The only example of poetic license in Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 would seem to be contained in the beautiful metaphor:
...and then my state,Like to the Lark at break of day arisingFrom sullen earth, sings hymns at Heaven's gate;
The poetic conceit here is that the lark flies all the way up to heaven, when in fact the bird can only fly a short distance above the earth. The image is so striking that...
The only example of poetic license in Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 would seem to be contained in the beautiful metaphor:
...and then my state,
Like to the Lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at Heaven's gate;
The poetic conceit here is that the lark flies all the way up to heaven, when in fact the bird can only fly a short distance above the earth. The image is so striking that the reader may momentarily believe the bird has actually soared all the way up to heaven. Heaven is a place that poets can reach very easily in their imaginations.
Another great English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), wrote a famous poem about the same bird. It is titled "To a Skylark," and may have been partly inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 29. The opening stanza of Shelley's poem also suggests that the skylark has flown almost all the way up to heaven--another example of poetic license. Shelley takes even more poetic license by claiming that the skylark is a spirit and not a bird.
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
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