In writing the plays, Shakespeare obviously considered the dramatic devices he should incorporate to optimise their dramatic effect and entertainment value. The structure of the plays played a large part in their success as a simple word-dump and wheeling in and out of characters do not a successful play make. Light and shade, soliloquies, fighting scenes, romantic moments, periods of light and comic relief and musical interludes all required effective placement to provide a dramatic experience that would pull the crowds in. At a higher level, the mix of comedies, histories and tragedies all presented greater consideration of audience entertainment.

Within the sonnets, their structure was a key component of their success. Whilst a sonnet via its content may be essentially celebrating the beauty of the subject, the way the sonnet was structured was a key factor in how those sentiments are conveyed. First, the sonnet by definition, must have 14 lines. Each of those lines must have 10 syllables. Those 10 syllables must be iambic pentameter giving rhythm and pace to the line. The 14 lines must comprise 3 quatrains and one ending couplet in an ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme. The sonnet typically pauses for thought at the end of the second quatrain and proceeds through a resolution in the third quatrain and a conclusion in the final couplet. The numbers in a sonnet, indeed what Shakespeare called his "eternal" and "gentle numbers" are evidently important.

The word Nature appears in 14 sonnets: 4, 11, 18, 20, 60, 67, 68, 84, 94, 109, 111, 122, 126, 127.

The words Rose/Roses/Rosy (a potential pun on the young man's name of Wriothesley, both in spelling and pronunciation) appear 14 times in the sonnets: 1, 35, 54 x 3, 67 x 2, 95, 98, 99, 109, 116, 130 x 2.

The word sun that the young man is likened to appears 14 times in the sonnets: 21, 24, 25, 33 x 3, 35, 49, 59, 73, 76, 130, 132, 148.

The author's name, Will, in capitalised form hence denoting a person's name also appears exactly 14 times in the sonnets: 2, 5, 41, 135 x 7, 136 x 3, 143.

Hence, the number 14 equating to the 14 lines in a sonnet appears to be echoed throughout the sonnets for subjects and metaphors of significance.

But what of the sequence of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. Is there any greater super-structure or internal structures to the series that are worthy of note, or are they just a haphazard collection of a selection of sonnets that just happen to number 154?

SONNETS 1-126

Sonnets 1-126 are arguably addressed to the same addressee, a young man whom the poet may have befriended after a formal commission that resulted in sonnets 1-17 being written. Sonnet 126 is clearly the end point of the series for 4 main reasons of content and structure:

• Sonnet 127 is the first of the Dark Lady series and the point at which the young man is no longer referred to in the sonnets.
• Sonnet 126 bids a final farewell to the young man and his eventual rendering to Time.
• Sonnet 126 is distinctively different in structure from the preceding sonnets being a 12-line poem with an aabbccddeeff rhyme scheme, as if a poignant and distinctive end to a relationship.
• Sonnet 1 desires the young man to have a son to on-pass his beauty to so that "His tender heir might bear his memory" whilst in Sonnet 127 the new heir of human beauty is now the Dark Lady: "But now is black, beauty's successive heir".

This series of 126 sonnets liken the male subject to the sun: "And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye", and encourages him to sire a son, as in sonnet 7: "Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son". It was typical to classify the sun as male. Conversely, it was typical to classify the moon as female to the point where Queen Elizabeth I was referred to as the moon goddess. There appears to be two over-riding major sonnet series here: the male 1-126 series, principally addressed to the young man likened to the sun and the female 127-154 series, principally addressed to the dark lady and other females, e.g. Anne Hathaway in sonnet 145. Throughout Shakespeare, balance is represented through black/white, hot/cold, night/day, rich/poor, noble/common, etc., and that Shakespearean trait appears to be represented again here in sun/moon and male/female. There is also good evidence in the sonnets to believe that Shakespeare sees himself as earth in this triumvirate, as in sonnet 146's: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth".

SONNETS 1-17

Sonnets 1-17 are a distinct series addressed to a young man encouraging him to marry and have children. The contents of this series are very redolent of the sentiments of Shakespeare's Venus & Adonis in which the mythical Adonis, a man of outstanding natural beauty, is encouraged by Venus to breed: "Seeds spring from seeds, and beauty breedeth beauty: Thou wast begot; to get it is thy duty". Venus & Adonis was dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, the 3rd Earl of Southampton, as were several other contemporary literary works on the theme of Adonis and Narcissus, at a time when it is known that efforts were made to arrange for him to be married. Sonnet 7, that starts with "Lo, in the orient when the gracious light", may confirm the addressee's identity as a Lord as "Lo" was a shortened form of address as an abridged version of Lord. Surviving personal correspondence shows that “Lo” was used in letters between Lords Salisbury, Northumberland and Wriothesley, especially as "My Lo:". Southampton was 17 years old when presented to court in 1590 and this series of specifically 17 sonnets fits well with them being a dedicatory set presented when Southampton was 17 years of age on 6th October 1590. Indeed, the mix of "you" and "thou" forms of address in this 1-17 series may be evidence of each individual sonnet's speakers being different and the set being part of a collective formal presentation by Southampton's family and others encouraging the young man to marry and continue his lineage by starting a family of his own. The closing sonnets, 16 and 17, appear to have been recited by Shakespeare himself, as it refers to the speaker as the poet and to the verse that has just been recited.

