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The Sonnets and Other Poems

Page 26

by William Shakespeare


  933 earth’s worm i.e. creature that feeds on dead bodies

  939 no eyes Death’s face is traditionally represented as a skull with empty eye sockets

  941 mark target

  dart arrow

  942 cleaves splits

  943 he had Adonis would have

  947 golden arrow i.e. that causing love (as opposed to Cupid’s lead arrow, which provoked loathing)

  fled hastened

  948 ebon ebony (wood)/black

  950 heavy sorrowful

  953 mortal vigour deadly strength (an oxymoron, as vigor refers to the strength or attributes of living things)

  954 rigour harshness, pitilessness

  956 vailed lowered in defeat

  who which

  sluices dams, floodgates

  957 crystal tide i.e. flow of tears

  960 course flow, current

  961 lend and borrow reflect one another

  963 crystals mirrors (or possibly “magic crystals”)

  967 Variable changeable, fluctuating

  passions strong emotions/sorrow/means of expressing suffering

  throng crowd around and press upon

  968 become befit, suit

  969 entertained received, given hearing

  labours so makes such efforts (to be supreme)

  972 consulting for conferring about/planning

  973 this this time, now

  hollo huntsman’s call to his hounds

  975 imagination image, train of thought

  981 orient lustrous, shining (used of pearls)

  983 foul dirty

  sluttish grimy/immoral, whorish (as all men tread on it)

  985 hard-believing incredulous, skeptical

  987 weal happiness, well-being

  991 wrought made

  993 called … naught claimed Death was worthless

  995 clepes calls

  996 Imperious supreme imperial ruler

  999 Whenas when

  1000 still severe always rigorous in punishment

  1001 shadow dark presence/ghost

  1002 railed on loudly abused

  1004 wreaked revenged

  1006 act i.e. utter his words

  1010 suspect suspicion

  extenuate seek to excuse

  1012 insinuate ingratiate herself

  1013 trophies memorial monuments erected after wars

  1015 Jove supreme Roman god

  1018 mutual … kind i.e. universal destruction, the end of the world

  1021 fond foolish/infatuated

  1022 hemmed with surrounded by

  1024 with false bethinking misguidedly

  1026 but late only recently

  1027 lure bunch of feathers used by keepers to recall a hawk (i.e. deceptively enticing)

  1029 unfortunately ill-fatedly

  1038 cabins caves, i.e. eye sockets

  1039 office function

  1040 disposing direction, management

  1041 still always

  1043 Who refers to the heart

  perplexèd confused/ afflicted

  1044 suggestion prompting/incitement

  1045 tributary subject one who acknowledges subordination and pays homage

  1046 wind … ground thought to be the cause of earthquakes

  1048 confound throw into confusion, overwhelm

  1049 surprise ambush

  1051 threw unwilling light eyes were thought to emit light, which enabled them to see

  1052 trenched gouged, dug (but, like flank, the word also had the military sense it does now)

  1053 flank fleshy side between ribs and hip

  wonted customary

  1054 purple blood-red

  1056 But stole that did not steal

  1059 passions expresses her grief

  doteth behaves in a deranged manner (with suggestion of “dotes infatuatedly on him”)

  1061 bow bend

  1062 till now before now (for a lesser cause)

  1064 dazzling blurring (with the intensity of her gaze or with tears)

  1065 mangling that mutilates, disfigures

  1067 several separate

  1079 trim pretty

  1081 Bonnet hat

  1082 Nor sun nor neither sun nor

  1083 fair pale complexion/beauty (puns on fear)

  1088 gaudy brilliantly fine

  1091 straight straightaway

  1094 would not fear did not wish to frighten

  1095 To … sung when he entertained himself by singing (the rhyme is stronger with the old spelling and pronunciation “song”)

