M.H Abrams' "A Glossary of Literary Terms" describes Shakespeare's sonnet form as a traditional English sonnet. This sonnet style encompasses three four-line quatrains and a closing two-line couplet. Although Shakespeare's compilation of one hundred and fifty-four sonnets appear to lack continuity, they are in fact part of an overall sequence. This sequence is generally divided into two sections that are connected by a central storyline. The first one hundred and twenty six sonnets generally focus on the `fair young man' with periodic references to the `rival poet'. Shakespeare devotes the remaining twenty-eight sonnets to addressing the poet's adoration for the `dark lady'. Sonnet eighty-one incorporates the `young man' as the central character and delves into the familiar Shakespearian themes of death and immortality.

Sonnet eighty-one adopts a confident and optimistic tone and interrupts the `rival poet' sequence that emerges in sonnets seventy-eighty to eighty. Whilst earlier in...