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 16 'sow' it (compare Sonnet 15 where it is used of grafting) so that it can give birth to the youth's "living flowers," self-generated new copies. Interpretation of the sonnet is said to hinge on the third quatrain (lines 9-12), which is generally regarded as obscure. Edmond Malone suggested that "lines of life" refers to children, with a pun on line as bloodline. This reading was accepted by Edward Dowden and others. Also, "repair" can mean to make anew or newly father (re + père), which may be relevant. But as well, "lines of life" can mean the length of life,