I suspect that props were used in the rendering of these poems too as explicit reference is made to articles on which each sonnet is based: 3 - a mirror, 5 - flowers, 7 - the sun, 8 - a keyboard instrument, 11 - a seal and papers, 12 - a clock, 14 - a telescope, 15 - a plant, 16 - a painting, 17 - a book of these 17 sonnets.


Sonnet 1 appears to me to be of particular significance in heralding the following 16 sonnets. There is a sense of occasion about this sonnet that predicates the sentiments expressed in the ensuing 16 sonnets. Sonnet 1 is the only one of the series that announces in line 1 what a collective "we" desire, whilst the other sonnets, presumably read aloud by individual speakers, never use any more than the singular "I". This is as if Sonnet 1 is the opening announcement of a formal rendition of the sonnets by the most senior member of the present party, where they announce what the party as a whole, as a collective "we", desire and subsequently articulate individually in the subsequent sonnets.

SONNET 5

Sonnet 5 has the line "A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass". Whilst in this context pent means "confined", pente is Greek for "five", hence pentatonic, pentagram, pentagon, etc.

Coincidence, or does this sonnet's positioning at number 5 deliberately correlate with this use of a word that also means 5? And the word pent is in line 10: 2 x 5.

SONNET 7

Sonnet 7 compares the Young Man's life to the progress of the sun in the course of a day. It tells of the sun rising in the "orient" in the first line and the Young Man dying like the setting sun in the final line, unless he (punningly) sires a sun/son, in a common reference to the sun's qualities of rebirth the following day. The sonnet explicitly refers to the day in: "Like feeble age he reeleth from the day".

With 7 days in a week, perhaps also alluding to the 7 days of creation (including God resting on the seventh day), this day-long theme positioned at Sonnet 7 may be deliberate. Perhaps also a reference to Sunday.

SONNET 8

Sonnet 8 opens with "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?" then goes on to develop the theme of marriage bringing harmony to the Young Man's life, as music can. Although some other sonnets mention music, this sonnet is one of only two in the whole series that are specifically centred on the theme of music. With 8 notes in the standard diatonic octave (the white keys on a keyboard) this sonnet is surely deliberately placed at number 8.

And in line 12 there is the explicit reference to "note": "Who all in one one pleasing note do sing". Consistent with the 12 notes in the standard chromatic octave (the white and black keys on a keyboard) this is surely present by design not coincidence.

As mentioned above, I am of the view that the 1-17 series of sonnets may well have been recited by a collection of speakers on the occasion of the Young Man's 17th. birthday. A musical interlude would have been appropriate at the half-way point of their reading to provide relief and distraction, but whilst this musical interlude would be ideally placed exactly half way through the series' recitation, before or after sonnet 9, it appears that the numbering of this musical sonnet as 8 (following the musical interlude itself) was more significant than its placement exactly half way through the series at number 9.

SONNET 10

Sonnet 10 is obviously the first whose number runs into double digits. It is also the first that brings the speaker as a character into the sonnets: "O, change thy thought, that I may change my mind". It may be by design that the singular-digited sonnets exclusively have the singular subject as their only specific character and the first double-digited sonnet introduces the speaker as a specific second character.

SONNET 12

Sonnet 12 opens with "When I do count the clock that tells the time". The second line proceeds with "And see the brave day sunk in hideous night" referring to the 12 hours of day before the dreaded 12 hours of dark night. With 12 numerals on the clock face that the poet explicitly says he is counting, this sonnet's placement at position 12 must surely be deliberate.


SONNETS 17 & 138

Sonnet 17 is obviously the 17th. sonnet from the start. Sonnet 138 is the 17th. sonnet from the end. Curiously, the first three lines of these sonnets each have an acrostic spelling WIT:


Sonnet 17:

Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb...

Sonnet 138:


When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth...


As if emphasising the acrostic at 138, the first lines of the three immediately preceding sonnets 135, 136 and 137 spell the same WIT acrostic:


Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will...
If thy soul check thee that I come so near...
Thou blind fool love, what dost thou to mine eyes...


I am dubious of the significance of this as the first lines of sonnets 43, 44 and 45 also spell the same WIT acrostic but have no apparent significance:


When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see...
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought...
The other two, slight air and purging fire...


But worthy of comment nevertheless.


SONNETS 18-126

In 1591, Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella was published, Stella (meaning star) being his lost love Lady Rich and Astrophil being Sidney (astrophil being a Greek compound word meaning star lover and also a pun on Sidney's first name: Philip). This was a series of 108 sonnets and was a landmark publication that spawned the subsequent sonnet-writing craze of the 1590's. Shakespeare's sonnets 18-126 (excluding the distinctively specific and formal first 17) just happen to be a series of 109 sonnets, one more than Sidney's contemporary 108. Is this an example of one-upmanship by Shakespeare? Just as The Beatles upstaged Jimmy Webb's McArthur Park by recording Hey Jude at one second longer, did Shakespeare deliberately better Sidney's achievement by writing a series that contained just one sonnet more than Sidney's?

SONNET 19

Sonnet 19 is the first of the great Time sonnets. It sits between the famous and gentle sonnets 18 and 20 which makes Sonnet 19's Time subject all the more powerful and distinctive replete with repeated references to "time", "hours" and the effect of time on "sorry seasons" and the "phoenix". The Metonic lunar cycle, being the amount of time that passes before the phases of the moon fall again on the same days that they do in the present year, is 19 years. This time standard in the first of the powerful Time sonnets may be being reflected in this sonnet's positioning at 19.


