The Dark Side of Adoration:
Elements of Sorrow & Love Loss
in Shakespeare’s Sonnets
By
Thomas Koron
EN-252 9:30am
November 23, 2009
For many centuries, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare have been a source of intrigue,
criticism and debate. There is some discrepancy as to when they were written. Some scholars
believe them to have been written between the years 1591 and 1604, and others claim between
the years 1598 and 1609. Most sources agree that, after some revisions were made, the final
edition was published in 1609. These sonnets are commonly divided into two major sections:
the “Fair Youth” sonnets and the “Dark Lady” sonnets, with a minor part of the first dedicated to
an unknown “Rival Poet.” Many scholars have speculated on the topic of the true identities of
the “Fair Youth” and “Dark Lady.” However, their conclusions have all proven fruitless. Henry
Wriothesley – the Third Earl of Southampton and William Herbert – the Third Earl of Pembroke
have been a couple of the most popular candidates for the “Fair Youth.” Some women who were
speculated to have played the role of Shakespeare’s femme fatale, the “Dark Lady” have
included Mary Fitton – a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, Emilia Lanier – an English female
poet, Elizabeth Wriothesley – the Third Countess of Southampton and wife of Henry
Wriothesley. The “Rival Poet,” who is said to appear in sonnets 78-86, has been associated with
poets such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Samuel Daniel, George Chapman and John
Davies. No conclusive evidence exists to prove that any of these people are those referenced.
There are many similar and contrasting themes to be found throughout the collection.
Some elements that seem to be consistent are the ideas of betrayal, sorrow and love loss. The
two later ideas are prevalent in sonnet numbers 66, 71, 81, 97, 129, 140 and 146. The first four
of these sonnets are found in a group addressed to the “Fair Youth,” which comprises sonnet
numbers 1 to 126. There has been some question over the years as to whether or not these poems
are a direct indication of Shakespeare’s suppressed homosexual desires. “These poems enable
their readers to feel the lure of homoerotic attraction, the pull of ethical admiration, the power of
love, and the under presence of fear, hurt and disappointment which are the darker side of
worship” (Burrow 123).
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The other three are found in the collection dedicated to the “Dark Lady,” which include
sonnet numbers 127 to 154. These poems are said to contain several hidden meanings. An
aspect that is particularly interesting is the number of poems found in the “Dark Lady”
collection, twenty-eight. This could be interpreted as one of Shakespeare’s hidden misogynistic
swipes at woman: “A suspicion of some preoccupation with the negative connotations of
menstruation is confirmed when the reader reaches the woman-focused 127-54 if it is observed
that the total of these ‘dark lady’ sonnets is twenty-eight, corresponding with the lunar month or
menstrual cycle” (Duncan-Jones 49). Although many believe that sonnets 153 and 154 are
addressed to Cupid, as he is mentioned, but the “Dark Lady” is not.
These sonnets are often subdivided even further into categories and are labeled according
to certain other elements. Sonnet 66 could be considered part of a series that depicts the poet’s
weariness with the injustices of his life and the grief he has suffered as a result of them. Sonnet
71 is one of several that mention death and the passing of time for those left behind. Sonnet 81
references the poet’s epitaph to the youth. Sonnet 97 is part of a series that could be seen as the
poet traveling to heal the wounds he has suffered from being in love. Sonnet 129 mentions the
effects that lust has had on the poet, which indicate shame, disgust and remorse for his actions.
Sonnet 140 could be considered part of a series that involve psychological deception to help
sustain his love for the “Dark Lady.” Sonnet 146 has been a poem of much criticism and
strenuous debate. It has been nicknamed the “centre of my sinful earth” sonnet. It makes
reference to the poet’s own degradation and ongoing torment. As the reader, we get a sense that
he is prolonging his own self-induced punishment.
