net teases its audience with a surface that cannot be
penetrated.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Marjory E. Lange
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 87 (“Farewell:
thou art too dear for my possessing”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) In format, Sonnet 87 follows
the three QUATRAINs and a COUPLET pattern traditionally
associated with the ENGLISH SONNET form. Similar to
Sonnet 20, Sonnet 87 relies on feminine rhyme for
most of the poem (lines 2 and 4 are an exception).
Feminine rhymes pair two-syllable words in a stressed/
unstressed pattern reminiscent of the rhyme schemes
found in medieval ROMANCEs; they were usually saved
for comical poems, whereas this SONNET is solemn in
tone. The poem is fi lled with fi nancial and legal imag-
ery designed to support the patently trivial metaphor
of a beloved too expensive to love, which becomes the
poem’s ruling CONCEIT. In this case, the beloved is usu-
ally considered to be the LOVELY BOY.
The sonnet opens with the unidentifi ed speaker tell-
ing the young man goodbye because he is too “dear”
(expensive, with the pun on dear also meaning pre-
cious) for the speaker to keep around. The young man,
in all his vanity, undoubtedly knows his own worth.
His worth releases him from the speaker’s hold, which
has expired, just as bids to purchase stocks or bonds
expire at a certain point in time. The speaker recog-
nizes that, like the butterfl y that must be free to be
appreciated, the only way that he can hold the young
man is by allowing him the freedom to make the choice
to stay or go. For that generosity, the speaker deserves
to be treated better. However, the reason for the speak-
er’s generosity is unclear even to him, so in the poem,
he is leaning toward reversing his decision. Either the
young man gave himself to the speaker (whether sexu-
ally or in friendship) not knowing his own worth, or
the speaker, to whom the young man gave himself,
made a mistake in accepting the gift; so the young
man’s generous gift is, in hindsight, even more gener-
ous, and it is being returned to him after the speaker
has had second thoughts on the matter. In this way,
the speaker has had the wealth of the young man’s
companionship in his dreams, like a king, but that is
no longer the case when the speaker awakes, and he
becomes poor again.
This poem is part of a group of sonnets in which the
poet expresses concern about his originality of expres-
sion and his own worth. Also considered an estrange-
ment sonnet, it demonstrates the poet’s struggles saying
goodbye.
See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Peggy J. HueyShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 90 (“Then hate
me when thou wilt, if ever, now”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) Sonnet 90 continues the
thought developed in Sonnet 89. The speaker asks that,
if the beloved young man plans to hate him, he do it
now, so that this most disastrous blow will mitigate all
later pain. If the hatred comes later, after lesser setbacks
have occurred, it will strike an already grieving man as
catastrophe. The sonnet is built around elements of
time’s contrasts—then/when, now/then, fi rst/last—and
comparisons. All of these elements blend to make a poi-
gnant statement of the speaker’s lack of confi dence in
the beloved’s reliability.
The fi rst word of this ENGLISH SONNET, Then, sets up
the relation with when and the paired now (ll. 1–2), and
connects with Sonnet 89 when understood as “there-
fore.” The speaker is not certain the young man ever
will hate him, but if he is going to, the speaker asks
that he show it now. Already “the world is bent my
deeds to cross” (l. 2)—that is, everyone is determined
to frustrate the speaker’s goals. If the beloved joins
“with the spite of fortune” (l. 3), the speaker must bow
only once, whereas if the beloved “drop[s] in for an
after-loss” (l. 4), the speaker’s suffering is extended.
“After-loss” is colored by expressions such as “after-
thought,” which emphasizes the casual, incidental
nature of the deed.
The second quatrain rephrases and reiterates the
plea: Do not come to beat down a defeated man, begs
the speaker. “Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, /
To linger out a purpos’d overthrow” (l. 7) adds a mete-
orological image to the military metaphor in which it isSHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 90 379