The Sonnets - Is Shakespeare's Speaker the Greatest Achievement?

Shakespeare's speaker, alone with his thoughts, is the greatest achievement of the sequence. He's given depth of character in each individual sonnet by several compositional strategies on Shakespeare's part. We've got three different brains - we have the brain up here in the head and two others that control our gut instinct and heart. When you're reading the sonnets or any great literature, bring all three brains to the work.