SONNET 3 PARAPHRASE

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Look in your mirror and tell the face you see
That now is the time it should form another [create a child];
If you do not renew yourself,
You rob the world, and prevent some woman from becoming a
For where is the woman whose unploughed womb
Would frown upon the way you plough your field?
Or who is he so foolish to love himself so much but let

Of his self-love, to stop posterity? Himself perish? [To make a tomb of self-love and not have a child
to carry on your beauty]

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime:
So thou through windows of thine age shall see
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.
you.
You are the mirror of your mother, and she is the mirror of you
And in you she recalls the lovely April of her youth:
So through your own children you will see your youth
Despite the wrinkles caused by age.
But if you live your life avoiding being remembered,
You will die single [and childless], and your image will die with

SONNET 116 - PARAPHRASE

Let me not declare any reasons why two
True-minded people should not be married. Love is not love
Which changes when it finds a change in circumstances,
Or bends from its firm stand even when a lover is unfaithful:
Oh no! it is a lighthouse
That sees storms but it never shaken;
Love is the guiding north star to every lost ship,
Whose value cannot be calculated, although its altitude can be measured.
Love is not at the mercy of Time, though physical beauty
Comes within the compass of his sickle.
Love does not alter with hours and weeks,
But, rather, it endures until the last day of life.
If I am proved wrong about these thoughts on love
Then I recant all that I have written, and no man has ever [truly] loved.

COMMENTARY
Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It is praising the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely,
and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love
that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds." The following lines proclaim that true love is
indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure
love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known – it remains
a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9-12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable
throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death. In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he
is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love,
truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in
the ideal sense that the poet professes. The details of Sonnet 116 are best described by Tucker Brooke in his acclaimed
edition of Shakespeare's poems:

[In Sonnet 116] the chief pause in sense is after the twelfth line. Seventy-five per cent of the words are monosyllables;
only three contain more syllables than two; none belong in any degree to the vocabulary of 'poetic' diction. There is
nothing recondite, exotic, or metaphysical in the thought. There are three run-on lines, one pair of double-endings.
There is nothing to remark about the rhyming except the happy blending of open and closed vowels, and of liquids,
nasals, and stops; nothing to say about the harmony except to point out how the fluttering accents in the quatrains
give place in the couplet to the emphatic march of the almost unrelieved iambic feet. In short, the poet has employed
one hundred and ten of the simplest words in the language and the two simplest rhyme-schemes to produce a poem
which has about it no strangeness whatever except the strangeness of perfection.

SONNET 147: PARAPHRASE

My love is like a fever, still longing,
For that which feeds the disease,
Feeding on that which prolongs the illness,
All to please the unhealthy desires of the body.
My reason, love's doctor,
Angry that I do not follow his directions,
Has left me, and desperate I find that desire
Leads to death, which physic (reason) will not allow.
Now reason is past caring, now I am past cure,
And I am frantic with continual unrest;
My thoughts and my words are like a madman's,
Lies foolishly uttered;
For I thought you were moral and bright (shining as a star),
But you really are black as hell and dark as night.

COMMENTARY
The poet's scathing attack upon the morality of his mistress exemplifies their tumultuous and perplexing relationship.
The three quatrains outline the poet's inner struggle to cope with both his lover's infidelity and the embarrassing self-
admission that he still desires her to gratify him sexually, even though she has been with other men. The poet yearns
to understand why, in spite of the judgment of reason (5), he still is enslaved by her charms. Confused by his own
inexplicable urges, the poet's whole being is at odds with his insatiable "sickly appetite" (4) for the dark lady. He
deduces in the final quatrain that he surely must be insane, for he calls his mistress just and moral when she obviously
is neither. Not until later sonnets (150-1) do we see a change of tone and a cool-headed acknowledgment of the
recklessness of the whole affair. In Sonnet 151, the poet admits that he cannot continue the relationship because it
betrays his "nobler part" (6) i.e. his soul, and in Sonnet 152 we are witness to the end of the affair.

Is Sonnet 147 autobiographical? Did Shakespeare really have an affair with a raven-haired seducer? Critics are divided
on this matter, and, until some new documents are uncovered, we shall never know the truth. Attempts have been
made to solicit possible historical candidates for the role of the dark lady, based on their likely association with
Shakespeare.

