See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Theodora A. JankowskiShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 129 (“Th’
expense of spirit in a waste of shame”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) SONNETs of the early modern
period often focus on love and are beautifully phrased
with gentle tempos. However, Sonnet 129 is something
completely different both in meter, tempo, and sub-
ject. It is a poem that is passionate, angry, and bitter,
with a jarring, rough tempo. It is not diffi cult to dis-
cover the reason for this shift in tone. The other son-
nets may be about love; this one is about lust.
The fi rst QUATRAIN begins by defi ning lust in its active
mode: “Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame / Is lust
in action;.. .” (ll. 1–2). “Spirit” here refers to “vital
energy,” or sperm. The belief at this time was that each
man had a limited amount of vital energy in his body.
Each time he ejaculated, he released some of that
energy and reduced his life by some span of time, usu-
ally a day. Therefore, each ejaculation, whether caused
by sexual intercourse, masturbation, or a nocturnal
emission, cost a man some of his life. So the belief was
that a man could literally ejaculate himself to death if
he engaged in too much sexual intercourse. The
speaker of this sonnet feels shame because he has
wasted some of his vital energy—“spirit”—in lust
rather than in something worthwhile, like fathering a
child with his wife.
Lust was also believed to have a bad effect on men’s
personalities and bodies. Lust is “perjured, murd’rous,
bloody, full of blame, / Savage, extreme, rude, cruel,
not to trust” (ll. 3–4) and, as such, causes men to lie
and to be cruel, rude, savage, bloody, and murderous.
If this preintercourse behavior was not bad enough,
the actual experiencing of sexual intercourse can do
nothing to stop it. Once the man has “enjoyed” sexual
intercourse, it is “despised” (l. 5) because lust is unrea-
sonable. There is shame involved in being dominated
by an emotion and not reason, being at the mercy of a
body part rather than the thought processes of a brain
that is able to control one’s urges. The speaker “hunts”
sexual activity “past reason” (l. 6), but once he has
obtained it, he hates it equally unreasonably, as though
he has been made mad by some sort of poison, such as
the “poison” of lust. He is mad when he goes after inter-
course and mad once he has achieved it: “Had, having,
and in quest to have, extreme” (l. 10). Sexual intercourse
may be “bliss” (l. 11) or “joy” (l. 12) when thought about
or during the act, but afterward it is a “woe” (l. 11) or a
“dream” (l. 12), probably a bad one. The COUPLET ends
with a truism: Everyone knows how bad it is to be con-
trolled by lust and constantly chase after sex, yet nobody
knows how to avoid the “heaven” of sexual intercourse
that leads to the “hell” of madness, irrationality, and
shame that constant sexual activity causes.
Sonnet 129 refl ects the uncontrolled passion of the
speaker. There are no beautiful words, soft phrases, or
tuneful lines. The lines of Sonnet 129 are harsh and
jarring. Lines 3 and 4 present a list of characteristics of
the lust-possessed person in sharp, repetitive spondees
(a metrical foot with two long or stressed syllables).
Paired words do not explore the good and bad of a
subject, but focus on the bad and worse: “enjoyed...
But despised” (l. 5); “Past reason hunted... Past rea-
son hated.. .” (ll. 6–7); “Mad in pursuit and in posses-
sion” (l. 9); “Had, having, and in quest to have,
extreme” (l. 10); “A bliss in proof and proved a very
woe” (l. 11). Thus, the rhythms of this sonnet refl ect
the tortured feelings examined within it.
See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Theodora A. JankowskiShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 130 (“My mis-
tress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) This SONNET is a response to
the prevailing ideas of English beauty from the medi-
eval to the early modern period. Ideals of beauty
demanded that the woman be blond, blue-eyed, pale
of complexion, pink or red of cheek, and red of lips.
She should also seem to glow as though illuminated by
an inner light. Poets competed with each other to see
who had the most beautiful—or most beautifully
described—beloved. However, Sonnet 130 is, in many
ways, an anti-BLAZON (unfl attering description). But it
is also something else.SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 130 393