Sonnet 66 contains one of the most powerful beginnings in the entire collection. The
speaker is so exhausted from dealing with the abusive injustices of the world that he begs for his
own death. He continues by describing a series of foes that have destroyed happiness through
acts such as incompetence, betrayal, malice and abuse of power. In the beginning of the sonnet,
we are immediately intrigued by what could be causing the poet such dismay that he wishes his
own life would come to an end. Shakespeare scholar Helen Vendler elaborates:
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The poem answers with a masquelike procession of ill-doing which
contains sixteen people (more of less, depending on how one sees
certain lines). The figures pass before the speaker, and he describes
them for us. Halfway through the procession, the look of the masque
changes: the figures begin to pass by in twos—master and slave—
instead of by ones. (Vendler 308)
As the reader, we are first greeted in line two by “a beggar born,” which is believed to
mean an honorable person dressed in the clothing of a pauper. This is a direct attack against
social class, and the hypocrisy involved with it during his time. Next, in the third line we
encounter a person who is unjustly blessed and proud, referred to as a “needy nothing trimmed in
jollity.” The fourth line describes a person who has made a promise and kept it only to be
betrayed by others. The fifth line then mentions “honour shamefully misplaced,” which refers to
someone who has been given much more power than what is deserved. In the sixth line, we read
of “maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,” which implies a whore that was once of virgin purity.
When Shakespeare mentions “right perfection wrongfully disgraced” in the line that follows, we
are left with the impression that he is referring to a good man who has been unjustly shamed for
an unknown act. The next line mentions a strong man crippled by tending to his incompetent
master. The ninth line makes reference to “art made tongue-tied by authority,” which is one of
Shakespeare’s swipes at the censorship that governed the arts during Elizabethan times. The
next line mentions “folly…controlling skill,” which refers to an incompetent person controlling a
gifted person. Then, there is mention of the truth being dismissed as stupidity. This is one of the
most puzzling injustices referred to in the poem, because the implications of this are not entirely
clear. Lastly, we encounter “captive good attending captain ill,” which could be interpreted as an
honorable man held captive to an evil dictator.
The poet then restates his extreme discontent with the woes and injustices of the world
from which he longs to be freed. However, he then realizes that if he commits suicide, he will
leave his beloved unattended in a cruel and unjust society. The power that this poem possesses
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lies in the fact that his love for the youth is stronger than his disdain for the world around him.
He chooses to continue living a very unhappy life because of his fear of leaving his beloved
stranded in the world alone. It is a thought more painful that the suffering he currently endures.
Sonnet 71 is a desperate cry from the poet to the youth not to mourn him after he dies.
He is concerned that the world will mock him for loving such a foolish person. The poet
encourages the youth to stop mourning him after the bell has stopped ringing. Shakespeare
scholar David West makes quite an interesting discovery. “In Elizabethan England most people
knew their neighbors and lived within earshot of church bells. When they heard the bell, they
would know who was leaving the world” (West 223). He wants the youth to forget his existence
entirely, and go on living a happier life without him. This stands in stark contrast from Sonnet
66, in which the poet is terrified to leave his beloved alone in a world of such cruelties. Yet, it is
similar in a sense that the speaker’s contempt for the world around him is still readily noticeable.
It seems that whether the poet is alive or dead, one thing is clear, he fears for the well being of
his beloved. He wishes the world to be a kinder place for the youth than it has been to the poet.
West goes on to makes some even more brilliant observations:
As Shakespeare contemplates the sound of his own funeral bell, he
thinks of the world he would be leaving and how vile it is, as
described in Sonnet 66, but the work of the worms will be even viler.
The voice of doom is carried in the paired alliterations of ‘mourn for
me’ ‘surly sullen’ and warning to the world’, ringing on into ‘vile
world with vildest worms’. ‘Vildest’ is a common variant of ‘vilest’
and it makes the effect even weightier. (West 224)
Sonnet 81 is quite an interesting poem of peculiar debate. Some scholars have decided to
include it in the series involving the “Rival Poet,” and others have insisted that it clearly stands
on its own as a member of the sonnets addressed to the “Fair Youth.” Perhaps this could be
seen as the sonnet where the poet takes a moment to plead with the youth and shelter his
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affections against the suggested advances of the rival poet. However, the identities of any of the
parties involved still remain a mystery to this day. We still do not know for sure who the poem
is addressed to, who the supposed “Rival Poet” may be and we do not know for sure whether or
not Shakespeare is the speaker who is trying to save the youth from succumbing to the
advancements of another. However, we can deduce from this that Shakespeare is trying to
preserve the spirit of a person who had been held quite dear to the speaker, and it has become his
goal to immortalize the unknown “Fair Youth” beyond the time that they are in, and into the
generations to come.