ANALYSIS Sonnet 19

[Line 4]* Note that Phoenix, the mythological eagle-like bird associated with Egyptian sun-worship, had a life span of
more than 500 years. When its first life was over, the bird would burn itself upon a pile of wood that was set ablaze by
the sun. It would then rise from the ashes, once again young. Here Shakespeare is saying that, despite the phoenix's
ability to resurrect itself, it cannot escape Time forever. 'In her blood' was a Renaissance term for 'full of life' or 'in
one's prime of life'.

The theme, as with so many of the early sonnets, is the ravages of Time. Shakespeare expresses his intense fear of
Time primarily in the sonnets that involve his male lover, and his worries seem to disappear in the later sonnets that
are dedicated to his 'dark lady'. Specifically, the poet is mortified by the thought of his lover showing physical signs of
aging. There is no doubt that his relationship with his male lover is one built upon lust - more so than his relationship
with his mistress, which is based on love and mutual understanding.

SONNET 19 PARAPHRASE
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws, Devouring Time, you make the lion's claws grow blunt,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; And make the earth destroy those things she created;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, Cause even the fierce tiger to lose its teeth,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood; And burn the long-lived phoenix while she is still in the prime of life*;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets, [Time], make happy and sad seasons as you pass by,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, And do whatever you want, swift Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets; To the wide world and all nature's fading beauty;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: But I forbid you to do one thing;
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow, O, you must not make your mark on my lover's brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen; Nor draw no lines upon his brow with your antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow Allow him to remain untainted [youthful] as you run your course
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. And remain the very ideal of beauty for future generations to admire.
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong, Yet, do your worst, old Time: despite your ravages,
My love shall in my verse ever live young. My lover shall be young forever in my poetry.

PARAPHRASE OF SONNET 73

In me you can see that time of year

When a few yellow leaves or none at all hang
On the branches, shaking against the cold,
Bare ruins of church choirs where lately the sweet birds sang.
In me you can see only the dim light that remains
After the sun sets in the west,
Which is soon extinguished by black night
The image of death that envelops all in rest.
In me you can see the glowing embers
That lie upon the ashes remaining from the flame of my youth,
As on a death bed where it (youth) must finally die
Consumed by that which once fed it.
This you sense, and it makes your love more determined
To love more deeply that which you must give up before long.

COMMENTARY
Sonnets 71-74 are typically analyzed as a group, linked by the poet's thoughts of his own mortality. However, Sonnet
73 contains many of the themes common throughout the entire body of sonnets, including the ravages of time on one's
physical well-being and the mental anguish associated with moving further from youth and closer to death. Time's
destruction of great monuments juxtaposed with the effects of age on human beings is a convention seen before, most
notably in Sonnet 55.

The poet is preparing his young friend, not for the approaching literal death of his body, but for the metaphorical death
of his youth and passion. The poet's deep insecurities swell irrepressibly as he concludes that the young man is now
 focused only on the signs of his aging, as the poet surely is himself. This is illustrated by the linear development of the
three quatrains. The first two quatrains establish what the poet perceives the young man now sees as he looks at the
poet: those yellow leaves and bare boughs, and the faint afterglow of the fading sun. The third quatrain reveals that
the poet is speaking not of his impending physical death, but the death of his youth and subsequently his youthful
desires -- those very things which sustained his relationship with the young man.

Throughout the 126 sonnets addressed to the young man, the poet tries repeatedly to impart his wisdom of Time's
wrath, and more specifically, the grim truth that time will have the same effects on the young man as it has upon the
poet. And, as we see in the concluding couplet of Sonnet 73, the poet has this time succeeded. The young man
nowsenses the importance of his own youth, which he will be forced to leave ere long (14).

Some critics assume the young man perceives not the future loss of his own youth, but the approaching loss of his dear
friend, the poet. This would then mean that the poet is speaking of his death in the literal sense. However, the poet
clearly lives on well after Sonnet 73. He writes eighty-one more sonnets, fifty-three of which are addressed to the
young man. Moreover, it would follow from this reading that the poet is dying of old age, but nowhere is it revealed
that he is elderly. If we assume that the sonnets are even remotely autobiographical, it becomes relevant that
Shakespeare was still a young man himself at the time Sonnet 73 was written. It is generally accepted that all 154
sonnets were composed before 1600, so Shakespeare would have been no older than thirty-six. Granted, a man of
thirty-six was not deemed as young by Renaissance standards as by our own, but it seems unlikely that he would be
awaiting his own death simply because of his age.

