The Sonnets – Sonnets 127-154 “In the old age black was not counted fair...”

The Sonnets – Sonnets 127-154 “In the old age black was not counted fair...”

Sonnet 127

“In the old age black was not counted fair,


Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name;


But now is black beauty's successive heir,


And beauty slandered with a bastard shame:


For since each hand hath put on Nature's power, 


Fairing the foul with Art's false borrowed face,


Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower,


But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace.


Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black,


Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem


At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,


Sland'ring creation with a false esteem:


Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,


That every tongue says beauty should look so.

In Sonnet 127, we are introduced to the Dark Lady. The tone of many of the sonnets changes from the light reflective love poems to an exploration of the nature of passion. The poet starts revealing that his new‘beauty’ is fair and she is black. He then derides the ‘borrowed face’ of those women who paint their faces. Women who wore makeup is consistently criticized by Shakespeare. The central idea of this sonnet seems to be that because his mistress is black and black is the beautiful colour of mourning and mourning has become fashionable then dark beauties like his mistress are now the most beautiful and “…every tongue says beauty should look so.”

Here is Sonnet 127 Read by Dan Hakimi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFo0arFna-4

There are parallels in Sonnet 128 to Romeo's sonnet in 'Romeo and Juliet' where, at a ball, he pleads for a first kiss from Juliet. This poem takes place in public at a musical celebration. The lady seems to be playing an instrument and poet longs to kiss her and he envies the keys that she is playing on her instrument. Here is a musical version of Sonnet 128, performed in 2012 on the Andrew Marr television show for the BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDd8FGCSfIU

Sonnet 129

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,

Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight,

Past reason hunted, and no sooner had

Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad;

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

This is an amazingly complex sonnet which, because it appears straight after the appearance of the Dark Mistress, we assume to be about the Poet’s relationship with the dark mistress. Dealing with sexual desire, this poem begins with the speaker contending that: “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action...” yet lust is describe as existing before the act of sex as shown in “till action”. The first quatrain slanders lust further as“…perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame / Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust.”

The second quatrain is more reflective stating that no sooner is lust “enjoyed” than it is “despised.” The desire of lust is framed as being “past reason hunted”; but the act of lustful sex is then considered ‘past reason hated” as it is compared to a poisoned bait in the simile “as swallowed bait”. The third quatrain moves onto contending that lust is mad in all of its three forms or stages: its pursuit, its possession or consummation and in its memory. The poet states that although the act of lust is “a bliss in proof”, lust being had or “proved” then becomes for the lustful “a very woe”. In memory, lustful once acted upon becomes merely “a dream”. In he final rhyming couplet, the speaker/poet states that while what he has spoken about is well known, people will still give into lust and no-one knows all this well enough “To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.”

Here is Maureen Beattie reading Sonnet 129:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nvz-p4cm_g

Sonnet 130

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

It is possible that most of the sonnets of Shakespeare are not autobiographical but primarily poetic explorations of the sonnet form or Shakspeare playing with the Petrachian sonnet form. Sonnet 130 plays so much with the notions and conventions of love poetry that in fact this sonnet can be seen as an argument for the fact that perhaps all of Shakespeare’s sonnets are mocking the sonnet form and playing notions of love poetry in general.

The structure and rhetoric of Sonnet 130 is crucial to its mockery of love poetry with the first quatrain seeing the poet comparing his mistress with one line comparisons of his mistress to the sun, coral, snow and wires but undermining all these comparisons. This picks up pace in the third and fourth quatrains where comparisons continue to use conditionals but take two lines pairings expanding the irony of the comparison of the mistress’ features. The poet conditionally compares his mistress’ cheeks to roses but states that  but starting that she has no roses in her cheeks, his mistress’ breath is unlike perfume because it reeks, her voice is not musical or pleasing in its tone, and his mistress does not walk like a s but definitely “treads on the ground”. This unflattering portrait builds in argument until the rhyming couplet which neatly renders the rest of the sonnet void when the poet states that he thinks his love “…as rare as any she belied with false compare.”

