Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets. Of these, he wrote 150 to a specific person (such as a lover) or a spiritual entity (such as the muse or time). He wrote only four without a named subject or recipient, so the contents of these may reveal something different than the other 150. The first two, sonnets 5 and 94, analyze beauty and the merits of inner versus outer beauty, while the last two, 116 and 129, discuss love in a completely contradictory way. A clear comparison can be drawn from both pairs; in each example, the previous sonnet is a happier interpretation of beauty or love, and the following one conveys a darker feeling towards the same concept. The juxtaposition of sonnets 5 and 94 reflects on Shakespeare's life and how it, in turn, influenced his work: comedy and tragedy, and the infinite balance of "comfort and despair" that seemingly afflicted the bard. In his fifth sonnet, Shakespeare argues that time undoes, or “shall be unjust” what “justly excels” (5.4), and, since the focus here is entirely on beauty, it is important to understand the beauty that Shakespeare examines in his fifth sonnet : speaks of beauty as both possessed and possessed in the previous sonnets; “thy beauty lies” (2.5), “the use of thy beauty” (2.9) and because of this it is difficult to realize that his fifth sonnet is completely disconnected from any personal reference. It's about beauty itself, not about beauty possessed by someone. This becomes instrumental when analyzed alongside sonnet 94, in which Shakespeare explores the possibility of someone's false beauty. Time is a powerful motif and thematic idea in the fifth sonnet. It guides the entire poem, putting it in its place and giving it meaning. The first line mentions “those hours,” the… medium of paper… with the bubonic plague, and also joyfully conveys his excitement and happiness at his successes. These two extraordinarily antonymous feelings are very reminiscent of the gap between his tragedies and his comedies, aren't they? Shakespeare not only elaborates his feelings and thoughts in his acute juxtaposition of sonnets 5 and 94, but also develops a very interesting idea about his life, expressed through his images and themes of the flower, the “base”, the stone and the time. By using these two sonnets, Shakespeare also gives his readers insight into the emotions he put into his plays which resulted in works as different as his tragedies from his comedies. It goes without saying that these two sonnets are incredibly important for understanding Shakespeare's strange cycle of good and evil that persisted throughout his life, something that shaped him and shaped his writing...