SONNET 30 PARAPHRASE
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought When in these sessions of gratifying silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past, I think of the past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, I lament my failure to achieve all that I wanted,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: And I sorrowfully remember that I wasted the best years of my life:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, Then I can cry, although I am not used to crying,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, For dear friends now hid in death's unending night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe, And cry again over woes that were long since healed,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight: And lament the loss of many things that I have seen and loved:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, Then can I grieve over past griefs again,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er And sadly repeat (to myself) my woes
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, The sorrowful account of griefs already grieved for,
Which I new pay as if not paid before. Which (the account) I repay as if I had not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, But if I think of you while I am in this state of sadness, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end. All my losses are compensated for and my sorrow ends.
ANALYSIS

[Line 1]* 'sessions' - the sitting of a court. The court imagery is continued with 'summon up' in line 2. The court motif is used
several times by Shakespeare - note Othello 3.3.140: "Keep leets and law days, and in session sit/With mediations lawful?"
(Leets = court sessions).

[Line 4]* By replaying his 'old woes' over in his mind, the poet is wasting precious time that could be spent thinking more
joyous thoughts. Hence 'my dear time's waste'.

[Line 7]* "love's long since cancell'd woe" is the sorrow the poet had once felt over the loss of his close friends; loss that has
dulled over the years but now returns as he thinks of the past.
[Line 8]* Some scholars interpret this line to mean 'I lament the cost to me of many a lost sigh'. "'Sight' for 'sigh' was archaic
by Shakespeare's time and seems only to have been used for the sake of rhyme (see OED). Sighing was considered
deleterious to health; compare 2 Henry VI 3.2.61-3: 'blood-consuming sighs . . ./Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking
sighs', and 47.4." (Blakemore Evans, 142). However, the ordinary word 'sight' also makes sense in this context; that is, the
poet has lost many things that he has seen and loved.

[Line 13]* Shakespeare's first use of the term 'dear friend' in the Sonnets.

[Line 14]* His friend is as great as the sum of all the many things the poet sought but did not find.

Sonnet 30 is a tribute to the poet's friend -- and likely his lover -- whom many believe to be the Earl of Southampton. Sonnet
29 proclaims that the young man is the poet's redeemer and this theme continues in the above sonnet. The poet's sorrowful
recollections of dead friends are sparked by the lover's absence and can be quelled only by thoughts of his lover, illustrating
the poet's dependence on his dear friend for spiritual and emotional support. Notice Shakespeare's use of partial alliteration
over several lines to enhance the texture and rhythm of the sonnet. Others could be cited, but here is one example:
When to | the Sess | ions of | sweet si | lent thought
I summ | on up | remem | brance of | things past...

SONNET 20 PARAPHRASE
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted A woman's face, colored by Nature's own hand
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; Have you, the master/mistress of my desire;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted You have a woman's gentle heart, but you are not prone
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion; To fickle change, as is the way with women;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, You have eyes brighter than their eyes, and more sincere,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; Lighting up the very object that they look upon;
A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling, You are a man in shape and form, and all men are in your control,
Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. You catch the attention of men and amaze women's souls [hearts].
And for a woman wert thou first created; You were originally intended to be a woman;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting, Until Nature, made a mistake in making you,
And by addition me of thee defeated, And by adding one extra thing [Nature] defeated me,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. By adding one thing she has prevented me from fully having you,
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure, But since Nature equipped you for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. Let your body be their treasure, and let me have your love.

ANALYSIS

Sonnet 20 has caused much debate. Some scholars believe that this is a clear admission of Shakespeare's homosexuality.
Despite the fact that male friendships in the Renaissance were openly affectionate, the powerful emotions the poet displays
here are indicative of a deep and sensual love. The poet's lover is 'the master-mistress of [his] passion'. He has the grace
and features of a woman but is devoid of the guile and pretense that comes with female lovers; those wily women with eyes
'false in rolling', who change their moods and affections like chameleons. Lines 9-14 are of particular interest to critics on
both sides of the homosexual debate. Some argue these lines show that, despite his love for the young man, the poet does
not want to 'have' him physically. The poet proclaims that he is content to let women enjoy the 'manly gifts' that God has
given his friend. He is satisfied to love the young man in a spiritual way. But others contend that Shakespeare had to
include this disclaimer, due to the homophobia of the time. "The meaning is conveyed not just by what is said but by the
tone. The argument may serve to clear Shakespeare of the charge of a serious offense..." (Spender, 99). Even if the poet
is, in this sonnet, refraining from physical relations with the young man, the thought of such relations appears to consume
and please his imagination, and "from what we soon learn about the friend, with his 'sensual fault' and lasciviousness, it
seems unlikely that, to him, such a relationship would be unthinkable" (Spender, 99). Moreover, in light of later sonnets
such as 56 and 57, where the poet, in essence, tells us that his friend is cheating on him, it becomes harder and harder to
conclude that the "cheating" is merely of a emotional, and not physical, nature.
Sonnet 129

