10 importune beg
11 Root plant
13 hide withhold (i.e. pity)
14 self-example following your own example
1 careful attentive/anxious
2 feathered creatures i.e. hens (may imply that the men the poet’s mistress chases after are fops in plumed hats)
broke away that has escaped
3 dispatch haste
5 holds … chase chases her
8 Not prizing thinking nothing of
12 kind loving/sexually benevolent
13 Will man called Will/desire
14 still calm
1 loves lovers/kinds of love
2 suggest tempt, incite
still constantly
3 fair beautiful/ pale-complexioned/virtuous
4 coloured ill of ugly complexion/of evil disposition (in terms of color, suggests dark looks—considered unattractive—or use of cosmetics)
8 foul pride ugly vanity; pride plays on the sense of “sexual desire” (often used of female animals)
9 fiend i.e. an inhabitant of the vaginal hell
11 from me away from me
friend friend/lover
12 hell a slang term for the vagina
14 fire … out drive him out/infect him with venereal disease
5 Straight straightaway
7 gentle doom a kind judgment, lenient sentence
13 hate away … And it has been suggested that these words pun on “Hathaway” and “Anne” (the surname and first name of Shakespeare’s wife)
[ ] two syllables are missing here because “My sinful earth” was inadvertently repeated by the printer; many suggestions have been made about them (e.g. “Feeding,” “Fooled by,” “Spoiled by,” “Thrall to,” “Worn by”) but all are necessarily conjectural
2 rebel powers i.e. rebellious flesh, the body
array clothe/place in readiness for battle
3 pine starve
dearth famine
4 gay fine, bright
6 mansion i.e. body
8 charge expense
9 thy servant i.e. your body (subservient to the soul)
10 aggravate pile up, increase
11 terms divine eternal life/favorable terms from God
hours of dross time devoted to worthless material pleasures
12 without on the outside, in terms of appearance
13 feed on death i.e. be nourished spiritually
1 still continually
2 nurseth sustains, nurtures
3 ill sickness
4 Th’uncertain the unreliable, changeable
appetite includes sexual appetite
7 approve am proof of/discover by experience
8 Desire is death sexual desire is fatal (perhaps with connotations of orgasmic “death”)
which … except which desire medicine forbade
9 past care i.e. past caring
10 evermore continual
12 At … truth wandering haphazardly from the truth
vainly pointlessly, ineffectually
13 fair beautiful/fair-complexioned/virtuous
14 black ugly/dark-complexioned/sinful
1 love perhaps recalls the fact that Cupid, the Roman god of love, was conventionally depicted as blind
4 censures falsely judges wrongly (not necessarily in a negative manner)
8 Love’s eye again recalls Cupid and puns on “ay” (“yes”)
10 vexed troubled
watching remaining awake
11 though if
mistake my view misunderstand what I see
14 foul faults ugly defects, loathsome sins (perhaps also suggests “diseased vagina”)
2 partake take sides
3 forgot Am of am forgotten by
4 tyrant cruel (to myself)
7 lour’st scowl, frown
spend may play on the sense of “ejaculate”
8 present moan immediate lamenting (with possible connotations of erotic groaning)
9 respect value, esteem
10 so … despise too proud to serve you
11 all … defect all that is best in me adores your imperfection
14 Those … lov’st you love those who can see
2 insufficiency imperfection
sway rule
3 give … to call a liar
4 brightness … day i.e. because the poet’s mistress is dark, light ceases to be an attractive quality
5 becoming … ill power to make vile things attractive
6 refuse … deeds worst of your actions/worthless rubbish that your deeds consist of
7 warrantize evidence, proof
11 abhor hate; puns on the sense of “make a whore of”
1 Love … young Cupid, the Roman god of love, was always depicted as a child
2 conscience moral sense; puns on “con-science,” i.e. “cunt knowledge”
3 urge … amiss do not accuse me of (or lead me into) wrongdoing
5 betraying me revealing my sins/leading me treacherously into sin
6 nobler part i.e. the soul
to … treason to be treacherously overcome by my gross body
gross coarse/earthly (not spiritual)
8 flesh … reason the penis doesn’t wait for more justification
9 rising becoming erect
10 triumphant prize spoils of victory
pride state of sexual arousal, erection
11 drudge (sex) slave
12 stand … fall fight and die by your side like a loyal soldier/grow erect in your vagina and then flaccid after sex
13 want lack
hold consider
1 forsworn perjured, an oath-breaker
2 to … swearing in swearing love to me
3 act the sexual act
bed-vow marriage vow
4 new … bearing i.e. you tear up a new contract of love (to me) by saying that you hate me (or “ … by saying that you hate me now that you have yet another lover”—if this is the sense then bearing suggests bearing the weight of the new lover’s body during sex)
7 misuse mistreat/slander/deceive/exploit sexually
