Shakespeare's "barren leaves" (vol 15, pg 121, 2018)

By both commercial and critical indicators Shakespeare, at mid-career point in the last years of the sixteenth century, was recognised as a very successful writer. And yet, many sonnets located in the middle of his collection, which were most likely written around this time, appear to indicate profound doubt about the value of literary enterprise. With particular attention paid to sonnets 73, 77, 81 and 83, their self-reflexive nature is elucidated, and they are interpreted as meditations upon the nature of representation and the value of poetry, which speak of an author in search of new directions. © 2018, © 2018 John Blakeley.