Sonnet 146

E500819

Sonnet 146 is one of William Shakespeare’s English sonnets, notable for its meditation on the soul, mortality, and the vanity of earthly concerns.

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Statements (44)

Predicate Object
instanceOf English sonnet
Shakespearean sonnet
poem
addressedTo the poet's soul
approximateCompositionDate 1590s
author William Shakespeare NERFINISHED
collectionPosition follows Sonnet 145
precedes Sonnet 147
countryOfOrigin England
firstPublishedIn Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609) quarto NERFINISHED
form sonnet
genre Renaissance poetry
hasCriticalReception widely discussed by Shakespeare scholars
influenceOn later religious and metaphysical readings of Shakespeare's sonnets
language English
lineCount 14
literaryDevice antithesis
metaphor
personification
rhetorical question
literaryPeriod Elizabethan era NERFINISHED
meter iambic pentameter
notableFor contrast between body as 'sinful earth' and soul as true owner
focus on spiritual rather than erotic themes
meditation on the vanity of worldly wealth
openingLine Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
partOf Shakespeare's sonnets NERFINISHED
publicationDate 1609
religiousInfluence Christian thought
rhymeScheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
sequenceNumber 146
structure three quatrains and a final couplet
subjectMatter the contrast between inner and outer life
the decay of the body
the immortality of the soul
textualIssue corrupt or missing first quatrain in 1609 quarto
theme death
mortality
religious meditation
spiritual wealth versus material wealth
the soul
vanity of earthly concerns
tone didactic
meditative

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Sonnets hasPart Sonnet 146