9 of … kindness about your profound generosity (also suggests an accommodating vagina)
11 enlighten illuminate, make fairer
13 eye puns on “I”
14 foul loathsome/sinful/dirty, dark
1 Cupid Roman god of love, often depicted carrying a brand or flaming torch with which to inflame passion
2 Dian i.e. Diana, Roman goddess of chastity
3 steep dip
4 of that ground nearby
6 dateless eternal
still to endure lasting forever
7 grew became
prove find
8 strange unfamiliar/foreign (perhaps syphilis, variously thought to have come from Italy, France, or the New World; steam baths were a form of treatment)
sovereign excellent/healing
9 new-fired rekindled
10 boy i.e. Cupid
for trial to test (it)
needs would had to
touch my breast i.e. inflame my heart
11 withal with it
help of bath steam baths used in treating syphilis
12 hied hurried
distempered diseased
1 little Love-god i.e. Cupid; this sonnet tells the same tale as Sonnet 153
2 heart-inflaming brand flaming torch used to kindle love
5 votary devotee
7 general i.e. Cupid, commander of hot desire
12 men diseased i.e. with syphilis, for which steam baths were a treatment
thrall slave
FINIS the end
10 this i.e. this sonnet/Time’s pencil
2 edge edge of a blade/sharpness of (sexual) appetite
7 full star bright star, i.e. the planet Venus (known as Hesperus, the Evening Star)
my name still playing on Will/sexual desire
272 pangs may suggest the pains of childbirth (an image that would
then be reinforced with a quibble on bears)
1 concave womb i.e. hollow or cave
reworded echoed
2 plaintful grievous, lamenting
sist’ring neighboring, sister
vale dale, valley/place of trouble or sorrow
3 t’attend to listen to
accorded inclined
4 list listen to
5 Ere before
fickle fitful, agitated/capricious, changeable
full extremely
6 papers i.e. love letters
atwain in two
8 plaited … straw woven straw hat (shaped like a beehive)
10 thought imagination
11 carcass corpse, ruin
spent and done consumed and exhausted
13 all quit completely gone
fell fierce, cruel
14 lattice suggesting a crisscross of lines on the face
seared dried up
15 heave lift
napkin handkerchief
eyne eyes
16 conceited characters ingeniously embroidered images
17 Laund’ring washing
silken figures i.e. the embroidery of silk
brine salt water
18 seasoned matured with time/salted
pelleted formed into small rounded drops
20 undistinguished indistinguishable, inarticulate
21 size volume, magnitude
22 levelled aimed (like a cannon)
carriage wheeled support for a cannon
23 As as if
batt’ry bombardment
spheres i.e. heavens; planets and stars were thought to be contained within concentric hollow spheres
24 balls eyeballs/cannonballs
25 th’orbèd the round
26 right on straight ahead
anon immediately
lend … once go everywhere
28 commixed mingled, confused
29 nor loose nor neither loose nor
31 sheaved straw
32 pinèd wasted
33 threaden fillet ribbon binding her hair
bide remain
36 favours love tokens
maund wicker basket
39 margent margin, edge
set seated
40 usury receiving interest on a loan (i.e. her tears add to the water already in the river)
41 monarch’s … all like a monarch who refuses charity to the needy but amply rewards the wealthy
43 schedules notes, letters
44 flood river
45 ring … bone rings of gold and ivory engraved with love mottoes
46 sepulchres graves
48 sleided separated into strands
feat elegantly
affectedly lovingly
49 Enswathed wrapped up
curious careful
50 fluxive flowing
51 gave to tear went to tear up
53 unapprovèd false
54 Ink … here! i.e. black ink would have been more appropriate as a color for the damnably false sentiments in the letter
55 in top of at the height of
rents tears
56 Big … contents her great rage destroying their contents
57 reverend respectable, aged
nigh nearby
58 Sometime formerly
blusterer swaggerer
ruffle bustle
59 let … flew had let his youth fly by, but had learned lessons from it
61 afflicted fancy distressed imagination, i.e. the woman
fastly closely/rapidly
62 desires asks
64 slides … bat he lowers himself with the help of his worn staff
65 comely-distant at a seemly distance
67 divide share
68 aught anything
69 ecstasy frenzy
71 Father respectful form of address for an old man
72 blasting withering
75 spreading unfolding
78 attended listened to
79 suit request/courtship
grace favor
80 outwards externals, physical appearance
81 stuck over all were glued to
82 Love the goddess of love, Venus
85 crooked twisted (plays on the sense of “deceptive”)
86 light occasion slight opportunity
87 their … hurls tosses individual curls
88 to … find will readily find a doer
90 little miniature
91 sawn seen
93 phoenix down incomparably soft hair
94 unshorn uncut
termless indescribable/youthful
95 bare … wear bare skin was even more beautiful than the downy covering
96 cost adornment/expense
dear delightful/expensive
