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