The immortality conferred on the beloved by S’s verse is a frequent
theme, but here it is conferred not on him but upon his name. This
is a name S never reveals and clearly never intended to reveal.
That being so, it is unlikely that it will ever be known. (West 252)
There is a strong element of love loss, or the threat of love loss through death, suggested in this
sonnet. The idea of love loss is something that helps to tie it in with Sonnet 71. They are both
concerned with the death of either the speaker, or the youth, and how the departed will be
remembered once they are gone from the face of the earth. The language is equally powerful in
each of the poems, suggesting that their love for one another is so strong that it will continue to
exist from beyond the grave.
Sonnet 97 is considered one of the first to depict the feelings of the poet during his
separation from the fair youth. He describes his feelings as cold, dark, lonely and barren. He
longs to be reunited with his beloved and considers it to be the only way that warm weather will
ever return to thaw his frozen passions. In line 11 of the sonnet, Shakespeare writes: “For
summer and his pleasures wait on thee.” His estrangement from the youth has brought the poet
into such a state of despair, that the birds which usually chirp to announce the arrival of spring
have been silenced. The degree of the speaker’s anguish caused by the separation is readily
apparent. Scholar Stephen Booth elaborates on the fact that there is little or no distinction in
Shakespeare’s use of certain terms to describe the poet’s loss:
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Here the need to distinguish vanishes in line 2 because, although in
modern usage “absence” and “separation” are not interchangeable
in the potentially self-contained clause that ends with line 1,
“absence from” and “separation from” are effectively synonymous.
Note, however, that, since the Shakespearian use of ‘absence” to
mean “separation” easily conveys the non-geographic idea of
“estrangement,” it adds a metaphoric dimension to the separation
discussed. (Booth 313-14)
The main difference between Sonnet 97 and Sonnets 71 and 81 is the separation caused by
distance, rather than separation caused by death. There is a deep sense of isolation found in the
poetry of Sonnet 97. However, there is more hope contained in these verses because separation
through estrangement is less permanent than separation through death. The speaker knows that it
is merely a matter of time before he is reunited with his beloved.
Sonnet 129 remains one of the most popular poems in the collection due to its moral
implications. It speaks out against random acts of lust, and leaves the reader with a very strong
impression of the negative feelings involved after the act has been committed. The vivid
imagery created by this sonnet is nothing short of profound. As the reader, we are immediately
confronted with the famous opening line: “Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust in
action,” which expresses the idea held during Shakespeare’s time that an orgasm, especially one
caused by an emotionless act of lust, shortened the lives of men. There are many ideas expressed
that indicate the emotions of the poet afterward. He feels ashamed, dirty, violated and guiltridden. It indicates that the joy involved in the act does not out-weigh the cost felt inside us once
it is over. There have been some experts that say the sonnet can be divided into three separate
sections: the feeling of lust before the act is committed, lust while the action is being committed
and lust lingering after the fact. Scholar Richard Levin is the author of an essay, contained in
Shakespeare’s Poems & Sonnets by Harold Bloom, which addresses the evolution of emotion
involved in the sonnet. He mentions how the poem begins with a strong sense of regret, and
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fluctuates between the different feelings conveyed by the speaker throughout the sonnet:
The first clause is a sudden outburst of disgust, an unqualified
condemnation of the entire act of lust that the speaker now looks
back upon, which is made especially emphatic by the piling up of
explosive, almost spitting consonantal combinations, and by the
reversal of normal syntax, starting with the predicate that carries
the actual impact of the speaker’s emotion. (Bloom 65)
The emotional implications of the poem are clear. If one engages in a senseless act of lust, the
aftermath will probably last far longer than the pleasure, or even the act itself leading to the
pleasure. It also leads one to believe that the negative sensations are much more powerful than
anything positive that could come from it. It serves as a moral statement that every action has
consequences, and occasionally they can be so severe that they last a lifetime.
Sonnet 140 is another sonnet that is found in the “Dark Lady” collection. It is one that
deals with the speaker feeling a sense of unrequited love. He begs the woman to be mindful of
her words while speaking to him. He fears that if the wrong things are said, his opinion of her
will be diminished. The opening lines of the sonnet give the woman warning not to say or do
anything that will cause the poet to speak ill, or write harshly of her: “Be wise as thou art cruel,
do not press my tongue-tied patience with too much disdain.” He encourages her at least to
pretend that she loves him, even if she does not. He fears that he will be driven mad if he finds
out that his efforts to gain and/or keep her affections have all been in vain. His sense of inner
torture is made abundantly clear. However, the speaker implies that the woman is not the one to
blame. As difficult and painful as the truth might be for him to accept, he wants to maintain his
respect and admiration for her, and therefore would rather continue to live a self-destructive lie.
Sonnet 146 is one of the most complex and debated sonnets in the collection. It is one of
the only sonnets to hold some religious significance. This is the poem that is commonly referred
to as the “center of my sinful earth” sonnet. Scholars have debated over this sonnet for several
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different reasons. The first reason is the sonnet’s use of metaphors. There is a lot of symbolism
in it, and many comparisons made. Some believe that the sonnet’s opening line: “Poor soul, the
center of my sinful earth,” may be referencing the soul and center of the planet Earth, calling the
planet a poor creature filled with vile thoughts and actions. Others have interpreted this as
the speaker referring to a man in the sonnet’s opening lines. Either interpretation could be
possible given the third line: “Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth.” There has been
much dispute over whether or not Shakespeare really meant death. However, it is entirely
possible that dearth was his intended word. It means that the object or person in question is
suffering from famine. It would really be a question of that one given word as to whether it is
meant to be a man or the planet Earth itself. There is also mention of several other metaphors
throughout the sonnet. The fifth line of the sonnet reads: “Why so large cost, having so short a
lease.” This indicates that Shakespeare may be referring to a person who is wasteful with
earnings, and spends money far beyond their means. The next two lines reiterate this point,
mentioning how poorly this person treats their body and their property, and suggesting that even
the worms that gnaw away at this person’s rotting corpse are inheritors of this person’s
wastefulness. The ending of the sonnet is plagued with the sentiments of death and what will
become of this person during the afterlife. The speaker’s sorrow is rarely more abundant in the
collection than it is in this sonnet. The morbid conclusion of the poem is as equally, if not more,
powerful than the introduction. There are four references to death and dying over the course of
just two lines. “The domination of the word dying in the close, joined immediately to no more
on the left and then on the right, means that whatever will happen then (in the future), the present
is nothing but dying” (Vendler 614). Sonnet 146 and 129 continue to be a couple of the most
analyzed and popularly debated poems in the collection. They are extremely powerful in their
vivid imagery and use of metaphors. Their moral implications and emotional outbursts have
been a topic of interest to many scholars. These sonnets have been continuously compared and
contrasted with many others in the collection. It would stand to reason that the multiple
connections with the other poems make The Sonnets a solid, unified work of art.
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In conclusion, there are many different themes to be found within this masterful
collection of poems. The elements of sorrow, betrayal, grief and love loss are abundant
throughout the work. It seems as though these feelings ran so deeply for Shakespeare that they
have become a timeless monument of his struggles. These poems allow him to still speak to us
centuries after the fact, and will continue to do so for many centuries yet to come. The more one
reads them, the deeper the understanding one gains of how masterful Shakespeare’s control over
the entire poetic form was. His extraordinary use of metaphors, symbolism and vivid imagery
allow these poems to be cherished for their unquestionable, everlasting value. These sonnets also
serve as a testament to the brilliant mind of a tortured genius, and serve as an example of some of
the finest poetry ever penned in the English language.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare’s Poems & Sonnets. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House
Publishers, 1999.
Shakespeare, William. The Complete Sonnets & Poems. Colin Burrow ed. Oxford and
New York: Oxford U P, 2002.
Shakespeare, William. The Arden Shakespeare Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Katherine
Duncan-Jones ed. Stamford, CT: Thomson Publishing Co., 1997.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. First ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al,
eds. New York: Norton, 1997.
Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Stephen Booth ed. New Haven, CT:
Yale U P, 1977.
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Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. David West ed. London, New York and
Woodstock: Duckworth Overlook, 2007.
Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Cambridge, Ma., and London:
Harvard U P, 1997.