  1098 silly defenseless

  1099 shadow reflection

  1101 by nearby

  1105 foul, grim ugly

  urchin-snouted with a snout like a hedgehog

  1106 downward directed to the ground (implies literal and moral lowness)

  still constantly

  1107 beauteous livery i.e. Adonis’ physical beauty

  1113 whet sharpen

  again in return

  1114 persuade him there win him over/persuade him to stay

  1115 nuzzling rootling, burrowing with the snout/nestling affectionately

  1119 bless … his give himself to me (possibly “give me a child”)

  1127 coffer-lids lids of either a treasure chest or a coffin

  lids i.e. eyelids

  1129 glasses mirrors

  1131 virtue power

  1132 his its

  1139 Ne’er … low never emotionally balanced, always swinging between elation and misery (or perhaps “never between social equals”)

  1142 blasted withered, as if by frost

  a breathing while the space of a mere breath

  1143 o’erstrawed strewn over, concealed

  1144 sweets delights

  beguile deceive

  1147 sparing frugal, modest

  riot revelry, debauchery, excess

  1148 tread the measures dance

  1149 staring bold-faced

  1151 silly helplessly, weakly

  1153 where is where there is

  1156 just honest, upright

  1157 Perverse self-willed, stubborn

  shows most toward appears most docile, willing to learn

  1158 to into

  1160 sire father

  1161 discontents grievances/malcontents

  1162 combustious combustible, easily kindled

  1163 Sith since

  1168 purple blood-red

  1174 reft stolen

  1175 breach break

  1177 guise manner

  1178 issue offspring

  1180 grow unto himself i.e. not produce offspring/mature, grow up

  1184 next of blood next of kin/literally created from Adonis’ blood

  1185 hollow cradle i.e. the cleft between Venus’ breasts

  1189 hies hastens

  1193 Paphos coastal town in southwest Cyprus; sacred to Venus

  1194 immure shut away

  1 made of truth all fidelity (made may pun on “maid”)

  2 lies quibbles on sense of “has sex (with other men)”

  That so that

  3 That … think i.e. she thinks

  4 false forgeries deceitful stratagems/counterfeits

  5 vainly in vain, pointlessly/foolishly/out of vanity

  7 credit believe

  8 Outfacing defying/putting a brave face on (either way, the implication is of ignoring)

  love’s ill rest a lover’s uneasiness

  9 wherefore why

  11 habit usual behavior/dress, guise

  12 told counted/spoken aloud

  13 lie fib/have sex

  14 smothered kept silent

  1 loves lovers/kinds of love

  2 suggest tempt, incite

  still constantly

  3 fair pale-complexioned/beautiful/virtuous

  4 coloured ill of ugly complexion/of evil disposition (in terms of color, may suggest a dark complexion, considered unattractive, or use of cos
metics)

  8 pride plays on sense of “sexual desire” (often used of female animals)

  12 hell plays on the slang term for “vagina”

  14 fire … out i.e. drive him out/infect him with venereal disease

  1 rhetoric persuasive eloquence

  3 perjury in Love’s Labour’s Lost Longaville has vowed to see no woman for three years, but has fallen in love with Maria

  5 forswore vowed to renounce

  8 grace favor/divine mercy

  11 Exhal’st draw up (and burn away, as the sun burns off mist)

  In … is she, as the sun, has absorbed the vaporous vow

  1 Cytherea or Venus, the Roman goddess of love (from the Greek island of Cythera)

  2 Adonis in classical mythology, the beautiful youth loved by Venus (Shakespeare tells their story in Venus and Adonis)

  green youthful, blooming

  3 lovely amorous/beautiful

  6 favours love tokens/her sexual parts

  8 still always

  9 unripe immature

  want conceit lack understanding

  10 figured proffer implied offer (of sex)

  11 tender young

  13 queen may pun on “quean,” i.e. prostitute

  toward willing, yielding

  14 froward stubborn, contrary

  1 forsworn guilty of breaking an oath (Berowne had sworn to see no woman for three years)

