night of death, the sadness of past love affairs, and
pleasant memories of the past. The speaker uses the
legal phrase long-since-cancelled (l. 7) to indicate that all
of the aspects of the love affair are over; like a bill or a
loan, they have been marked “paid” and cancelled from
the account of what is owed.
The third quatrain continues the speaker’s grieving
over incidents in the past and employs additional legal
metaphors. He mourns over past grievances and sadly
counts them up, as a lawyer might count up details of
a case. This is a sad account—or story—of what has
gone from his life, but the word account can also refer
to fi nances. Lines 11 and 12 suggest that the loss of so
many things in the speaker’s past seems to bankrupt
him, because each incident of grief causes a payout of
grief and sadness as though he has not suffered it
before. Thus, the remembrance of grief “charges” the
speaker again and again for the sorrow.
The COUPLET summarizes the incidents described
above by recalling the remembrance of a “dear friend”
whose closeness and importance to the speaker has the
effect of not only ending his sorrows but of restoring
all the losses previous remembrances of others have
taken from him. Despite the vast power of a country’s
legal establishment, the memory of a loved friend or
lover can overcome that power in such a way that the
speaker no longer feels victimized by circumstances
beyond his—or anyone else’s—control.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Theodora A. Jankowski
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 31 (“Thy bosom
is endeared with all hearts”) WILLIAM SHAKE-
SPEARE (1599) Sonnet 31 continues WILLIAM SHAKE-
SPEARE’s meditation on the theme introduced in the
previous poem—memory and recollection. The sonnet
opens wistfully: The poet states that many of his friends
are absent or deceased and live on only in his heart.
However, the most important fi gure that dwells there
is the LOVELY BOY whose memory drives away the mel-
ancholy caused by his other losses. Fittingly, line 3
contains a homoerotic pun on “loving parts.” The sec-
ond QUATRAIN (ll. 5–8) develops the idea that the young
man is the focus of the speaker’s emotions. Indeed, he
need only think of his friend to experience the joy of
all his other relationships. The third quatrain is, per-
haps, the most erotic. It proposes that the young man
possesses all the qualities the poet has admired in his
other acquaintances. The imagery plays on sexual
innuendo: The addressee possesses all the “trophies” (l.
10) of the poet’s old lovers, while the young man has
received the “parts” (l. 11), an allusion to the “loving
parts” of line 3. The concluding COUPLET summarizes
the poem’s central theme succinctly: Everything that
the speaker likes in his other lovers/acquaintances is
embodied and enshrined in his friend’s heart—includ-
ing his own.
This SONNET is particularly charged with metaphoric
nuance and is a good example of how language play
could engender a strong sexual element in the poetry.
Indeed, though modern scholars are sometimes quick
to point out that same-sex relations were not uncom-
mon during the Renaissance, at the same time the use
of sexually charged language was also used in platonic
relationships in many Renaissance poems by various
authors. Thus, it is diffi cult to ascertain whether or not
Shakespeare intends the material to be taken as a con-
ventional, hyperbolic poem that emphasizes the depth
of his respect for his patron, or if it is, indeed, a love
poem. Nonetheless, the sonnet powerfully illustrates
the emotional impact that grew from the speaker’s rela-
tionship with the young man to whom he addresses
his poem.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S^ SONNETS (OVERVIEW).Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 33 (“Full many
a glorious morning have I seen”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) In this SONNET, WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE uses the poetic voice, the “I” (l. 1), to
express the lament of a lover for the loss of a brief
romantic relationship. The lover, whose gender is not
declared, is now separated from the male beloved who
“was but one hour mine” (l. 11). The poem uses both
meteorological and alchemical imagery to describe the
love affair. Specifi cally, the beloved is equated with the
sun, which, in the fi rst QUATRAIN, “one early morn did
shine / With all triumphant splendour on my brow” (ll.
9–10) and which is also found “Gilding pale streams
with heavenly alchemy” (l. 4). In the early modern370 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 31