Here is Sonnet 130 read by Alan Rickman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Ja0Paz04s

Sonnet 131 "Thou art as tyrannous..." continues to state that the poet’s mistress does not have the traditional attributes we associate with beauty but that she has other virtues and suggests that there is nothing dark or non-virtuous about his mistress except her deeds. Then Sonnet 132 takes up again the parallels between black and mourning and beauty. The sonnet ends with a lover’s pledge that if the mistress takes pity upon the poet, that he will “…swear beauty itself black...". Here is Sonnet 131 read with a backing of the H. Villa-Lobos' guitar piece Study No.1 for Classical Guitar. The narrated reading is done by Harry Verey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzDULD0w1Z8

Sonnet 132 takes up again the parallels between black and mourning and beauty. The sonnet ends with a lover’s pledge that if the mistress takes pity upon the poet, that he will “…swear beauty itself black...". here is Dominic West reading Sonnet 132. https://vimeo.com/44736432

Sonnet 133 addresses both the poet's relationship with his young male friend and with his mistress. The sonnet suggests that the poet's heart belongs to his friend but everything he is and has belongs to the dark lady. Here is Sonnet 133 read by GDanae. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo1W6iTd4B0

Sonnet 134 is a continuation of Sonnet 133 and muses on the situation that the poet and his friend themselves in when entangled in a relationship with the Dark Lady. Here is a video as part of the NYC Shakespeare Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGvGPo8CZ3w

In Sonnet 135, the poet makes appeals to the dark mistress after having rejected her. The poem is one of two counted as 'Will' sonnets since the word "will" is mentioned and played with. The poet pledges himself to the dark mistress and asks her through the graciousness of her will to accept him back. He compares her to an ocean and accepts that he cannot be her exclusive lover. The last line, while ambiguous, is a plea to have the Dark Lady "Let no unkind kill no fair beseechers." Here is Simon Russell Beale reading Sonnet 135: https://vimeo.com/4473643

Sonnet 136 is another "Will" poem and between Sonnet 135 and 136, the word "will" is used in three ways. First as a name. refering mostly to the poet himself but it can also be seen to allude to another Will (possibly William Lanier whose wife Emilia lanier might be the Dark Lady). Secondly, "will" is meant to be ones's wishes. The third meaning is "will" as sexual desire. Here is actor Kenny Scott with the Shotgun Players reading Sonnet 136: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYf-GbJHiaI

Sonnet 137 looks at the nature of love and how sight as a sense both enriches love and distorts it. Here is it read by Sir John Gielgud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSdJcXpQB1E

 

Sonnet 138 is both a reflection and psychological examination of the poet's  mistress. It is a bit misogynistic and the poet muses on the lying nature of his mistress. The word 'lie' is used with multiple meanings that give irony. The poet does coceed that he also is deceptive. It is a beautiful sonnet. David Shaw Parker reads it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MmyVMFHk88

Sonnet 139 has the poet blaming his lover for infidelities and the beauty that initially drew him into love. Here is a video with Bu Kunene reading Sonnet 139: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbCjLiTUC9E

Sonnet 140 has the poet threaten to reveal the lover as not chaste or fair. There is an element of revenge in the poem yet the poem succeeds in capturing the emotions and experience of love where real pain and despair exist in heightened emotional states. Here it is done in Shakespeare by the Lakes collection as performed by Lexi Sukuless. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1744759425828421

Sonnet 141 shows that the poet's relationship with the dark lady is more about infatuation and sensual desire than deep understanding. Here is a video of Sonnet 141 performed as a song in jazz style by Zhang Lee and Burnett Thompson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognO0KMbgco

In Sonnet 142, we see the poet accept the dark lady's rejection of his love for her because it is sinful and unworthy. The poet however believes that he deserves her pity since she also has been lustful and sinful in her love for others. Here is a video of Sonnet 142 performed by Rory Grant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uhv5OHPIrY

What a strange sonnet Sonnet 143 is. The poet uses a simile of a housewife chasing chickens and leaving her baby to address the errant ways of his mistress. The poet compares himself to the neglected baby. This is a 'Will' poem since the poet uses his own name when he urges the mistress: 

"But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,

And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind;
   So will I pray that thou mayst have thy 'Will,'
   If thou turn back and my loud crying still."