"The expense of spirit in a waste of shame / Is lust in action; and till action, lust"
The wasteful, shameful expenditure of energy - that is what lust in action is. And until the real action, lust
"Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame / Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,"
Is dishonest, murderous, bloody, full of blame, savage, extreme, crude, cruel, and not to be trusted;
"Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight / Past reason hunted, and no sooner had"
Lust is hated as soon as (or sooner than) it has been enjoyed, and pursued beyond reason; and as soon as
it is had,
"Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait / On purpose laid to make the taker mad;"
It is hated beyond reason, like the bait swallowed by a fish, offered with the intent of making him who
takes it insane;
"Mad in pursuit and in possession so; / Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;"
The taker is insane in pursuing one's lust and mad in possessing the object of lust: going to extremes in
having had it, in the having of it, and in seeking to have it;
"A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; / Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream."
A heavenly sensation when being had, yet a total woe after all; before having it, an expected joy; after
having it, it seems like a dream, a lost ideal.
"All this the world well knows; yet none knows well / To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell."
Everyone certainly knows all this about lust, but still no one quite knows how to shun the hope of
satisfaction that leads men to this hellish madness.
Why is he saying it?
This is another of the most famous sonnets, for in it the poet seems to engage the topic of sex explicitly
and without reservation in a way that was not at all typical for Shakespeare's time. (Lust, however, could
be applied to other objects of deep desire, such as money.) The overarching theme of the sonnet is the
poet's contention that sexual fulfillment, or at least fulfillment out of lust, is something that is longed for
desperately and ravenously right up until that blissful moment of climax - orgasm - after which it is
immediately regretted. Yet despite the fact that "the world well knows" its consequences, the poet claims,
no one is quite able to avoid the sinful temptations of lustful desire.
The poet wastes no time in getting this point across. He abandons his characteristic use of ambiguity in
favor of unequivocal words of condemnation, as we see in his description of lust before action in lines 2-4:
"till action, lust / Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame / Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to
trust." His frankness continues throughout the sonnet as he repeatedly bemoans the regret one
experiences after succumbing to lustful temptation.
It is unclear from the sonnet whether the poet is describing sexual intercourse in general or only that which
occurs out of lust but not love. But due to the sonnet's place within the dark lady sequence and the
assumption that the narrator's regret comes from his inability to control his lustful urges, we are led to
presume that it is the latter. The focus here is on the contrast between lust before action and regret after
action, with action being the act of sex, the consummation of desire. Lustful sex is thus described, "A bliss
in proof, and proved, a very woe" (here "to prove" means "to try" or "to accomplish"), and he who
succumbs to lust is thus likened to the fish that has swallowed bait: "Mad in pursuit and in possession so."
Note that sonnet 129 is full of contrasts: "before" vs. "behind" (after), "heaven" vs. "hell," and so on. The
"heaven" of line 14 is the "bliss in proof" of line 11, while "hell" is the "very woe." Also note the possible
 pun in line 1: "waste of shame" sounds like "waist of shame," which some critics have interpreted as the
waist of a prostitute. Finally, we can compare this sonnet with sonnet 94 for the absence of "I" and "thou";
the impersonal perspective found here, otherwise rare in the sonnets, is perhaps a sign of the poet's
malaise with regard to his own role in the situation. He has engaged in lustful sex and regrets it, and now
wishes to condemn the act without explicitly admitting his own experience.
The fact that sonnet 129 is so full of contrasts is a good segue into a brief discussion of platonic love versus
carnal lust as explored in Shakespeare's sonnets. Sonnet 129 contrasts heavily with, for example, sonnet
20 in that the present sonnet deals with lust while sonnet 20 deals with love. The contrast becomes obvious
when we compare the "savage, extreme, rude" of sonnet 129 with sonnet 20's "master-mistress of my
passion." While the narrator here regrets his lustful urges immediately after he has acted upon them, there
is no such regret to be had in the case of his love for the fair lord; for even if the narrator may have longed
for the fair lord sexually, the act of consummation never took place, nor would it ever, as many scholars
agree. The contrast thus created diametrically opposes the fair lord and the dark lady, with the narrator
betwixt them and torn from both sides in different ways.

