Summary Sonnet 132 represents an intensification of the poet’s feelings for the Dark Lady, ironically paralleling his former relationship with the youth in that the poet recognizes that she does not love him. Built around an image of the woman’s eyes, the sonnet is most notable for an extended pun […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 132Summary and Analysis Sonnet 131
Summary The poet further discusses his mistress’s unattractive appearance. The first quatrain continues the previous sonnet’s ending thought, that the Dark Lady is “the fairest and most precious jewel.” However, after these opening four lines, the poet then acknowledges that to other people the Dark Lady’s appearance is anything but […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 131Summary and Analysis Sonnet 130
Summary Sonnet 130 is a parody of the Dark Lady, who falls too obviously short of fashionable beauty to be extolled in print. The poet, openly contemptuous of his weakness for the woman, expresses his infatuation for her in negative comparisons. For example, comparing her to natural objects, he notes […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 130Summary and Analysis Sonnet 129
Summary The mistress is not mentioned in this sonnet. Instead, the poet pens a violent diatribe against the sin of lust. The sonnet’s angry attack on sexual pleasure stands between two rather innocuous sonnets addressed to the woman at the keyboard, and serves as a commentary on the morning following […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 129Summary and Analysis Sonnet 128
Summary Sonnet 128 is one of the few sonnets that create a physical scene, although that scene involves only the poet standing beside “that blessed wood” — probably a harpsichord, a stringed instrument resembling a grand piano — that the Dark Lady is playing. The sonnet is comparable to Sonnet […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 128Summary and Analysis Sonnet 127
Summary Sonnet 127, which begins the sequence dealing with the poet’s relationship to his mistress, the Dark Lady, defends the poet’s unfashionable taste in brunettes. In Elizabethan days, so the poet tells us, black was not considered beautiful: “In the old age black was not counted fair, / Or, if […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 127Summary and Analysis Sonnet 126
Summary Sonnet 126 is the last of the poems about the youth, and it sums up the dominant theme: Time destroys both beauty and love. However, the poet suggests that the youth, “Who hast by waning grown and therein show’st / Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow’st,” remains […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 126Summary and Analysis Sonnet 125
Summary For the poet, love is not a matter of external pride — that is, he is not interested in his rivals’ self-frustrating displays of false love (lines 1–2). The language here is philosophical, and the first quatrain suggests that the poet’s public homage to the youth means little to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 125Summary and Analysis Sonnet 124
Summary Developing further the theme of constancy from the previous sonnet, the poet argues that love — “that heretic” — is not subject to cancellation or change. Unlike other people’s love, which is “subject to Time’s love or to Time’s hate,” his constant love is not susceptible to injurious time: […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 124Summary and Analysis Sonnet 123
Summary The poet clearly denies that he is one of time’s fools, or one who acts only for immediate satisfaction: “No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change.” This theme of constancy is evident throughout the sonnet. After defiantly stating that he will not be duped into ending […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 123