220
others are related to one another
in subject matter and fall naturally
into groups of varying length.
The first 17 appear to be
addressed to a young man who
is very dear to the writer but whom
he is encouraging to marry and to
have children. Other poems up
to No. 126 also relate to one or more
young men with whom the poet
has a close and loving, although not
necessarily sexual, relationship.
SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS
Many other poems in this group
could equally well relate to a man
or a woman.The Dark Lady
The last 26 poems include all
those that are clearly addressed
to a woman, with whom the poet
clearly has a difficult sexual
relationship. Some of these
sonnets indicate that she is dark
in coloring, and even in character,
that she is a rival of the poet in
his love for his friend, and that the
poet loves her against his better
judgment. For this reason, they
have come to be known as the
Dark Lady sonnets, and many
fruitless attempts have been made
to identify a woman of the period
who might fit the bill.All aspects of love
Although all the sonnets are
written in the same form, with
only minor variations, they are
extremely varied in style and ease
of understanding. The poems alsorun the whole gamut of love,
from romantic idealism to brutal
sexual realism. For this reason, it is
difficult to read them in one sitting.
They include some of the most
beautiful and popular love poems
in English, some of which might
equally be addressed to a male or
a female, young or not so young.
They tell of the power of love and of
friendship to convey happiness, to
transcend time, to confer a kind of
immortality on the loved one. “Shall
I compare thee to a summer’s day? /
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate,” says the poet in No. 18,
while No. 116 is a great hymn to
love (see p.221, opposite).
Other poems are very different in
tone and the emotion they inspire
in the reader. Some speak of rivalry:
“Two loves I have, of comfort and
despair, / Which like two spirits do
suggest me still. / The better angel
is a man right fair, / The worser spirit
a woman coloured ill” (No. 144).
Some poems tell of disillusionment
and self-deception in love: “When
my love swears that she is made
of truth / I do believe her though
I know she lies” (No. 138).Sonnet 145
Those lips that love’s own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said “I hate”
To me that languished for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
“I hate” she altered with an end
That followed it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend,
From heaven to hell is flown away.
“I hate” from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying “not you.”Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of
Southampton, painted here in his
teens around 1590, has been proposed
as the unnamed young man to whom
Sonnets 1–126 are addressed.When my love swears that
she is made of truth
I do believe her though
I know she lies,
That she might think me
some untutored youth
Unlearnéd in the world’s
false subtleties.
Sonnet 138