Sonnet 20

A Shakespearean sonnet that praises a beloved figure’s beauty and explores the speaker’s desire and affection. Its speaker describes the figure as a woman’s face with a man’s form and notes that Nature gave them a woman’s heart.

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Shakespearean sonnet: A fourteen-line poem using three quatrains and a final couplet, commonly rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Sonnet 20 uses this form to develop its praise before resolving the speaker’s desire in the couplet.
Fair Youth: The unnamed young man addressed in a sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets, traditionally numbered Sonnets 1–126. Sonnet 20 is commonly read as part of the poems addressed to this beloved figure.
William Shakespeare: An English playwright and poet, born in 1564 and deceased in 1616. Shakespeare is the author traditionally credited with Sonnet 20.
The Dark Lady: The unnamed woman addressed in a group of Shakespeare’s sonnets, commonly numbered Sonnets 127–154. Her sonnets form a contrasting sequence of desire, distinct from the male beloved addressed here.
Sonnet: A fourteen-line poetic form, often organized by a fixed rhyme scheme and a developing argument. Its formal conventions place Shakespeare’s poem within a long tradition of compact lyric argument.
Gender: Social and cultural meanings associated with sex, identity, roles, and expression. The poem unsettles simple divisions by praising feminine beauty in a figure described as male.
1609 Quarto: The first printed edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, published in London in 1609. It preserves the earliest known printed text of Sonnet 20.
Sonnet 18: A Shakespearean sonnet beginning “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Its idealizing praise offers a useful comparison with Sonnet 20’s more gender-conscious portrait.
Volta (poetry): A turn in thought, tone, or argument within a poem, especially a sonnet. The final couplet shifts from admiration toward the speaker’s claim about what love may possess.
Same-sex love: Romantic or erotic love between people of the same sex. The speaker’s intimate address has made the poem central to discussions of male desire in Shakespeare.