with a semicolon; the 1609 edition has the more
appropriate comma, which emphasizes the linking
function of line 10. If all of the third quatrain is con-
nected with commas, the tone supports the syntax,
highlighting the repeated element of madness (ll. 10,
11). “Randon” (l. 12) connotes both “random” in the
modern sense of disconnected and evokes the French
randon, or “headlong rush” with which it is linguisti-
cally associated.
The couplet pulls diseased ravings into the service of
“truth vainly express’d” (l. 13). Addressing the woman
for whom he suffers this fever, the speaker asserts that,
although he has (in the past) “sworn thee fair” (with
both “blonde” and “just” or “fi ne” as connotations) and
“thought thee bright,” i.e., illuminating and intelligent,
he now knows she is “black as hell, as dark as night” (l.
14). All four adjectives—fair, bright, black, and dark—
represent both physical and moral conditions.
Although it appears that Sonnet 147 ends in
unequivocal condemnation of the lady, the third qua-
train’s emphasis on the speaker’s “mad” thoughts and
words also condemns him. This subsidiary thread of
self-denunciation is picked up in the next sonnet, “O
me! what eyes hath Love put in my head” (Sonnet
148). Thus, the immediate conclusion and the longer-
range conclusion are quite different, and the poet
remains primarily concerned with his own feelings,
even more than with any betrayal by a lover.
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Marjory E. Lange
Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 152 (“In loving
thee thou know’st I am forsworn”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) Sonnet 152 is the last of what
critics commonly call WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s DARK
LADY poems. Throughout the sequence (127–152), the
speaker has praised and condemned his mistress. He
has also questioned his own foolishness and wondered
about his overpowering sexual attraction to a woman
whom he knows to be deceitful and promiscuous. Son-
net 152 contains a rather comprehensive discussion of
many issues addressed throughout the Dark Lady son-
nets, including his unsettling sexual attraction to a
promiscuous woman whose very promiscuity is what
excites his lustful feelings. Here he fi nally realizes his
own culpability in the inevitable failure of such a rela-
tionship. More importantly, he admits that the sincer-
ity of his vows and his oaths of her kindness, love,
truth, and constancy (ll. 9–10) have been undermined
by their real purpose: “to misuse” her (l. 7).
The speaker is guilty of lust, deception, and betrayal,
to be sure, but also of misusing language, a serious artis-
tic transgression for a poet. In order to praise his mis-
tress, he has blinded his eyes, “made them swear against
the thing they see” (l. 12) and to “swear against the truth
so foul a lie” (l. 14). Also, all of his “honest faith... is
lost” (l. 8)—faith not only in the mistress, but perhaps
also in himself. Importantly, however, his attention has
shifted from the mistress to himself. This refocusing of
attention will, one might believe, lead to greater self-
understanding and a closing of the emotionally (and now
artistically) harmful relationship with the Dark Lady. If
nothing else, he seems to be seeing things more clearly.
The speaker fi rst admits that he is “forsworn” (l. 1),
a statement that can mean that he is unfaithful to his
lover or that he has lied or both. He then complains
that the mistress is “twice forsworn” (l. 2)—that she is
guilty of adultery to her husband (“thy bed-vow broke,”
l. 3; see also Sonnet 142, ll. 5–8) and of breaking her
oath to the speaker, professing hatred when she previ-
ously had professed love (ll. 4–5). He further reveals
that he has broken “twenty” oaths (l. 6) in deliberately
blinding himself to her true nature, stubbornly swear-
ing that she is righteous despite what is clearly evident
(ll. 7–12). The fi rst line of the COUPLET features a line—
“For I have sworn thee fair” (l. 13)—also used in Son-
net 147. This line allows for some revealing connections
between the passionate sickness the speaker feels in
both sonnets. The second half of line 13 contains a
pun—“more perjured eye”—that might simultane-
ously be read as “more perjured I” to indicate not only
his deliberate blindness, but also that he is “more” self-
deceived here than ever before (and that he is coming
to terms with this self-deception). The “fair”/“foul”
dichotomy is common in the Dark Lady sonnets,
describing his perception of the Dark Lady and her
behavior (“fair”) and the reality (“foul”).
See also SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (OVERVIEW).
Michael Peterson400 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 152