Here is a video of Sonnet 143 done by Bruce Alexander. https://vimeo.com/44738730

Sonnet 144 is unusual since it is the only sonnet where the poet refers to both the Dark Lady and the young man - the poet's "two loves". The poem is written with an air of detachment. Here is a video with Niamh McGrady reading Sonnet 144:  https://vimeo.com/44738731

Sonnet 145 is a sequel to Sonnet 144. It trivialises love ans sees the Dark Lady pitying the poet and the poet :languishes for her sake" as her hatred turns to mercy. Here the sonnet is done once again as part of The Sonnet Project NYC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwLrpmf7-z

Sonnet 146

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,

these rebel powers that thee array;

Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,

Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,

Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end?

Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,

And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

Within be fed, without be rich no more:

So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,

And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.

One of the most interesting of the later sonnets is Sonnet 146. The poet does not address the poem to the Fair Youth nor to the Dark Lady but to his own soul and starts by the poet asking his “Poor soul” why it puts up with his body or “sinful earth” and why his soul tolerates the vanity of his body. He asks why at such a large cost to the soul, the soul allows the body “spend” and “cost” the soul. The poet asks “Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge?” The third quatrain sees the poet asks the soul (and himself) to:

“Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

Within be fed, without be rich no more…”

The final rhyming couplet sees the poet tell his soul that once it has feed on death, it will live eternally.

“So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,

And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.”

Here is a video of Sonnet 146 done in the New Shakespeare Songbook done as pop music videoclip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2mH9ycO6K8

Sonnet 147 

Sonnet 147 explores the Poet's internal battle between his heart and head. He sees his love for his mistress as a fever. He ultimately blames his mistress for his internal battle at the end of the poem. Here John Hurt reads Sonnet 147. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOsNQ--0xV8

Sonnet 148 continues on from Sonnet 147 and the poet admits that his his eyes deceive him, his judgement is blind and reason has left him. The poem ends with the poet claiming that tears have prevented him from seeing either the "foul faults" of love or of the one he loves. Here is an interesting interpretation of the sonnet done with the character of Titania from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL7uCKidpjM

Sonnet 149 is another Dark Lady sonnet yet what is slightly unusual about this sonnet is that the poet echoes the sentiment in his earlier sonnets where he contrasts pure love with the tainted love he has found with his mistress. The poem ends with his framing his love in terms of blindness and thus accepting his mistress' rejection of him. Nonso Anozie reads it here: https://vimeo.com/44739705

In Sonnet 150, the poet adopts a more rational tone and attempts to figure out why he can't break himself from the grasp of the Dark Lady. He thinks about the power she has over him and asks himself what flaws in his own disposition make him susceptible. In the end he realises that the sexual freedom and promiscuity of the lady is what he loves the most. Here is a video with Henry Woudhuysen reading the sonnet. https://vimeo.com/44740073

Sonnet 151 sees the poet give into lust even though the poet believes that this is degrading. Sexual suggestiveness is evident in this sonnet. Here The Sonnet Project NYC shows the sonnet performed at Coney Island. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ7HjFC8zS8&feature=emb_logo

Sonnet 152 shows the end of the relationship between the poet and the dark lady. The is filled with self-pity and claims his mistress has forsaken her oaths of love. Of particular interest is the use of the imagery and double meaning of the word 'I'.  Here The Sonnet Project NYC shows the sonnet in The Bronx.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=LiWy6N3tlI4&feature=emb_logo

Sonnet 153 is paired with Sonnet 154 Shakespeare’s final sonnet . Both are based on the 5^th century poetry of the Greek poetry of Marcianus Scholasticus. It shows Cupid, the bringer of love being caught napping by a nymph and she attempts to drown his fire of love in a fountain. The poet tries to cure his own love sickness but discovers that the only cure is in his mistress' eye. Here is The Sonnet Project NYC version of it filmed at the WTC site. https://vimeo.com/296029892

Sonnet 154 is the final sonnet. The sonnet uses the image of the sleeping Cupid and tells the story of the sleeping Cupid who puts down his love torch and one of Diana’s nymphs who had taken a vow of chastity picks up the love torch and comes under the power of the torch and tries to put out the love torch in a cool pring but the heat of the love torch makes the spring itself turn into a hot bath. This then becomes a healing bath to diseased men. The poet then says that when he visited the water to be cured of the love of his mistress, he found that, “Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.”

