“Sonnet 20” is a poem by the Renaissance playwright and poet William Shakespeare. The poem belongs to a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets addressing an unidentified “fair youth”—a young man for whom the speaker of the poems expresses love and attraction. In this particular sonnet, the speaker praises the fair youth for his beauty, which encompasses both feminine and masculine qualities. While acknowledging that this fair youth may continue to have physical relationships with women, the speaker affirms the depth of the love between the youth and himself. “Sonnet 20” was included in a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets first published in 1609.
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The Full Text of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
1A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
2Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
3A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
4With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
5An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
6Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
7A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
8Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
9And for a woman wert thou first created,
10Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
11And by addition me of thee defeated
12By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
13 But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
14 Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
The Full Text of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
1A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
2Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
3A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
4With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
5An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
6Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
7A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
8Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
9And for a woman wert thou first created,
10Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
11And by addition me of thee defeated
12By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
13 But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
14 Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Summary
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Themes
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Love and Desire
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Gender and Beauty
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
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Lines 1-2
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; -
Lines 3-4
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion; -
Lines 5-6
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; -
Lines 7-8
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth. -
Lines 9-10
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, -
Lines 11-12
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. -
Lines 13-14
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
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Juxtaposition
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Metaphor
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Personification
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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End-Stopped Line
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Assonance
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Repetition
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Pun
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Master-mistress
- Acquainted
- False
- Fashion
- Rolling
- Gilding
- Gazeth
- Hue
- Steal
- Amazeth
- Wert
- A-doting
- Purpose
- Pricked
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Speaker
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“Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted”
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More “Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted” Resources
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External Resources
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Who Is the "Fair Youth"? — Learn more about the potential addressee of "Sonnet 20" in this essay, which includes an analysis of the poem's repetition of the letters "h," "e," "w," and "s"—though to be clues to the "fair youth's" identity.
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Biography of William Shakespeare — Learn more about Shakespeare's life—and his life as a poet—in this article from the Poetry Foundation website.
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The "Fair Youth" Sonnets — Read more about Shakespeare's “fair youth” sonnets, and how they have been interpreted in terms of gender and sexuality, in this essay from the British Library.
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Early Portrait of Henry Wriothesley — View an early portrait of Henry Wriothesley, one possible addressee of Shakespeare's "fair youth" sonnets. In this portrait, Wriothesley is depicted wearing rouge, lipstick, and earrings, with long, flowing hair, and critics have dated this painting to the time period when Shakespeare wrote his sonnets.
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Article about Henry Wriothesley — Read more about Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, who some critics have taken to be the "fair youth" of Sonnet 20 and the other sonnets in this sequence.
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Stolen Sonnets — Shakespeare's sonnets were first published without his authorization, by a local publisher who essentially "pirated" the poems from the poet. Read this article from NPR to learn more about this unauthorized publication, and why Shakespeare may have tried to prevent it.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare
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