Form And Rhyme Scheme

Question 1

structre

Answer 1

Shakespeare is usually very careful with how he organise his poems so that when a unit of rhyme ends a grammatical unit also ends. However, Sonnet 29 is one long sentence and embodies an anxious, obsessive energy and thus breaks with the conventional structure of the Shakespearean sonnet. This suggests the narrator is so upset and disturbed that they have lost control of themselves and their language and are rambling anxiously.

Question 2

trochee

Answer 2

In the first stanza, the use of trochee; ‘deaf heaven,’ creates a variation in the established rhythm which draws out the despair of his rejection by god. Losing ones faith at this time in history was seen as a very serious thing; this means the narrator feels they have lost their place in heaven which would lead to an intense fear of death. This shows that they are so hopeless in their abandonment that even the promised relief from worldly struggles of afterlife doesn’t bring any comfort to them. The use of trochee here intensifies the narrator’s loneliness and misery in their abandonment.