Shakespeare was dropping bars 400 years before rap existed. This page breaks down Sonnet 129 line by line — what the words actually mean, how the sonnet form works, and why the same techniques Shakespeare used (tight rhyme schemes, rhythmic flow, double meanings, and emotional intensity) show up in the best hip-hop today. Click any line of the poem to get a plain-English explanation, toggle the rhyme scheme and meter views to see the structure, and check out the rap lyric video.
Sonnet 129
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Line Annotations
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Flow matters: Sonnets, like raps, are meant to be read aloud. The meter of a poem is its flow — the rhythm your voice falls into when you speak the words. Getting that flow right is just as important in a Shakespeare sonnet as it is in a verse from any rapper
Tight constraints: Both work within strict rules — a set rhythm, a rhyme scheme to hit, limited space to make it count
Wordplay and double meanings: Shakespeare loads lines with hidden layers. In this poem's very first line, "the expense of spirit" means both a draining of the soul and a sexual reference ("spirit" was Elizabethan slang for semen) — the kind of double entendre any rapper would respect
Sound matters: Shakespeare piles up words at a breathless pace, uses internal rhyme and repetition, and builds to a punchline couplet — techniques you'll hear in any great verse from Kendrick, Eminem, or J. Cole