  4 osiers willows

  5 Study the student (i.e. Berowne himself, who has vowed to study for three years)

  his bias leaves leaves his rightful course (of learning); bias is a bowling term for the oblique course followed by a ball

  6 art knowledge

  7 mark target, goal

  10 praise credit

  parts qualities/physical features

  11 Jove supreme Roman god; his weapons were thunder and lightning

  dreadful formidable, frightening

  12 bent directed

  3 Cytherea Venus, goddess of love

  4 tarriance waiting, sojourn

  Adonis the beautiful youth with whom Cytherea was in love

  5 osier willow tree

  6 Adon i.e. Adonis

  spleen hot body/irritability

  7 hotter i.e. with lust

  look For await, expect

  9 Anon soon

  11 glorious splendid/shining

  12 wistly longingly

  13 bounced in threw himself into the water

  whereas where

  14 Jove supreme Roman god

  flood river

  2 dove the bird was proverbially faithful in love

  5 damask the red of the damask rose

  grace adorn

  6 falser more deceitful

  deface spoil, make ugly

  9 coinèd created (with connotations of counterfeiting)

  10 Dreading fearful of

  11 protestings declarations

  15 framed created

  foiled trampled on, destroyed

  16 fell plays on sense of “succumbed sexually”

  a-turning changing/having sex (with other men)

  17 whether which

  18 Bad … neither i.e. she was certainly a bad lover, but wasn’t even a particularly good lecher

  2 needs necessarily

  3 thee this poem appears also in Poems in Diverse Humours (1598), where it is dedicated to “Master R. L.” (thought to be Richard Lynch, a fellow poet)

  5 Dowland John Dowland, lutenist and composer

  7 Spenser Edmund Spenser, poet, author of The Faerie Queen (1596)

  conceit ingenuity/imagination

  10 Phoebus Apollo, Greek and Roman god of music and poetry; often depicted carrying a lyre similar to a lute

  13 both i.e. music and poetry

  feign say in their poetry

  14 One knight seems to be a reference to a particular individual, perhaps a patron; no definitive identification has been made

  1 queen of love i.e. Venus

  2 [ ] indicates a missing line

  4 Adon Adonis, the young man Venus loved; he died hunting when a boar wounded him

  5 stand defensive position

  steep-up steeply inclined

  6 Anon soon

  7 silly foolish/helpless

  will plays on sense of “sexual desire”

  10 brakes bushes (with connotations of “pubic hair”)

  11 ruth pity

  13 more … one i.e. her vagina, as well as the imaginary wound she showed him

  3 orient pearl lustrous, most precious (literally, from the Indian Ocean)

  timely prematurely

  8 For why because

  1 Venus Roman goddess of love, enamored of Adonis

  2 myrtle evergreen shrub or small tree, sacred to Venus

  3 youngling youngster

  Mars Roman god of war

  try her test her resistance

  fell succumbed sexually

  4 fell to assailed, tried to seduce

  6 clipped embraced

  7 unlaced i.e. undressed (literally, unlaced the corset—worn by Elizabethan ladies)

  8 like similar

  9 seizèd on took possession of/fastened on

  11 fetchèd caught (her)

  12 take understand/possess sexually

  pleasure wish/sexual enjoyment

  13 at this bay holding me at bay (like a hunted animal that has been cornered and forced to turn on its pursuers)