The little Love-god lying once asleep,


Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,


Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep


Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand


The fairest votary took up that fire


Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;


And so the General of hot desire


Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.


This brand she quenched in a cool well by,


Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,


Growing a bath and healthful remedy,


For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall,
   

Came there for cure and this by that I prove, 
   

Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

Fiona Shaw reads it here: https://vimeo.com/44740083

The Sonnets – Sonnets 104-126 “To me, fair friend, you never can be old...”

The Sonnets – Sonnets 104-126 “To me, fair friend, you never can be old...”

Sonnet 104

“To me, fair friend, you never can be old,

For as you were when first your eye I eyed,

Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold

Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;

Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned

In process of the seasons have I seen;

Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,

Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.

Ah yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived.

For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:

Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.”

In Sonnet 104, the poet addresses his “beautiful friend” claiming that his friend’s beauty has not changed for him since he first met him three years before. But in the final lines of the sonnet, the poet forewarns his friend that, beauty, like the “dial hand” of a clock, easily creeps forward and that the poet may “be deceived” but that future generations should know that before they were born, the most bright beauty (the Fair Youth) was already dead. Here is Sonnet 104 read by David Shaw-Parker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebVI-vHCado

The poet seems, in Sonnet 105, to be defending himself against an accusation of his love being merely idol worship and claims his love is holy – a trinity of beauty, goodness and truth. Here is Sonnet 105 performed by Sebastian Arcelus in isolation in March 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ9ALGsy4ak

This moves on in Sonnet 106 to the poet realizing that the same sought of beauty he sees and describes in the Fair Youth is like the beauty described by “antique” pens. Here is Sonnet 106 recited by a brother and sister. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLi4fBSuoCI

Sonnet 107 suggests that the Poet’s love was in either a real or a metaphoric prison. Here is Diana Quick performing Sonnet 107. https://vimeo.com/44731375

In Sonnet 108, the Poet asks what else there is for him to write about, “What’s in the brain, that ink may character…?” and eventually decides to write about the original source of his love for the Fair Youth that he still sees in his love. 108 should sometimes seen to be aligned with Sonnet 126 and be group with the 'marriage sonnets' (Sonnets 1-17). Read in sequence but also read after Sonnet 17 and then read with Sonnet 126 and you will see what I mean. Here is a video a jazz version of Sonnet 108 sung and put to music by Caroll Vanwelden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lw4F37Tp78

Sonnet 109 sees the Poet mentioning being false to his friend and probably sleeping with another. He ends with telling his friend that despite this, his love means everything to him. Here Sonnet 109 is performed by Michael Gaston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5Ahz7uGdE

In Sonnet 110, the poet regrets that he has demeaned himself and looked elsewhere for affection and treated true love with such disdain but in the end of the sonnet asks to be welcomed back by his true love. Here Michael Pennington recites Sonnet 110. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMHLPlwVc7M

Sonnets 111 and 112, see the poet asking for forgiveness from his friend for the way that he conducts himself and his trade in public and says that receiving the pity of his love is enough to cure him and make him neglect what others and the rest of the world thinks. Sonnet 111 is performed here by Leah Balmforth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFQgmGz1tw

Sonnet 112 is performed here in French. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4EZTIWvCGw

In Sonnet 113, the Poet states that since he left his love, he has become self-absorbed and distracted such that he sees his lover's form in everything. Here is a reading and animation by Rocknthasuburbs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLbJIgzXRk

Here Sonnet 114 continues this reflection and wonders whether he, flattered by his love, has been seeing things for what they really are. Ruth Neggar reads Sonnet 114 here: https://vimeo.com/44793683

Then in Sonnet 115, the Poet realizes that his love for his fair friend is still growing. Let's go back to John Gielgud reading Sonnet 115 since he does it so well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyNrwSUmSPY

Sonnet 116 is a magnificent sonnet that is often considered the one of the most beautiful love poems. It portrays love as immovable, unshakable and unalterable:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds


Admit impediments. Love is not love


Which alters when it alteration finds,


Or bends with the remover to remove:


O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,


That looks on tempests and is never shaken;


It is the star to every wandering bark,


Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.


Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks


Within his bending sickle's compass come;


Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,


But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
     

 If this be error and upon me proved,
     

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Here is a BBC version of Sonnet 116. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNGdrPPeIDM

Sonnet 117 questions the nature and constancy of love. Here Pop Hadyn reads Sonnet 117. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6UGaj59hGs

Sonnet 118 looks at love as a sickness. Here is Sonnet 118 done as part of the NY Sonnet Project. This version is filmed in Bartow-Pell Mansion Gardens, The Bronx and is directed by Zhenjie Dong and it performed by Josh Jeffers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=HeoYJZQdOqI&feature=emb_title

Here Janet Suzman reads Sonnet 118. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ywKUhTHEY

This imagery continues in Sonnet 119 but claims that “ruined love” when it is rebuilt is even stronger than love that has never been questioned. Here is Sonnet 119 read by Don Paterson. https://vimeo.com/44793689

In Sonnet 120, the Poet seems to blame the Fair Youth for his indiscretions and ends with expressing the viewpoint that one lovers indiscretions cancel out the infidelities of the other lover. Here is a Sonnet Project NY Shakespeare version filmed at the Tortoise and Hare Bench in The Bronx. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=165&v=vR_IGHanP6E&feature=emb_logo

Sonnet 121 looks at not judging people by their actions no matter how vile they be. Here is a video from the 'This Week in Shakespeare' series of Sonnet 121. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_AZNUdDdY

In Sonnet 122, the Poet says that he would rather trust his memories of his love. Kate Fleetwood does a reading here of Sonnet 122. https://vimeo.com/44734505

In Sonnet 123, the Poet blames Time for much but the Poet still claims that he will remain true despite time. Here is Sonnet 123 read by Dana Andreea Nigrim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyrOO_oCXr4

In Sonnet 124 the Poet contemplates that even if circumstances have what have made him love the youth, that his love has and will grow. Here is Sonnet 124 done as video with The Sonnet Project NYC on Ellis Island NY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z94zENCB0bo&feature=emb_logo

Sonnet 125 extends the reflection on the relationship explored in Sonnet 124 and other poems. The poet claims that he is faithful to his friend. Here is Sonnet 125 done as video with The Sonnet Project NYC filmed on Pomander Walk in Manhattan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9EN__jZlnE&feature=emb_logo

Sonnet 126 sees the Poet contemplating again about the youth growing older and how the youth seems to grow more beautiful with age and that Time seems to hold the youth back decay. But ends with the sense that even Time will ask her debts to be repayed.

O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power


Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;


Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st


Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;


If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,


As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,


She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill


May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.


Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!


She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
   

Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
   

And her quietus is to render thee.

Here is David Tennant reading Sonnet 126: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YAZy1Y8Hxw

The Sonnets – Sonnets 87-103 “In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.”

The Sonnets – Sonnets 87-103 “In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.”

Sonnet 87

“Farewell, thou art too dear for my possessing,

And like enough thou know’st my estimate.

The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;

My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting,

And for that riches where is my deserving?

The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,

And so my patent back again is swerving.

Thyself, thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing,

Or me, to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking;

So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,

Comes home again, on better judgement making.

Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter:

In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.”

Here we see what seems to be the poet accepting that the Fair Youth has rejected him perhaps in favour of the Rival Poet. The finality of the first word of the poem “Farewell”, is striking and perhaps ironic. The framing of the end of the relationship in vaguely legal and financial terms give a sense of the contract between the poet and the Fair Youth to whom he had addressed nearly all of the previous sonnets. Interestingly, the poet does not find shortcomings or deficiencies in the Fair Youth (who is both the subject and the receiver of the sonnets) but sees that rejection lies in his deficiencies in his “gift” as a poet. Yet, this self-deprecation seems to almost flip the blame since we see the poet as “gifted” in verse, we assume that the Fair Youth does not appreciate the “gift” and sentiment of the poet and has misjudged or underestimated the poet’s “gift”. We see that the poet is betrayed and thus irony lurks beneath the final rhyming couplet:  

“Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter:

In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.”

