In "Sonnet 20," Shakespeare grapples with paradoxes, centering his poem on a man both masculine and feminine, powerful and powerless-the impossible object of a homosexual love that should not be. ... The painful duality of the speaker's muse is loudly echoed in Shakespeare's structural choices for the poem. ... Sonnets in particular were used for professing love to female lovers and paramours, yet this poem professes adoration of a man. ... It is written like all of Shakespeare's work in iambic pentameter, but to each line is added a single syllable-a weak or feminine ...

• Word Count: 1124
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate