Summary Sonnet 109 begins a sequence of apologetic sonnets using the image of travel as a metaphor for the poet’s reduction of the attention he gives to the young man. He defends his absence against charges of infidelity and indifference. Beneath his apologetic manner, one detects an assertion of independence […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 109Summary and Analysis Sonnet 108
Summary Admitting that he risks running out of new ideas and “must each day say o’er the very same” about the young man, the poet replaces newly imagined creation with ritual; redundant love finds new meaning in repetition “So that eternal love in love’s fresh case / Weighs not the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 108Summary and Analysis Sonnet 107
Summary Whereas the previous sonnet compared the past with the present, Sonnet 107 contrasts the present with the future. The poet’s favorite theme of immortality through poetic verse dominates the sonnet. In the first quatrain, the poet contends that his love for the young man is immortal. Although neither he […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 107Summary and Analysis Sonnet 106
Summary Sonnet 106 is addressed to the young man without reference to any particular event. The poet surveys historical time in order to compare the youth’s beauty to that depicted in art created long ago. Not surprisingly, he argues that no beauty has ever surpassed his friend’s. Admiring historical figures […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 106Summary and Analysis Sonnet 105
Summary As if it weren’t already clear, the poet writes that he has only one true love and that his poetry is only for the youth — the identical assertion presented in Sonnet 76. Just as the youth’s beauty is immortal, so too is the poet’s unchanging love for the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 105Summary and Analysis Sonnet 104
Summary Sonnet 104 indicates for the first time that the poet and young man’s relationship has gone on for three years. Evoking seasonal imagery from previous sonnets, the poet notes that “Three winters cold / . . . three summers’ pride, / Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned / […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 104Summary and Analysis Sonnet 103
Summary The poet continues to bewail his abandonment by his Muse, although he concedes that his love for the youth is stronger because of the absence: “The argument all bare is of more worth / Than when it hath my added praise beside.” In other words, the descriptions of love […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 103Summary and Analysis Sonnet 102
Summary To justify not writing verse about the young man, the poet argues that constantly proclaiming love for someone cheapens the genuineness of the emotion. His tone is cautious because he detects a change in his feelings for the youth: “My love is strength’ned, though more weak in seeming; / […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 102Summary and Analysis Sonnet 101
Summary Continuing his plea to the Muse of poetry, the poet abandons his silence and philosophizes about the nature of truth and beauty. Nature, he says, is the poet’s truth; cosmetic beauty, his falsehood: “Truth needs no color with his color fixed, / Beauty no pencil, beauty’s truth to lay.” […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 101Summary and Analysis Sonnet 100
Summary Sonnet 100 marks a change in the poet’s thinking from previous sonnets, in which the simplicity of his poetry was expected to win favor against rivals, and suggests the poet’s ebbing affection for the youth. We know that some time has elapsed since he wrote the previous sonnet because […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sonnet 100