained literary permanence when a London publisher issued a collection of the poems in 1609, seven years before Shakespeare’s death and fourteen years before the First Folio of his plays was published. As the Shakespeare’s Sonnets website indicates, this publication by Thomas Thorpe is the only source of information on Shakespeare’s sonnets; without it, the sonnets could have been lost in obscurity.
William Shakespeare was a ground-breaking playwright and poet whose work has endured through the centuries. Just as his plays examined life in new ways, his sonnets helped usher in a new era of literature and remain important to writers today.
Susan Huebert - My name is Susan Huebert, and I'm a writer and editor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I've always enjoyed words, and I graduated with a Bachelor ...
