Sonnet 106 by William Shakespeare appears in the Songs of Ourselves, Volume 3 (Cambridge University Press & Assessment), studied for IGCSE and International GCSE Literature (Cambridge International 0475). Your school confirms the anthology selection, and the board's current syllabus lists it for your exam year.
What the poem is about
The speaker reads old histories and romances full of descriptions of beautiful people. He notices that their detailed praise seems to describe the person he loves. He decides that those writers were really foretelling this beauty without having seen it.
Because they only guessed, they lacked the skill to praise it properly. The final couplet adds a twist: people alive now can see it, but they are lost for words.
Themes and ideas
Beauty across time
The beloved seems to sum up all the beauty that past writers praised. Time becomes a line leading up to this one person.
The limits of language
Neither old writers nor new ones can do the beloved justice. The poem praises by admitting failure.
Poetry and tradition
Shakespeare refers to older love poetry and its habit of listing features. He both uses and gently plays with that tradition.
Prophecy
Past praise is recast as prediction. This bold idea makes the beloved seem destined and unique.
Form, structure and sound
This is a Shakespearean sonnet with three quatrains and a closing couplet. The first eight lines form one long sentence, imitating the slow reading of old chronicles.
A list of body parts copies the blazon, a traditional catalogue of a lover's features. The couplet balances eyes against tongues, setting seeing against speaking.
How to write about it
Explain how the argument moves from reading, to a theory about prophecy, to a confession. Note the list of features and connect it to older love poetry.
Brief quotations are fine because the poem is public domain. Discuss the final couplet as a modest but clever way to praise.
A useful comparison for an anthology question is To the Ladies, because the two poems share enough ground to compare. Our guide to comparing two poems shows how.
A teacher can read Sonnet 106 by William Shakespeare with your child and practise a timed answer in a one-hour trial.
An exam-style question to practise
How does Shakespeare present the beloved in 'Sonnet 106'?
Plan your answer in five minutes before you write. Choose three points from the themes and form notes above. Then check your plan against the mark scheme section below.
More question angles
- Explore how Shakespeare uses ideas about the past in the poem.
- How does the final couplet change the meaning of the sonnet?
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark poetry answers against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards. For Cambridge International 0475, the objectives are summarised on our qualification page.
- AO1: Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts in the three main forms (drama, poetry and prose), supported by reference to the text.
- AO2: Understand the meanings of literary texts and their contexts, and explore texts beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes.
- AO3: Recognise and appreciate ways in which writers use language, structure and form to create and shape meanings and effects.
- AO4: Communicate a sensitive and informed personal response to literary texts.
- The four assessment objectives carry equal weight, about 25% each.
For Sonnet 106, build your reading around “Beauty across time” and “The limits of language”, and support each point with a short quotation. Then explain how the form, structure and sound in the section above create that meaning.
Where a question asks you to link poems, compare Sonnet 106 with To the Ladies. Keep any context about William Shakespeare brief and tied to the words on the page.
Read the poem alongside these notes. This page is our own analysis and original teaching material. Where we quote this public-domain poem, it is a short, attributed phrase.
Where to go next
Practise the method on an unseen poem with our guide to reading an unseen poem, then see a worked answer in our comparing poems model response. Browse more anthology poems or read about Literature in English tuition.
When you have written an answer on Sonnet 106, a paid one-hour trial lesson lets the teacher who would continue mark it with you.