SONNETS 21, 38, 78, 79, 82, 85, 100, 101 & 103

These 9 sonnets each explicitly refer to the muses, of which there were 9. In Sonnet 38 Shakespeare writes "Be thou the tenth muse", evidently fully aware of the 9 conventional muses and suggesting the subject as the new tenth muse. Are the 9 muse sonnets merely concidence? And does Sonnet 32's reference to "my friend's muse" affirm the subject as the tenth muse?

SONNETS 22 & 122


We know that Shakespeare was baptised on 26th April 1564 and that babies were baptised within days of their birth. This has prompted speculation that Shakespeare's birthday was April 23rd, St. George's day - England's greatest poet being born on the day of England's patron saint. However, Sonnet 22 opens with the poet reflecting from the start on his own advancing years, and is in fact the only one that has the poet literally reflecting on his own age in a mirror in this way: "My glass shall not persuade me I am old". This was perhaps prompted by the poet's birthday, perhaps his 30th in 1594, that has caused him to position this sonnet at 22, reflecting his birthday of April 22nd. This sonnet is very different from its adjacent ones making its reference to the author's age quite prominent and is also preceded by Sonnet 21 that explicitly refers to "April" as if setting the context.


This may be reinforced by Sonnet 122 that tells of an unwanted gift that the author received and passed on. This is the only sonnet that uses "gift" in the context of it being a real present. Perhaps this was an unwanted birthday gift to the author that has again caused him to position it at 122 to reflect the poet's birthday of April 22nd.


Alternatively, the mirroring effects of the "glass" of this sonnet may be being reflected in the number 22.


SONNET 23

Latin was deemed the "language of eloquence". Invention combined with Eloquence were considered two main faculties of the poet in inventing a subject to write about and having the eloquence to express it. Many universities had a Professor of Eloquence having particular responsiblity for the study of Latin and Thomas Elyot, in The Governor (1531) declared Cicero "the father of the Latin eloquence".


Although Shakespeare refers to "invention" in many of his sonnets he only refers to eloquence once, in Sonnet 23: "O let my books be then the eloquence", a poem that speaks of the value of the written word and the words that the poet has written.


The Latin alphabet has 23 letters. Is this eloquent sonnet's position at 23 just an accident?


SONNETS 26 & 126

Sonnet 26 has a very formal tone and valedictory air about it in assuring the subject that the poet will not "show his head" until he is "worthy of thy sweet respect". There is certainly a break in the relationship between the subject and poet from 27 onwards.

Additionally, Sonnet 126 is the very last to the fair youth, as detailed above. As if to reinforce these 2 break points, the numbering of Sonnet 26 and 126 appears to be more than a coincidence.

SONNET 28

Sonnets 27 and 28 speak of day and night being oppressors extending the grief the speaker feels being absent from their subject.  "Day" and "Night" and their variants such as "daily" and "nightly" are explicitly referred to 16 times in the two sonnets, including two instances used as rhymes.  There is stark contrast between the day/night subject matter of these two sonnets and Sonnet 29 indicating that they mark an end-point..


With 28 days and nights in the lunar month and 28-31 days in the calendar months, the positioning of this sonnet at number 28 seems to have some intent.


SONNET 44

Sonnet 44 is the first of a pair centred on the 4 elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In the human form, the four elements were believed by the Elizabethans to manifest as the 4 humours: Blood, Yellow bile, Black bile and Phlegm. Poetically, Air is represented by Thought and Fire is represented by Desire. In Sonnet 44, Earth, Water, Thought and Elements are all explicitly referenced and Desire is represented by "I would be brought From limits far remote where thou dost stay". Explicit reference to the elements is also provided by "Receiving naught by elements so slow". In 45, the theme of the 4 Elements is further developed via the explicit references to "Thought / Air", "Desire / Fire", "elements" and "My life, being made of four". 

Given that these two sonnets are unique in referring to the 4 elements and 4 humours, their figurative representation (4 and 4) and their positioning at 44 must surely be deliberate.

SONNET 49

In medieval times, it was believed that 7 and 9, and their multiples, were special numbers and represented critical points in life - they were called climacteric. Their significance extends back to at least the time of Hippocrates and was documented by Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568): "There are two years, the seventh and the ninth, that commonly bring great changes in a man's life, and great dangers; wherefore 63, that contains both these numbers multiplied together, comes not without heaps of dangers". So, the climacteric number 7 multiplied by itself was also of particular significance: 49.

As if echoing Lemnius's warning of changes and dangers concerning multiples of the numbers 7 and 9, Sonnet 49 is significant in repeatedly defying a future potential split in the relationship between the author and the subject: "Against that time if ever that time come". The phrase "Against that time..." is particularly significant as it starts each quatrain: in the first as a condition, in the second as an expectation, in the third as an imperative. This sense of foreboding of what time may bring appears to be reinforced by this sonnet's positioning at the climacteric number 49. Indeed, the principle of Lemnius's climacteric numbers appears to be being explicitly referred to in "To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws".

Curiously, this climacteric sonnet is one of only two in the whole series that commence with "Against..."; the other being 63 which is the Grand Climacteric number.

SONNET 52

Sonnet 52 centres very much on the theme of time and building up from "every hour" in Q1 to "the long year" in Q2, to a re-emphasis of the long year as the period of "time" at issue in Q3, along with reference to a "special instant". The theme of the year is also represented in words such as "solemn" whose Latin root is sollemnis meaning "annual".  The absence of the author from the subject throughout "the long year" is clearly the issue here and with 52 weeks in the year, this sonnet's positioning at 52 is surely deliberate. This has added merit when one considers Sonnet 53's heralding of a new year in "Speak of the spring and foison of the year".

