Shakespeare's Sonnets book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Scenes 1 to 51

1. Is it fair to ask someone to have children because their beauty is worth preserving?
2. What might the speaker gain or lose by choosing truthful praise over grand comparisons?
3. How can thoughts of an absent person bring both sleeplessness and relief?
4. Why might the beloved's grief offer compensation when an apology does not?
5. Where might forgiveness become self-deception in the speaker's responses to betrayal?

Meeting 2: Scenes 52 to 103

6. When does giving someone freedom become giving up the right to be treated fairly?
7. How convincing is poetry as an answer to the fear that everything decays?
8. Why might awareness of approaching death deepen affection rather than weaken it?
9. Does the speaker's request to value unspoken devotion challenge or continue his competition with other poets?
10. What might motivate the speaker to expose personal faults so the beloved gains honor by leaving?

Meeting 3: Scenes 104 to 154

11. How persuasive is the claim that wandering leaves devotion unchanged when placed beside an admission of unfaithfulness?
12. Does treating two injuries as debts that cancel offer a fair basis for forgiveness?
13. What makes rejecting flattering comparisons a convincing or unconvincing way to express love?
14. What might both lovers gain and lose by agreeing to hide the truth?
15. How does the threat of damaging speech change the speaker's plea for affection?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.