Here is a great video from the website OurDailySonnet:

https://shakespeare-navigators.com/sonnets/Shakespeare_Sonnet_87.html

Sonnet 88 is like an afterthought or a P.S. if this was a letter. This sonnet looks toward the future and the poet says that even when the Fair Youth puts the “merit” of the poet in the “eye of scorn” that the poet will defend the youth and “prove thee virtuous”. The poet even suggests in the end that he will help the Youth to get all that he deserves even if it involves the poet taking all scorn, blame and wrongs upon himself. Here is a video of Sonnet 88 done by Louise Crawford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1UCVx8Xpg

This self-blame and self-accusation continues in Sonnet 89 with the poet giving in to any accusation that may be put on him. The poet acknowledges that love will probably turn to hate and ends by claiming that he will eventually hate himself and battle against himself since the poet “… must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate.” Here is a video of Sonnet 89 from Shakespeare Shorts 2012 Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORstLQFYoPc

The self-blame continues in Sonnet 90 but the sonnet has a vague sense that the breakup or separation between the Fair Youth and the Poet has not happened yet. Here is Sonnet 90 performed by Joey Richards in 2018 as part of the Shakespeare by the Lakes 'Sounds of Shakespeare' project in 2018. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1761044614199902

Sonnet 91, the poet returns to love and muses how as a poet, he is more blessed by having love than having high birth or glory or riches. Here is a video from The Sonnet project NYC. It is sub-titled Literary Walk and is performed by Tim Ruddy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu1vDqhTn8s

In Sonnet 92, the poet reflects on his predicament with the youth that he is, “Happy to have thy love, happy to die!” Here Annette Badland reads Sonnet 92. https://vimeo.com/44729429

Sonnet 93 addresses a question that is central to many of Shakespeare’s plays and characters “How can a person be different from what their outward appearance shows?” Hamlet, Lady Macbeth. Macbeth, Othello and Iago all state or face this question. The sonnet ends by suggesting that the youth may, like the apple of Eve, not be as sweet and virtuous as he seems. Here is a lovely reading of Sonnet 93. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJbcOD1mqyA

Sonnet 94 seems to build on the themes and ideas explored in Sonnets 90-93 of the Fair Youth forsaking the Poet. The Poet seems to have some hopes but suggests that his optimism may not be well-placed. Here is actor Leon Russom talking about what Shakespeare means to him and then he recites Sonnet 94: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vm5qsdjQ3Y

Sonnet 95 builds on this and even criticizes the youth and ends with a warning for the youth wrapped up in the final line, “The hardest knife ill used doth lose its edge.”  Here is Sonnet 95 performed by Paula Brett. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndPhubXWs1M

This sense of betrayal and blame continues in Sonnet 96 (which exists in Sonnets 91 through to Sonnet 96) where the poet criticizes the youth warning him not to abuse his beauty as his reputation would be tarnished. The criticism is gentler in this poem. The final line suggests that the link between the Poet and the Fair Youth and their reputations. Here is Sonnet 96 performed by Sam Alexandar. https://vimeo.com/44730179

Sonnets 97 and 98 deal with a time of separation between the Poet and the Fair Youth. Nature and the seasons are used as a metaphor for both the relationship and the emotional state of the poet. The rich imagery reinforces the emotional changes in Sonnet 97 which then hark back to the power of the youth as the poet’s muse in Sonnet 98. Guy Paul reads Sonnet 97 here as part of the 2014 South Bank Festival of Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUc70Z7mZ-E

Here ReadMyLips does Sonnet 98: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoLorWJeNwQ

Sonnet 99 is the only one of Shakespeare’s 154 Sonnets which has 15 lines. One theory is that this is a draft of Sonnet 99 and that any final 14 line version is lost in time. Another theory is that Shakespeare has put a few simple codes in this poem to give a hint of the date. This sonnet has 15 lines and is numbered Sonnet 99 so some people contend that this sonnet was written in 1599. In Sonnet 99, the poet starts by accusing the “forward violet” of stealing its sweet scent from the breath of the poet’s Fair Youth. In fact, the poem centres on the theme of theft and accuses the violet, the purple pride, the lily, the marjoram and even the rose of stealing scent, colour, beauty and even essence from the poet’s love. A sense of forboding comes near the end of the poem when the poet mentions a worm or “vengeful canker” that eats up a rose. The following website has a reading of Sonnet 99, information and a slam poetry response by English woman Kate Tempest entitled 'My Shakespeare: https://poetryace.com/sonnet-99