SONNET 144 PARAPHRASE

Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Two loves I have, one comforting, the other despairing;
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:* Which like two spirits do urge me on:
The better angel is a man right fair, The better angel is a beautiful man,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill. The worser spirit [angel] is a woman of dark complexion.
To win me soon to hell*, my female evil With what would soon send me to hell, my female lover
Tempteth my better angel from my side, Tempts my better lover away from me,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, And wants to corrupt him and turn him into a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride. Seducing him and his purity with her dark pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend And whether my angel be turned into a fiend,
Suspect I may, but not directly tell; I cannot say for sure, although I suspect as much;
But being both from me, both to each friend, But both being away from me, and each friendly toward the
other,
I guess one angel in another's hell: I guess one angel is in the other's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, But this I'll never know, and I'll live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.* Until my bad angel drives away my good angel.
ANALYSIS

[Line 2-3]* As G. Blakemore Evans points out in his edition of the Sonnets: "Shakespeare here is clearly thinking in terms of
the morality play or psychomachia tradition, in which Mankind, as the central character, is subjected to the promptings of
personified Virtues and Vices, a tradition that received its most famous development in Marlowe's Dr. Faustus (c. 1592), in
which (1.2.etc.) a 'Good Angel' and an 'Evil Angel' try to influence Faustus's thought and action . . ." (The Sonnets.
Cambridge: University Press, 1996 [262]).

[Line 5]* The poet does not mean 'hell' in the literal sense. Hell for the poet is the mental anguish he suffers due to his divided
loyalties and the strange new development in his sordid love triangle.

[Line 14]* Some scholars argue that 'fire' in this line specifically refers to venereal disease. They claim that the poet is saying
his mistress will give his male lover the 'fire' or 'infection'. This interpretation is quite possibly the right one -- venereal disease
was rampant in Tudor society.

Although Sonnets 143 and 144 both discuss the interwoven relationship amongst Shakespeare, his male friend, and the 'Dark
Lady', the somber tone in Sonnet 144 is much different from the playful humorous tone found in the previous Sonnet. The
poet clearly favours the love and companionship of his male lover over that of his mistress, and he places all the blame for
the affair between the Dark Lady and the Friend squarely on the shoulders of the Lady. Shakespeare's depiction of them as
angels, one good and one bad, shows the unique roles they played in Shakespeare life. His affair with his male friend, most
likely the Earl of Southampton, was 'nourishment for his soul', and reached beyond lust and physical comfort -- the bases of
the affair with his mistress -- to fulfill his spiritual and cerebral needs.

SONNET 138 PARAPHRASE

When my love swears that she is made of truth When my mistress swears that she is faithful
I do believe her, though I know she lies, I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor'd youth, That she might think I am some inexperienced youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Ignorant of all the deceit that exists in the world.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Thus foolishly thinking that I am still young,
Although she knows my days are past the best, Although she knows that my best days are behind me,
Simply I credit her false speaking tongue: Foolishly I give credit to the untruths she tells about me;
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd. So that both of us are supressing the ugly truth.
But wherefore says she not she is unjust? But why does she not tell me that she is unfaithful?
And wherefore say not I that I am old? And why do I not admit that I am old?
 O, love's best habit is in seeming trust, O, love's best disguise is the pretence of truth,
And age in love loves not to have years told: And older lovers do not like to have their age pointed out:
Therefore I lie with her and she with me, That is why I lie to her and she to me*,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be. And the lies we tell each other help us forget our respective
faults.

ANALYSIS

[Line 13]* Notice the double meaning of 'lie'. The line can also be interpreted as "That is why I sleep
with her and she with me."

In Sonnet 138 the poet candidly reveals both the nature of his relationship with the dark lady and the
insecurities he has about growing older. Unlike his intense affair with his other lover -- who is the
subject of the earlier sonnets and likely the real-life Earl of Southampton -- the poet's affair with his
mistress is (for now) uncomplicated and practical; it fulfills his most basic needs of both sexual
pleasure and continual reassurance that he is still worthy of love despite his age. The Sonnets as a
whole show us that Time was Shakespeare's great nemesis and, although the dominant theme in
Sonnet 138 is the comfort that lies bring to an insecure mind, a discourse on the ravages of time is
once again present.