SONNET 55

Sonnet 55 is one of the most powerful and famous in the canon. Its sentiments could apply to the whole collection of 154 sonnets as well as the 1-126 series to the Young Man, and the single sonnet 55 itself. There may be a visual pun at play here via the digits 55 resembling the book's initials 5hakespeare's 5onnets to reinforce the power of what has been published.

Additionally, "Mars" is uniquely mentioned in this sonnet (classical allusion generally being rare in Shakespeare's Sonnets) - in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, Mars was the 5th. planet.

SONNET 60

Sonnet 60 opens with "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end". With 60 minutes in an hour, this sonnet's placement at position 60 must surely be deliberate. The probable pun on "hour" in our reinforces this.

SONNET 63

As stated above, it was believed that 7 and 9, and their multiples, were special climacteric numbers and represented critical points in life. The product of these 2 climacteric numbers, 63, was particularly special and termed the Grand Climacteric. Added import was provided by the fact that the individual digits of the Grand Climacteric themselves add up to the climacteric of 9.

That these numbers were known to Shakespeare and his contemporaries is irrefutable. When Elizabeth I reached her Grand Climacteric at 63 it was a landmark achievement adding to her stature - no monarch had lived so long for centuries. Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568) wrote: "There are two years, the seventh and the ninth, that commonly bring great changes in a man's life, and great dangers; wherefore 63, that contains both these numbers multiplied together, comes not without heaps of dangers". Shakespeare himself was unmistakably aware of the alleged importance of odd numbers generally as Sir John in The Merry Wives of Windsor tells us: "I hope good luck lies in odd numbers...They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death". Virgil in his Eclogue VIII says: "Uneven numbers are the god's delight". And the significance of 63 in particular is manifested in other contemporary poets' works, such as Drayton's "Idea" sequence of sonnets that numbers precisely 63.

Sonnet 63, the Grand Climacteric sonnet, has an air of grandeur about it consistent with this number's significance. Indeed, it very much echoes the sentiments of the climacteric 49, augmented by its use of "Against..." and "...time...". As expected, this is not a sonnet about flowers or travel or a rival poet, but about Time, the changes and dangers that Lemnius warned of, and the poet's objective of immortalising the subject's beauty in his verse. In defying Time's inevitability Shakespeare places in the climacteric 9th. line: "For such a time do I now fortify". And, as noted above, there are only 2 sonnets in the canon that commence with the defiant "Against..." - this one and the other climacterically numbered 49.

Shakespeare knew of the alleged divine significance of numbers, his contemporaries did, his literary predecessors did, they were documented by contemporaries outside of drama and poetry, they were important to the Queen's status. Surely, this sonnet's numbering at 63 is by authorial design.


SONNET 66


Sonnet 66 bewails the corruption found in society and specifically the behaviour of man in his abuse of authority and woman. The poet carefully lists 11 objections that he declares himself tired of. These 11 objections are preceded by an opening line that prepares the reader for the list of complaints that follow, and are succeeded by the closing couplet that resolves the poet's feelings. The list of 11 complaints is book-ended by sonnet-opening and couplet-opening lines that both start with "Tired with all these..." showing the care and attention the poet has gone to to list specifically 11 complaints.


Revelations 13:16-18 reads:


"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty six."

Sonnet 66 explicitly addresses those in society who are corrupt or corrupted as listed by Revelations:

The "small": "As, to behold desert a beggar born";
The "great": "And gilded honour shamefully misplaced";
The "rich": "And needy nothing trimmed in jollity";
The "poor": "As, to behold desert a beggar born";
The "free" and "slave": "And strength by limping sway disabled,
                                   And art made tongue-tied by authority"
                                   "And captive good attending captain ill"

closely marrying the content of Revelations 13:16-18 with Sonnet 66.

Revelations 13:18 identifies this corruption via the number 666, surely governing this sonnet's positioning at 66. As Shakespeare did not write 666 sonnets this is the only position that such a sonnet could be placed. But if we divide the sonnet's number 66 by the carefully chosen list of 11 complaints we yield the third 6 of 666.


SONNET 71

Psalm 90, verse 10 says: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten", signifying one's death at 70 years old. Fitting then that Sonnet 71 should be the poetic equivalent of a funeral dirge: "No longer mourn for me when I am dead...", and surely evidence of intelligent positioning of this sonnet.

SONNET 75

Sonnet 75 centres on the Seven Deadly Sins:

Avarice ("As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found"),
Pride ("Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon"),
Envy ("the filching age will steal his treasure"),
Lust ("Save what is had or must from you be took")
Gluttony ("Or gluttoning on all, or all away")

are all represented. The remaining two Deadly Sins of Sloth and Wrath are conspicuously, and rightfully, absent from this sonnet, as they have no place amongst its pursuing dynamism and contrasting emotions of "peace" and "pleasure".

In this context of the 7 Deadly Sins and this sonnet's reference to just 5 of them, this sonnet's position at 75 is perhaps more than coincidence.


SONNET 77

The poet repeatedly speaks of him and the subject needing to be "twain" and as "one":

"Let me confess that we two must be twain",
"And that thou teachest how to make one twain",
"Both find each other, and I lose both twain",
"But here's the joy: my friend and I are one".