Sonnets 100, 101, 102 and 103, the Poet offers excuses for being absent or silent in writing about and praising the Fair Youth. He asks that his pen be given both “skill and argument” so that his verse may give his love “… fame faster than time wastes life…” Here is Sian Phillips reading Sonnet 100: https://vimeo.com/44730889

In Sonnet 101, The Poet directly addresses his muse and eventually asks his muse to do its job or “office”. Here is Ammar Duffus doing Sonnet 101. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liGKGcm2Hus

While in Sonnet 102, the Poet says that even though he has not “sung” or written more about the Fair Youth, it doesn’t mean that his love has diminished. Christine Williamson does Sonnet 102 here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5DWftR9uHU

In Sonnet 103, the Poet again demeans himself and his skills as a poet to praise his love. The final rhyming couplet is ironic its suggests that the youth’s mirror will show him more than the poet’s verse will:

“And more, much more than in my verse can sit

Your own glass shows you , when you look in it.”

Kim Cattrall reads Sonnet 103 here:

https://vimeo.com/44730891

The Sonnets – Sonnets 78-86 “So oft have I invoked thee for my muse…”

The Sonnets – Sonnets 78-86 “So oft have I invoked thee for my muse…”

Sonnet 78 introduces into Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the ‘character’ or ‘figure’ of the Rival Poet. The Rival Poet could be a fictional ‘character’ or could be a real poet or based on a real poet. The Rival Poet is evident and the central subject of most of Sonnets 78-86. Within the world of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the Rival Poet is the antagonist, Shakespeare’s nemesis who is his rival for fame, wealth, patronage and the artistic affections of the Fair Youth. In Sonnet 78, he refers to the Rival Poet in very general terms as one of what is assumed to be many alien pens.

Sonnet 78

“So oft have I invoked thee for my muse,

And found such fair assistance in my verse,

As every alien pen hath got my use,

And under thee their poesy disperse.

Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing,

And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,

Have added feathers to the learnèd’s wing

And given grace a double majesty.

Yet be most proud of that which I compile,

Whose influence is thine and born of thee.

In others' works thou dost but mend the style,

And arts with thy sweet graces gracèd be;

But thou art all my art, and dost advance

As high as learning my rude ignorance.”

In this sonnet, the poet is addressing the ‘fair youth’ who is the subject of most of the previous sonnets. In the first quatrain, the poet begins by reflecting on the fact that the youth has so often been the “muse” or inspiration for his poetry but that now that has meant that many other poets or “every alien pen” is trying to “…under thee their poesy disperse.” In this line the poet suggests that the other poets are both dedicating their poetry to the young man and trying to present or put their poetry to the Fair Youth. The poet is slightly derogatory towards the poetry of the ‘alien pens’ because he refers to their verse as “poesy”. The second quatrain moves on to praise the poet’s subject in hyperbolic terms claiming that the youth’s eyes have taught the dumb to sing high musical notes and lifted “heavy ignorance aloft to fly” and even helped learned people to achieve more through adding “feathers to the learned’s wing” and made the graceful, well, more graceful. In the third quatrain, the poet urges the youth to be most proud of the verse which the poet himself compiles since the youth himself is the influence and inspiration for this poet’s verse whereas other poet’s have their ordinary verse’s style and art made better or “mended” by the youth’s “sweet graces”. The sonnet ends with a rhyming couplet with the poet putting himself down claiming he is ignorant and has no skill at all but is lifted up “As high as learning my rude ignorance” by the inspiration of the youth himself.

Here is a reading of Sonnet 78 done for Sonnet Project NYC in 2018. This one was done in Newark, NJ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgn7PYkNfqI

In Sonnet 79, the poet gets more specific and refers to one other poet who has obviously caught the eye and the fancy of the Fair Youth who has been his own muse for so long. But the poet questions the merits of his rivals poetry or puts down his Rival Poet stating that the Rival Poet “robs” the youth of his own beauty which he puts into his verse to give back to the youth himself. The poet ends by asking the youth to:

“Then thank him not for that which he doth say,
   

Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay.”

Here is Sonnet 79 done as part of the Sonnet Project NYC.

https://youtu.be/RfteGcTe2FI

Sonnet 80 continues the poet’s “putting down” of his rival by portraying himself as a small boat sailing in the shallows while portraying his rival as a large galleon sailing on the open sea. Sexual innuendo in the sonnet suggests mockery of the Rival Poet.

