Romeo and Juliet Sonnet. How to Analyze Shakespeare’s Poem. The Look of Love.

It often comes as a surprise to first-time readers of Romeo and Juliet that the play is written in iambic pentameter verse, that is, each line contains five (pentameter) “feet“¹. For example (stressed feet are in bold):

Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

As if the choice of words for a whole play is not complex enough, imagine trying to sustain iambic pentameter. In all historical perspective, though, meter was so common in Shakespeare’s time that it would have come naturally to him.

Although the lines are written in blank verse², Shakespeare does use rhyme sporadically throughout the play, most notably in the sonnet form. The sonnet is a fourteen line poem, the most famous of which are the Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet, which consists of an octet (eight line stanza) and a sestet (six line stanza); and the Shakespearean or English Sonnet, which consists of three quatrains (four line stanza) and a couplet (two line stanza), for which the rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg, the rhyme scheme used in our sonnet. As you will see, the use of the sonnet form here is not just happenstance–it is integral to conveying meaning and tone of the play.

Romeo and Juliet meet by chance at a feast held by the Capulets, Juliet’s family. The circumstances of their meeting augurs³the central conflict of the play. The two lovers belong to two opposing clans, the Montagues (Romeo) and Capulets (Juliet), engaged in bitter rivalry. to the degree that Romeo has to be masked in order to attend the ball. Thay they meet by chance foreshadows the tenuousness of their togetherness, and the missed connection later in the play that sets in motion their tragic deaths. Finally, the profound connection they immediately feel underlies the urgent tone of their love, the extravagance of their efforts to be together, and the somewhat reckless nature of their actions, all somewhat enhanced by the fact that they are teenagers and typically impetuous by nature, a word often used to describe them.

When they finally manage to be alone, Romeo epresses his feelings poetically, Shakeseare using the sonnet form, often associated with love poetry. What is unusual is tht both Romeo and Juliet share the conversation of the sonnet, enhancing the immediate connection between them.

Act I Scene 5 Sonnet

Romeo] If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

At the very beginning of the sonnet, Romeo introduces an extended metaphor, likening Juliet’s hand to a holy shrine. This comparison emphasizes the sanctity of their love. In the first two lines, after Romeo takes Juliet’s hand in his unworthiest hand, he is apologizing if by doing so he has profaned her sanctity (This holy shrine). The recompense for this “sin” is his offer to kiss (My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand) her hand, somewhat amusingly reflecting his young ardor, thus smoothing the rough touch.

[Juliet] Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ ⁴ kiss.

Juliet responds by saying that Romeo is being too hard on himself since his gesture shows mannerly devotion. Pilgrims, in their devotion, do touch the hands of saint’s statues (shrines). And in any case, the joining of hands by pilgrims is the equivalent of a kiss, thereby coyly declining Romeo’s offer. Juliet’s teasing banter here is lighthearted and delightful, as between two young lovers.

[Romeo] Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
[Juliet] Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
[Romeo] O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

The banter continues as Romeo asserts the saints and palmers both have lips, that they must use. Juliet has a ready response, that they use those lips in prayer. Romeo’s clever and ardent response is an appeal to Juliet to let lips do what hands do, pray, by sharing touch. The lightly humorous tone used by Shakespeare here is an effective way of sympathetically attracting the reader to this young, appealing couple. We can’t help but smile at their verbal “jousting.”

[Juliet] Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.
[Romeo] Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take

Juliet once again has a rejoinder at the ready, reminding Romeo that saints’ statues do not move while granting prayers. And in a delightful repost, Romeo wins the debate by agreeing that the saints do not move, so therefore Juliet shouldn’t, and as saints grant prayers without moving, so should Juliet, and Romeo effects his prayer’s effect with a kiss.

The significance of this first encounter cannot be overstated. By making Romeo and Juliet so enchanting right from the start, our affections are wholly won over, which makes the tragedy that ensues so much more painful to watch unfolding, as the destructive, impervious hatred of society, –the families–and the unfeeling workings of blind chance overwhelm the tender love of the “star-crossed” lovers.

The Prince, in closing:

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1. A poetic foot is “a unit of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.”Poetic feet are based on the number of syllables in each foot. Probably the most common foot in English poetry isthe iamb , which is made up of just two syllables. Iamb is pronounced like I am. In an iamb, the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed. It sounds like da-DUM. Think of the word display. ↩︎
2. Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter ↩︎
3. To foretell, especially from omens. ↩︎
4. a , pilgrim, especially one who had returned from the Holy Land with a palm frond or leaf as a sign of having undertaken the pilgimage. ↩︎

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(Note: One of the great adaptations of literature to film is Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet.)

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