The conjoinment of the author and the subject appears to be reflected in the number 77: each element being equal, each element being less on their own, together totalling the perfect 14 lines of a sonnet and collectively amounting to 11 times more than their value when separated from each other. Number 7 is a climacteric number and 11 appears to have significance in the sonnet series, as discussed later. This sonnet is the last that speaks of harmony between the poet and the subject before 78 pointedly introduces the rival poet(s) that spoils and crowds out their relationship. That harmony and balance may be being reflected in the twain 77 before things start to go wrong at 78.

In addition, this is another sonnet that uses the word "glass", meaning mirror, that may be being reflected in the number 77 as though there were a mirror between the two digits. As this is the half-way point through the 154 sonnets it may also signal a mirror point in the sonnet sequence.

SONNET 79

As referred to above in reference to sonnets 49 and 63, the numbers 7 and 9 were of special significance being climacteric numbers.  In Sonnet 79, the number that conjoins those two numbers, Shakespeare says "But now my gracious numbers are decayed".  Surely this sonnet is purposely placed to recognise the significance of the "gracious numbers" of 7 and 9.

SONNET 81

Sonnet 81 is significant as a reaffirmation of the poet's belief in the power of his own verse. This is most striking as it is placed between 2 sonnets that express the author's anxiety about the threat presented by rival poet(s). The sonnet proclaims "Your monument shall be my gentle verse" and "You still shall live such virtue hath my pen", an echo of Horace's Ode 3.30. As stated above, the climacteric number 9 was significant and 81, being a multiple of 9, was especially significant, particularly as its own digits again add up to 9, and this sonnet defies the changes and dangers that Lemnius warned are typical of climacteric numbers.


In addition, Psalm 90, verse 10 says: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away". Indeed, Shakespeare himself often refers to "fourscore" as the maximum age of man such as King Lear's age and Adam in As You Like It:


"Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here lived I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years, many their fortunes seek,
But at fourscore, it is too late a week."


Sonnet 81 is obviously the sonnet immediately after the "fourscore years" sonnet, the number that Psalms 90 deems is the longest lifespan of man. As per Sonnet 71, 81 dwells on death, whether the poet or subject will survive each other and the poet's verse being the "epitaph" of and "monument" to the subject.


As literally an "epitaph" to the subject, immediately after Psalms' claimed 80 years maximum lifespan of a person that Shakespeare echoes elsewhere in his own works, Sonnet 81's positioning is surely deliberate.


SONNET 88

The number 8 seems to provide special advantage in the Bible, for example: God chose 8 people (Noah and his three sons and their wives) to build an Ark to escape the Great Flood; this is reported in Chapter 8 of Genesis; in 2 Chronicles the priests sanctified God's house in 8 days. Also, in Hebrew, the number 8 is Sh'moneh, "to make fat" or "to super-abound." As a noun it means "superabundant fertility". On its side the figure 8 is the symbol for infinity and in the orient the number 8 is regarded as the luckiest of numbers.


In Sonnet 88, Shakespeare says "Doing thee vantage, double vantage me" with the reference "double vantage" perhaps being echoed by the Sonnet's number 88: the advantageous number 8, doubled / repeated.


SONNET 99

Sonnet 99 uniquely has 15 lines with the first line being the superfluous one that heralds the lines that follow. There must surely be some reason for this addition. We know that two of Shakespeare's poems came into William Jaggard's possession and were printed by him in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, making 1599 a key in the Shakespearean calendar.

Perhaps the 15 lines of this sonnet combined with this sonnet's number of 99 yields the sonnet's year of composition that the author wished to signal for some now-lost reason. Maybe this sonnet is another of a set of Shakespeare's that closed the century, of which a couple came into Jaggard's possession.

SONNET 105

This sonnet refers to Poltinus's doctrine of the One: the source from which Plotinus reasoned all beauty, goodness and truth flows. The three qualities of beauty, goodness and truth are referred to by Shakespeare here as "Fair, kind, and true" and, as he says, "varying to other words". The One is referred to five times in this sonnet:


"To one, of one, still such, and ever so...
One thing expressing, leaves out difference...
Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords...
Which three till now never kept seat in one."


And these references to "one" are not haphazardly placed in the sonnet as if they are merely incidental - the above lines appear as the last of Q1, the last of Q2, the last of Q3 and the last of the couplet, respectively, demonstrating deliberate intent on their placement in the sonnet's structure.


This sonnet's reference to the One and the specific numbering and positioning of five instances of the word appear to be reflected in the numbering of this sonnet: 105. (Having already used 15 for the sequence to the Young Man, 15 itself was obviously no longer available.) The zero in 105 may have relevance though in that Plotinus argued that a person has need of nothing when he has reached a state of One-ness: "The sign that this state has been achieved is that the man seeks nothing else." - Ennead I, Tractate IV. A further numerical observation of note is that Plotinus's doctrine was published in the six Enneads: the digits (and cypher) 1-0-5 add up to six.

SONNET 114

A set of sonnets or poems where the first line of one repeats the last line of the previous is called a crown or corona. Donne, for example, wrote La Corona that comprised a climacteric 7 sonnets structured in this way. A perfect crown is where the number of sonnets in the crown equals the number of lines in each sonnet. Lady Mary Wroth's The Countess of Mountgomery's Urania, for example, was the first sonnet sequence to be published by an English woman in 1621 and contains a perfect crown of 14 14-line sonnets called A Crown of Sonnets dedicated to Love.

