Well it is certainly the case that the poems - which were in fact published during Shakespeare's lifetime - are weird if they began or originated in this form, as I think they did, because the poems get out of control.

Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7 1943) is an American literary critic theorist and scholar. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations which often publiStephen Greenblatts articles by new historicists.