  14 clip embrace

  1 Crabbèd bad-tempered

  2 pleasance pleasure, delight

  care troubles, anxiety

  4 brave finely dressed

  5 sport entertainments, activity, fun

  11 hie thee hurry

  12 stays delay

  1 vain conceited, self-regarding/empty, worthless/foolish

  3 ’gins begins

  4 presently immediately

  7 seld seldom

  12 physic medicine

  painting use of cosmetics

  pain effort

  3 daffed me cast me off

  cabin hut, humble dwelling

  hanged with care decorated with sorrow

  4 descant … decay enlarge on fears for my death

  6 Fare go/eat

  8 In … whether whether in scorn or friendship I will not consider

  12 As such as, who

  pluck the pelf take the spoils, seize the riches

  13 throw … east i.e. look for the sunrise

  14 charge the watch commands wakefulness, orders me to be on the lookout

  15 cite summon

  16 office function

  17 Philomela the nightingale

  mark pay attention, take note

  18 lays songs

  21 packed dispatched, sent packing

  post hasten

  24 For why because

  27 moon month

  28 Yet if

  30 Short shorten

  length lengthen

  Sonnets … Music a separate title within The Passionate Pilgrim; may indicate that these poems were intended for singing

  1 lording lord

  2 master tutor

  5 doubtful of uncertain outcome

  7 spite vexation, source of grief

  8 silly foolish/helpless

  9 mickle great

  10 nothing … gain no means could be employed to enjoy both of them

  11 wounded with disdain rejected

  13 art scholarship

  15 lullaby good night

  3 passing surpassingly, exceedingly

  4 wanton playful/lascivious

  5 leaves petals (with labial suggestion)

  7 That so that

  sick to death made ill from longing (death possibly plays on sense of “orgasm”)

  9 Air plays on sense of “musical melody”

  12 pluck … thorn plays on sense of “take your virginity”

  13 unmeet unfitting, unsuitable

  14 sweet i.e. flower

  15 Jov
e supreme Roman god

  16 Juno Jove’s wife

  Ethiope Ethiopian (i.e. dark-complexioned, thought to be unattractive)

  17 deny … Jove deny that he was Jove

  2 speed flourish

  3 defying doubting

  4 Heart’s denying her refusal to love me (is the)

  6 wot knows

  8 without remove irremovably

  9 silly simple/foolish, trivial/deserving of pity

  cross mistake/misfortune

  14 in thrall enslaved

  16 speeding fortune

  fraughted with gall laden with bitterness

  17 no deal not at all

  18 wether castrated ram

  knell i.e. like a funeral bell

  19 curtal with a docked tail

  wont was accustomed

  21 procures manages

  22 wise manner

  23 heartless ground the desolate landscape

  26 dye color

  29 swains rustics

  35 Corydon in Virgil’s second Eclogue, the name of a shepherd abandoned by his lover

  2 stalled brought to a halt/confined

  deer puns on “dear”

  strike may play on sense of “have sex with”

  3 things worthy blame i.e. the blameworthy passions

  4 fancy love/infatuation

  partial might the power of (amorous) inclination

  6 neither … unwed not young and still unmarried (i.e. pick someone experienced)

  8 filèd polished

  9 subtle practice crafty ploy

  10 find a halt spot a limp, i.e. it takes one to know one

  12 set … sale list all her good points (as if you were a salesman)

  14 spend money on gifts/words of love

  15 desert merit, deserving

  16 ringing proclaiming itself/jingling coins

  18 golden bullet eloquence/money

  21 unjust unfaithful

  22 Press strive, be eager

  23 slack remiss (plays on the phallic sense of “flaccid, impotent”)

  24 put thee back refuse you

  26 ere before

  28 dissembled disguised

  30 put away rejected

  32 ban curse

  brawl shout

  39 toys whims, fancies

  40 cock plays on sense of “penis”

  treads has sex with (used of the male bird)

  42 naught plays on sense of “vagina”

  43 Think … saint believe it, women always strive to outdo men in sin rather than virtue

  45 There i.e. in women

  46 attaint spoil, make ugly

  49 soft hush

  51 stick hesitate

  round hit soundly

  54 bewrayed revealed, given away

  2 prove try out

  8 madrigals part-songs for several voices; often they had pastoral associations

  11 kirtle skirt

  12 myrtle evergreen shrub sacred to Venus, hence symbolic of love

  17 LOVE’S ANSWER this is the first stanza of “The Nymph’s Reply,” usually attributed to Sir Walter Ralegh

 

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