If the dull substance of my flesh were thoughtĬontinuing the theme of absence, the poet wishes his body could move with the same agility as his thoughts. Why don’t you just take away all the love I have? I forgive you, but love’s deception is worse than straightforward hatred. 'Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all' You have let me suffer and your trying to rescue the situation, and being repentant, does not help. Why did you betray me? Give me the come on then reject me. 'Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day' When I call to mind the past, I grieve but when I think of you, my sense of loss and my grief end. In solitude, the poet takes stock of his failures. 'When to the sessions of sweet silent thought' When I am feeling out of favour with the world, I happen to think of you, and am so transported to heaven that my happiness is greater than kings’. 'When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes' I cannot sleep, even though I go to bed exhausted, because my mind sees you in the darkness. Sometimes I lose the ability to express my love, but realise it is there – in the silence of what I have already written. I can love you, but your love-making is really for women. You look like both a man and a woman, and everyone is attracted to you. Nevertheless, you must stay constant to me! You are more beautiful than a woman, and have more allure, but nature fell in love with you and gave you the equipment to give pleasure to women. ‘ A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted’įamously puzzling sonnet - the language is slippery and self subverting. This is one of the best chat up line poems I know. My poetry turns you into an eternal summer in which you will be forever beautiful. You don’t need children to testify to your beauty, because that will live for ever in this poem. My poetry alone cannot convey your many wonders, and might be mistrusted, so have a child as well. The last of the poems encouraging procreation - perhaps for the 17th birthday of William Herbert. 'Who will believe my verse in time to come' Everything dies, so the only way to survive is to have children.Įvidence that everything eventually perishes prompts the poet to consider that his friend is subject to the same process. 'When do I count the clock that tells the time' More usual as an argument made by a man to a woman, as part of his seduction. When you become old, you should be able to show that you have a successor to your beauty – but only if you beget a child. 'When forty winters shall besiege thy brow' Possibly the Dark Lady is an amalgam of many different women.ĭescriptions of a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets from our Artistic Director Gregory Doran drawing on Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells' new book All the Sonnets of Shakespeare (published September 2020). The wife of John Florio, a linguist and translator of Montaigne, who may have been satirised as the pedantic Holofernes In Love’s Labour’s Lost.Black Luce, a brothel owner in Clerkenwell.Emilia was also a member of the Venetian Bassano family, who were musicians at court. Emilia Lanier - mistress of Lord Hunsdon, (Henry Carey) the Lord Chamberlain, and thus Shakespeare’s boss, as patron of his company.Mary Fitton - maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, and the mistress of William Herbert.No one knows the identity of the 'Dark Lady' but possible candidates include: Far from idealising a perfect woman, they feature a female lover accused of making the poet sexually obsessed, furiously jealous, of cheating on him, stealing away his boy friend, and giving him a dose of the clap.
SONNET RULES SERIES
Towards the end of the series there are 28 sonnets addressed to a woman. He has the correct initials, just reversed - perhaps to conceal his identity.
![sonnet rules sonnet rules](http://ullyot.ucalgaryblogs.ca/files/2019/01/Donne-1-410x308.jpg)
There are several candidates for this Fair Youth. The first 17 sonnets for example seem to be addressed to a fair youth, an aristocratic young man, imploring him to get married, and have children. They may be addressed to a series of different people.
![sonnet rules sonnet rules](https://i.redd.it/vbm2nudlj2n51.jpg)
WHO Did SHAKESPEARE ADDRESS WITH HIS SONNETS?