Structural and Semantic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 66 in the Original and in Translation

The article examines the unusual composition and structure of Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 66 and how these formal features contribute to the exposition of its central idea. The sonnet’s text is characterized by two compound sentences, each comprising several complex clauses. The genre is identified as invective, featuring abusive speech. In literary studies, the concept of the author’s image is often understood as that of a literary or lyrical hero in poetic texts. In this sonnet, the addressee of the lyrical hero’s speech is his Friend, historically designated by the initials W. H. The lyrical hero reflects on moral and ethical ideals such as “purest faith,” “maiden virtue,” “right perfection,” and “truth” as positive thematic elements, contrasted with societal vices including “needy nothing,” “misplaced honour,” “virtue strumpeted,” and “disgraced perfection.” These opposing images evoke the lyrical hero’s emotional turmoil and tragic contemplation of death, culminating in the realization that he cannot abandon his Friend in society. The article offers a detailed lexical and stylistic analysis of the sonnet in its original English and its translations. It identifies unusual syntactic and morphological constructions and lexical-semantic repetitions (e.g., beggar — needy). A key compositional feature is the dominant anaphoric structure formed by the conjunction “and” paired with artistic images, appearing at the start of ten lines, which reinforces the sonnet’s thematic development. This structural element’s role is examined across multiple translations by D. Palamarchuk, I. Franko, S. Nechayev, G. Pylypenko, M. Karpovyi, D. Pavlychko, V. Marach, and others. Among these, D. Palamarchuk’s translation is highlighted for its fidelity in conveying the sonnet’s ideological, lexical-semantic, and structural properties, as well as for effectively representing the lyrical hero’s image and the sonnet’s “spirit”.