The Speaker

The speaker is the central character of this sonnet. Sonnets are usually lyric poems written from the first-person point of view, and "Sonnet 27" is no exception. The speaker of the sonnet expresses their difficulty falling asleep after a day of work, explaining that thoughts of their beloved keep them awake. It is important for readers not to equate the first-person "I" of the poem with Shakespeare himself, despite Shakespeare's frequent references to his name ("Will") in other sonnets in the sequence. The speaker of "Sonnet 27" is a hard worker, perhaps a laborer, who turns to their bed for rest but cannot find it due to their overwhelming affection for their beloved.

The Beloved

The other character in the poem is the "thou," the other to whom the speaker's words and their affection are addressed. We do not actually learn anything about the subject of the speaker's affections...