Language

The language of “Sonnet 29” by William Shakespeare may seem complex and old-fashioned. This is partly due to the fact that it was written over 400 years ago. 

In terms of style, the sonnet is formal but sincere. The speaker expresses his honest emotions of depression and turmoil, offering the first half of the sonnet a dark tone of despair and hopelessness. There is a particular focus on verbs, as the speaker describes what he does when he is in such a dark mood: "beweep" (l. 2), "trouble" (l. 3), "look upon myself" and "curse" (l. 4). These verbs help to highlight the speaker’s desperation, as he cannot help but cry about his fate even though he knows it is in vain.

However, the tone of the sonnet changes abruptly in the third stanza, when the speaker's thoughts turn to his beloved, resulting in a sudden shift from depression to joy and hope. The word “haply” (l.10) highlights the accidental but fortunate way thoughts of the speaker’s beloved enter his mind and help shift his mood. This marks a contrast to the start of the poem where the speaker expressed he was “in disgrace with fortune” (l. 1). 

The use of the old pronoun form “thy” indicates the intimate relationship between the s...