97 nice affections discriminating tastes
100 maiden-tongued softly spoken/modest in speech
free innocent/eloquent
101 moved provoked
105 livery dress up
pride show
104 His … truth his roughness, licensed by his youth, dressed up his false nature in a fine show of truth
107 mettle temperament, spirit
108 sway rider’s control
109 rounds turns (like the other actions described, part of a series of training exercises)
bounds leaps
course a gallop
stop sudden check in the midst of a gallop
110 controversy debate, discussion
111 Whether … deed whether the horse performed so handsomely on account of his rider, or vice versa
112 he the rider
manage training and handling of the horse
114 real habitude regal disposition
115 appertainings external embellishments
116 case external circumstances/clothing
117 aids accessories, trappings
118 Came for additions functioned as ornaments
purposed trim intended adornment
119 Pieced not did not add to
120 subduing controlling
122 replication reply
123 still … sleep were always at his disposal
125 dialect way of speaking
different versatile, adaptable
126 Catching … will capturing all human emotions with skillful ease/ensnaring everyone’s passions according to the cunning of his own (sexual) desires
127 That so that
130 haunted frequented
131 Consents … obey everyone so enchanted by him that they agreed to his wishes before he voiced them, having already imagined what he would say and made up their minds to obey (with suggestion of sexual compliance)
135 in … mind invest it with their imaginations, become obsessed with it
137 objects sights
abroad out and about
138 theirs … assigned imagining that they own them
assigned legally transferred
139 labouring … them taking more pleasure in the task of giving them away than their real gout-ridden owner
142 them themselves to be
144 my own fee-simple in absolute possession of myself (fee-simple is a legal term for the unconditional ownership of property)
part part ownership
146 charmèd bewitching
147 flower bloom, beauty/virginity
149 Demand … yielded make demands upon him or immediately agree to sex as soon as he wanted it
152 bulwarks defenses, fortifications
153 proofs new-bleeding recent evidence of his actions, i.e. bleeding hearts
foil setting
154 spoil plunder, that which is (sexually) spoiled
155 precedent what has gone before
156 assay attempt, try by experience
157 forced … way to hinder her own inclination, urged examples of the dangers others have faced in the past
159 stop awhile delay
stay be prevented
&nb
sp; 160 rage are in a state of high emotion (including sexual desire)
161 wits active mind (may play on the sense of “genitals”)
keen sharp, eager
162 blood sexual desire
163 proof evidence, experience
164 forbod forbidden
sweets sexual pleasures
165 in our behoof on our behalf, for our benefit
170 knew I knew
beguiling deceit
171 plants i.e. illegitimate children
orchards i.e. wombs/families (the mother having been already married)
173 brokers agents, pimps
defiling sexual defilement, corrupting chastity
174 characters and words the written and spoken word (i.e. declarations of love)
art artifice, craft
175 adulterate adulterous
180 That’s that which is
183 abroad out in the world
185 With … kind such actions may be so where neither party is faithful or in love
187 They … find i.e. they brought their ruin upon themselves
188 And … contains i.e. and the more they reproach me the less I am to blame
192 teen suffering, sorrow
193 leisures periods of leisure
195 liveries servants’ uniforms
197 wounded fancies afflicted loves, i.e. abandoned lovers
198 pallid pale
199 Figuring symbolizing
202 Effects manifestations
204 talents tokens/treasures
205 twisted intricately wrought
impleached entwined
206 several fair different beautiful woman
207 Their kind acceptance my gracious acceptance of such tokens
208 th’annexions the additions
209 deep-brained profound, ingeniously devised
210 dear loving/expensive
212 invised invisible
213 in … regard in contemplating the freshness of which
215 heaven-hued sky blue
blend dazzle/combine/blended (applies to opal, a gem that contains many colors)
216 objects manifold many other sights/along with many other gems
several separate
217 blazoned described (in the sonnets)
smiled … moan i.e. symbolized joy or grief
218 hot ardent/lustful
219 pensived saddened
tender offering
223 force necessity
oblations offerings (often religious)
224 I … me I am the altar on which they were offered and you are my patron saint
225 phraseless indescribable
227 similes poetic comparisons/the symbolic gems
228 Hallowed consecrated, made holy
raise breathe out
229 What … obeys whatever obeys me, your servant or priest, also obeys you
230 audit accounting
231 distract parcels separate parts
232 Lo look
device love token
The Sonnets and Other Poems Page 36