Understanding Shakespeare: The Sonnets by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview
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As the Norton editors also indicate, the sonnets also contain several key or important motifs:
Sonnets 1-17
(1) Celebration of the Young Man's Beauty
(2) The Urging of the Young Man to Marry and to pass on his beauty to his children
Sonnets 18-126
(3) Time as a Transient and Destructive Force
(4) Friendship and Love
(5) The Permanence of Poetry
Sonnets 127-154
(6) The Dark Lady as a Temptation, or an Object of Lust
(7) The Dark Lady as an Object of Degradation Other motifs also appear in the sonnets as well.