Sonnet 28 phrase in Sonnet 28 "to please him" refers to one of the torturers, but for a moment the reader has had planted in his thoughts an image of the fair youth as a flattery-craving tyrant. Sonnet 28 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of 14 lines arranged by the rhyme scheme to form three quatrains (lines 1–12) and a couplet (lines 13–14). The rhyme scheme is: abab cdcd efef gg. It is written in iambic pentameter, a metre based on five feet in each line, with each foot containing two syllables accented weak/strong: The two lines of the
Sonnet 29 Shakespeare's other sonnets. The first unique characteristic is the lack of a "when/then" pattern. Traditionally, the first eight lines of a sonnet produce a problem (a "when" statement) that is then resolved in the last six lines (a "then" statement). McRae points out, however, that the Speaker in this sonnet fails to produce a solution possibly because his overwhelming lack of self-worth prevents him from ever being able to state an actual argument, and instead uses his conclusion to contrast the negative feelings stated in the previous octave. McRae notes that this break from the traditional style of sonnet writing