Here is Sonnet 80 done by patrick Stewart on his 80th birthday done on July 13th 2020. https://twitter.com/SirPatStew/status/1282494876752531458

Here is Sonnet 80 read by Elizabeth Klett with a cello accompanied by Bach's Cello Suite No. 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbnbjAnk7DI&vl=en 

In Sonnet 81, the poet momentarily forgets about his rival and returns to the tactic used in Sonnets 49, 63 and 77 of contemplating how his verse will immortalize the ‘fair youth’:

“Or I shall live your epitaph to make,


Or you survive when I in earth am rotten,


From hence your memory death cannot take,


Although in me each part will be forgotten.


Your name from hence immortal life shall have,


Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:


The earth can yield me but a common grave,


When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.


Your monument shall be my gentle verse,


Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read;


And tongues to be your being shall rehearse,


When all the breathers of this world are dead;
   

You still shall live, such virtue hath my pen,
   

Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.”

Here is Sonnet 81 performed by Andrew Joshi of the Jermyn Street Theatre. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hT9WgW01s 

Here is Sir Ian McKellan reading Sonnet 81 in COVID 19 isolation in 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws7MDDhF_3Y&list=PLLLiEya-Q4RQdTJb97i8gU6MXHZs_HUlB&index=62&t=0s

Sonnet 82 returns to address the Rival Poet or even rival poets and the poet tells the youth that he is being misled by them and allowing himself to give into mere flattery. The comparison is drawn to painting. The poet suggests that the youth is so fair that he is better rendered by the poet’s own “true plain words”. 

Here is Lori Nicholson reading Sonnet 82 as part of the the Jermyn Street Theatre Sonnet Project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptiz07olQrg

The allegory of painting is again used by the poet in Sonnet 83 when he suggests that the youth does not need “painting” or flattery since:

“There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
   

Than both your poets can in praise devise.”

Here is Sonnet 83 filmed for the Sonnet Project NYC. This one is done in Texas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAl0to9btZQ

Then in Sonnet 84, we see the ground of the argument against the Rival Poet shift slightly in what is a rich and sometimes obscure poem. This sonnet ultimately expresses the sentiment that all poetry is just an empty shell in trying to represent reality but that the Rival Poet’s poetry is particularly worthless and empty because it seeks to deceive and flatter.

Here is Sonnet 84 performed by Chirag Benedict Lobo as part of the Jermyn Street Theatre Sonnet Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuSXZ9iVZn0

Sonnet 85 is almost an existential poem which would not be out of place in a Samuel Beckitt play since the poet states, “I can say nothing…” yet continues to write and claiming his higher thoughts cannot be expressed in words and what he can express is that the words of other poets are superficial and without meaning. Here is a video of Sonnet 85 performed by Alice Bailey Johnson as part of the Jermyn Street Theatre Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BPmryggQIU

Sonnet 86 is the last sonnet that directly deals with the Rival Poet. The poet uses questions directly addressed to his subject the Fair Youth to question why the Rival Poet has attracted the attention and affection of the youth. The imagery of sailing is again employed and the Rival Poet is compared to a fleet or armada of galleons in full sail. The poet then derides the Rival Poet suggesting that he uses supernatural forces (this and the other descriptions seem to suggest that the Rival Poet is George Chapman) and while the poet himself suggests the Rival Poet’s verse is superior to his, the magnificence of the imagery, sentiment and poetic devices in this sonnet along with the self-depreciating tone of this sonnet serves to make the poet/speaker ultimately shine bright and immortalize Shakespeare above the obscure pitch of his poetic rival:

“Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,


Bound for the prize of all too precious you,


That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,


Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?


Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write


Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?

No, neither he, nor his compeers by night


Giving him aid, my verse astonished.


He, nor that affable familiar ghost


Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,


As victors of my silence cannot boast;


I was not sick of any fear from thence:
  

But when your countenance filled up his line,
   

Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine.”

Here is an analysis and reading of Sonnet 86 from Linda Sue Grimes on Owlocation:

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Shakespeare-Sonnet-86-Was-it-the-proud-full-sail-of-his-great-verse