Sonnet 114's opening line "Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you" is perhaps a glance to what is the concept of a perfect crown of sonnets and may have influenced its positioning at number 114.


SONNET 122

Sonnet 122 has nine occurences of the word "to", more than any of the other sonnets. This sonnet's preponderance of to / two's and its reference to "score" (20) in "Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score" may have influenced its positioning at 122.


SONNET 124

Sonnet 124 makes 4 references to "time" and speaks of: "Which works on leases of short-numbered hours". The 12 hours on the clock face and 24 hours in the day may be reflected in this sonnet's positioning at 124.

Furthermore, the final 4 lines of this sonnet read:

"But all alone stands hugely politic,
That it nor grows with heat nor drowns with showers.
To this I witness call the fools of time,
Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime."


That the sonnet's number 124 is echoed in the words, alone...to...for may be pure coincidence.


SONNETS 123, 124, 125

These 3 sonnets are arguably amongst the most outstanding of all that Shakespeare wrote. Positioned at the climax of the 1-126 series we would expect fitting examples of excellence such as these. Just as the orchestra on The Beatles' A Day in the Life incrementally rises to its climax from their instruments' lowest notes to their highest, these 3 sonnets generate great majesty, foreboding and expectation. Yet, having reached the apex, unlike T.S. Eliot's Hollow Men, the series ends on 126 neither with a bang nor a whimper, but with the soft resolution of a gentle farewell to the Young Man.

These 3 sonnets share many common factors: "pyramids" and "great bases"; their probable dating to circa James I's coronation of 1604; the explicit and phonetic references to "time", "hours", "minutes" and "ticking". But the key element that demonstrates the deliberate structuring, positioning and sequencing of this masterful triad, and its deliberate tie-in to 126, is the link-word: "No":

The 1st. quatrain of 123 begins with "No".
The 2nd. quatrain of 124 begins with "No".
The 3rd. quatrain of 125 begins with "No".

SONNET 125


Sonnet 125 indisputably refers to a monarch's coronation procession at which the canopy is borne by dignitaries to show deference, serving and symbolic protection of the monarch: "Were 't aught to me I bore the canopy".

The only monarch to be coronated in Shakespeare's lifetime was King James I.  His coronation procession that arguably prompted the writing of this sonnet was on 15th March 1604 whilst his actual coronation was on 25th July 1603, both dates (15th and 25th) surely being reflected in this sonnet's positioning at 125.


SONNET 126

Sonnet 126 is exceptionally significant being the valedictory sonnet to the Young Man and representing the end of the extraordinary creative energy that was expended in creating that unique series of 126 sonnets. It is reasonable for us to expect this sonnet's numbering and positioning to match that significance, and it certainly does.

First: this sonnet is the only one that comprises 12 lines (instead of the usual 14) themselves comprising 6 pairs of couplets (rather than quatrains). This 12 line / 6 couplet structure is specifically represented in the sonnet's number: 126.

Second: the couplets evidently signify the series exclusively resolving to the 2 characters of the author and subject, removed of any third parties such as the Rival Poet or Dark Lady.

Third: just as a sonnet ends with a couplet, the 1-126 series is ended with a raft of them, the symbolic full-stops / periods / endings of the series and relationship.

Fourth: as discussed earlier, the climacteric numbers of 7 and 9 were of significance and both yield the Grand Climacteric number of 63. This sonnet is effectively the Super Grand Climacteric as 126 is double the Grand Climacteric number of 63. The author has honoured his subject by going to the level above the Grand Climacteric - he has quite literally "given grace a double majesty".

Fifth: as with all products of the 7 and 9 climacterics, the individual digits of 126 add up to the climacteric of 9.

Sixth: 126 (the number of sonnets in this series) divided by 14 (the standard number of lines in a sonnet) again yields the significant climacteric of 9.

Seventh: Sidney set the standard for sonnet sequences with his Astrophil and Stella. The specific number of 108 sonnets in his sequence was evidently not the result of a haphazard bunch of sonnets that accidentally amounted to 108, as the individual digits of 108 also add up to the significant climacteric of 9. In addition, those 108 14-line sonnets yield 1,512 lines whose individual digits again add up to the significant climacteric of 9. Shakespeare though has surpassed Sidney's landmark sequence in 2 ways: by writing 109 sonnets in sequence 18-126 to go one sonnet better than Sidney's series; and producing a full series of 126 that achieves Super Grand Climacteric status whose final number also adds up to the significant climacteric of 9.

Eighth: had Shakespeare written 126 standard 14-line sonnets, they would have yielded 1,764 lines, whose individual digits add up to 18, whose own individual digits again add up to the significant climacteric of 9, as per Sidney's, though one step removed. Yet Sonnet 99 has been deliberately extended by 1 line and Sonnet 126 has been deliberately reduced by 2 lines making the series instead yield 1,763 lines. Has Shakespeare deliberately been a little iconoclastic here to prevent the yield of a reducible climacteric from the line-count? Is the number 1763 more important to him, being a combination of the significant number 17 (representing the 1-17 series to the Young Man) and the Grand Climacteric number of 63, from which 126 is produced? And does the sum of the individual digits of 1763 adding up to the significant Shakespearean 17 again deliberately reaffirm this?

Ninth: having read the previous 3 sonnets' structured use and incremental positioning of the word "No" across their 3 quatrains we might expect to turn to 126 to find "No" in its closing couplet. But we find Shakespeare surprising us all by instead providing a unique sonnet full of couplets, all bereft of the negative "No" (literally no "no"), and instead commencing with the neutral "O".


Tenth: the sonnet speaks of time literally running out and the young man eventually dying. It explicitly refers to hour and minutes and that time dimension appears to be reflected in the 12 lines as per the 12 numerals on a clock face.


This is the last sonnet that uses the word "glass" representing the vanity of the Young Man looking at his own image: vanity ends with the Young Man.

SONNETS 126-154

As mentioned above, series 1-126 is addressed to a male and can be termed the sun series. Conversely, this series, 127-154 is addressed to females, principally the dark lady, and can be termed the moon series. As though to enforce this there are precisely 28 sonnets in this series that correlates with the 28 days of the lunar cycle, and the female menstruation period.

SONNET 127

Sonnet 127 is the first regarding the Dark Lady. Any of the many sonnets about this woman could have been selected but the choice of this one is evidently deliberate. Sonnet 1 desires the young man to have a son to on-pass his beauty to so that "His tender heir might bear his memory" whilst in Sonnet 127 the new "heir" of human beauty is now the Dark Lady: "But now is black, beauty's successive heir". As the relationship with the Young Man has come to an end, it is natural for the first in the new series to literally succeed the first of the old series.

SONNET 128

Sonnet 128 is the only other sonnet in the series (the other being Sonnet 8) that is specifically centred on the theme of music, describing the female subject playing a harpsichord or virginal. With 8 notes in the standard diatonic octave, i.e. the white keys on any keyboard instrument, and 12 notes in the standard chromatic octave, i.e. the white and black keys on any keyboard instrument, this sonnet is surely deliberately placed at position 128. What is particularly striking is that this beautiful and gentle sonnet contrasts sharply with its predecessor, the first about the "mourning" Dark Lady, and its successor, the graphically lustful 129, which supports deliberate intent in its positioning and numbering.

SONNET 133

This sonnet contains the line: "A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed" which is numerically represented by 133: 1 (the singular torment), 3 (thrice) and 3 (threefold). Fitting for this sonnet's number: 133.

SONNETS 135 & 145

Sonnets 135 & 145 are both playful punning sonnets. Sonnet 135 puns extensively on the author's first name "Will" a suitably perfect 14 times in a 14-line sonnet and alludes to the poet's surname via the word vex, Latin for to shake. This is a name sonnet clearly naming "Will Shake.", William Shakespeare.

Sonnet 145 puns on the poet's wife's first name and maiden name particularly in the 2-line closing couplet: "'I hate' from hate away she threw" punning on Hathaway, and immediately after that "And saved my life" punning on "Anne saved my life". This is a name sonnet clearly naming "And Hate away", Anne Hathaway.

The numbering of these two name sonnets as 135 & 145 is distinctive, uniform and attracts attention. The two characters share, via marriage, the same last name of Shakespeare, and these two sonnets' numbers share the same last digit of 5 that resembles an S. The 3 in 135 resembles a W on its side and the 1 in 135 is printed as an I providing this name sonnet with its own monogram of "I, WS" (I, William Shakespeare) via the numbers 135. And the 4 in 145 resembles an A providing this sonnet with its own monogram of "I, AS" (I, Anne Shakespeare) via the numbers 145.

Nowadays people do this all the time on vehicle registration plates using digits in place of letters to playfully recreate their initials, names or words, e.g. N16 DVS for Nigel Davies, J3 NNY for Jenny or S4 LSA for a Salsa dance instructor. Numbers 35 and 45 were unsuitable as the 1-126 series is addressed to the Young Man whilst the 127-154 series is addressed to women including the Dark Lady and Anne.

In the very next sonnet, 136, which is directly linked to 135 as another Will-punning sonnet, the poet tells us that "Among a number one is reckoned none" so following his direction we should disregard the 1s altogether leaving these two sonnets, 135 and 145, with monograms of WS and AS. And in the very next line of Sonnet 136 he says "Then in the number let me pass untold" as if referring to the significance of the previous sonnet's specific numbering and his identity in it, especially after dropping the 1, compared to 136's.

In these playful punning sonnets Shakespeare seems to be winking at us by playing with the digits in this way to give these sonnets their own monograms. On its own, 135 may have appeared fortuitous, but with this unique pair of name sonnets naming both William Shakespeare and his wife, their positioning appears to be deliberate to exploit their number-punning potential.

SONNET 144

Sonnet 144 speaks of the battle between 2 spirits, the first an angel and the second a devil: "Two loves I have, of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still...". In alchemy, there are 4 spirits: Quicksilver, Orpiment, Sal-Ammoniac and Brimstone. Chaucer wrote of these in his Prologue to the Canon Yeoman's Tale:

"The foure spirites and the bodies sevene,
By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene.
The firste spirit quyksilver called is,
The seconde orpyment, the thridde, ywis,
Sal armonyak, and the ferthe brymstoon."

There are also 4 elemental spirits that rule over the 4 elements. The Fire spirits are Salamanders; the Water spirits Undines; the Air spirits Sylphs; and the Earth spirits Gnomes. Shakespeare was obviously aware of these: Falstaff, for example, calls Bardolph's nose "a burning lamp," "a salamander," and the drink that made such "a fiery meteor" he calls "fire.": "I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire any time this two-and-thirty years."- 1 Henry IV, iv, 3.

Given the singular speaker of this sonnet, the 2 characters of the angel and devil, both of them spirits with whom the number 4 is strongly associated, and sonnets 44 & 45's obvious references to the 4 elements, the numbering of this sonnet as 144 appears to reflect the speaker (1), the angel spirit (4) and the devil spirit (4).

SONNET 154

Sonnet 154 is, of course, the final sonnet in the series. This and its predecessor though are of a type and quality that make them somewhat incongruous as the series would not be diminished had these two been absent. The first 152 sonnets are unique to the author but 153 & 154 are reworkings of a well-worn Cupid theme. If they are not present through absolute merit, they seem to be present to deliberately achieve a series of 154.

But why 154? Other poets carefully planned how many sonnets were in their series, such as Drayton's Idea numbering a grand climacteric 63, Donne's La Corona numbering a climacteric 7, Wroth's A Crown of Sonnets dedicated to Love numbering a climacteric 14. As demonstrated above, this isn't a haphazard bunch of sonnets that could just happen to number 154. There must be good reason behind the manifest intelligence we've seen in the content, structure and numbering of these sonnets for them to number 154. So why 154?

These are 154 Shakespearean sonnets. A standard Shakespearean sonnet comprises 14 lines. Notably, when we divide that specific 154 by that specific 14 it yields a perfect 11. But what significance could 11 have? That was the age of Hamnet when he died, as well as the day in August on which he was buried. Elsewhere, Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, which evidently influenced the sonnet sequencing elsewhere, has 11 songs amongst its 108 sonnets. But these seem to be of no key significance and are critically outside of the sonnet series. Surely any significance that 11 could have must be internal to the series itself.

The number of sonnets divided by the number of sonnet lines that yields a perfectly divisible number is essentially a "sonnet key" which the author is using to signal the solution. And, when we turn to sonnet 11, there it is: "threescore year". The numerical solution that the author has constructed from the numbering of his own series of sonnets is: 1564. We can hardly expect the author to have written 1,564 sonnets to arrive at this key number so he has provided 154 and the missing 6 is pointed to there in Sonnet 11. And not just the digit 6 that we could arbitrarily position whereever we wished to yield 6154, 1654 or 1546. It is specifically 60 ("threescore") meaning it has to be positioned where its value in the answer is specifically 60: 1564. And to remove any doubt as to what the author means we are even given the unit of currency that he is talking about: these are not flowers nor angels, but years. We have specifically been given the year: 1564. The year of the author's birth - the sonnets "Showing their birth and where they did proceed".

And if we apply 60 to the numerator part of the sonnet key formula, for consistency we must also apply it to the denominator part of the same formula, and when we do that to 14 it yields 164, containing again the same significant year of the author's birth: 64. (How the clinching 500 is reasonably obtained (the "five hundred" of Sonnet 59?) currently evades me.) Whichever way it slices it leads us to the same conclusion. As well as even sonnet-key Sonnet 60 and birth-year Sonnet 64 themselves being distinctively personal Time sonnets, even when we add 60 to 14 it yields 74, the one sonnet in the series that speaks to the reader and explicitly tells us that the author's own life is woven into the sonnets' lines. And to remove any final doubt on Sonnet 74's significance, the individual digits of 74 again equal our sonnet key value: 11.

The author has indeed built a monument more lasting than "marble", "brass" or "hammered steel" that memorialises not his subject, but himself. He has created a monumental series of 154 "eternal numbers" with an unambiguous, internally consistent, perfect formula to reach the solution that he unequivocally signals. He has left his own fingerprint, a watermark, his unique signature, a personal irrefutable date-stamp of his year of birth to "shine more bright in these contents". Sonnet 55, the visually punning number that echoes "5hakespeare's 5onnets" doesn't describe the subject whom he never identifies - it describes Shakespeare.

"Shakespeare's Sonnets" were written by William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, born 1564.

Sonnet 74

But be contented when that fell arrest
Without all bail shall carry me away.
My life hath in this line some interest,
Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.
When thou reviewest this, thou dost review
The very part was consecrate to thee.
The earth can have but earth, which is his due;
My spirit is thine, the better part of me.
So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life,
The prey of worms, my body being dead,
The coward conquest of a wretch's knife,
Too base of thee to be remembered.
 The worth of that is that which it contains,
 And that is this, and this with thee remains.

My attention has been brought to Alistair Fowler's Triumphal Forms by some of my readers which I have now at last obtained a copy of.  The book suggests the pyramidical pattern that the number series 1-153 can form as an influence for Shakespeare's sequencing of the sonnets and the positioning of certain key numbers in that pyramid, particularly the climacteric sonnets and 1-17 forming the base of the pyramid, as being of particular note.  In addition, the fact that the sum of all the numbers in the 1-17 series equal 153.

I have difficulty reconciling Shakespeare's choice of 154 sonnets with the perfect pyramid that 153 would offer, even if Sonnet 136 is discounted due to its line "Among a number one is reckoned none".  In fact, this line implies that Sonnet 1 should be discounted that would destroy sonnets 1-17 forming the base of the pyramid and the positioning of all subsequent sonnets' numbers.

However, the pyramidical qualities of the series 1-153 are certainly intriguing:

Related pages:

Go to... Shakespeare's Sonnets The Sequencing of Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespeare's Characters' Names The Young Man of Shakespeare's Sonnets The Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets The Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle Who Wrote Shakespeare? Why Oxford wasn't Shakespeare The ciphers that conclusively prove that someone wrote Shakespeare Shakespeare Sceptics Literature

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