The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 109

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: Absence
Content: A simple sonnet where the author apologises to his subject for being absent.

O never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify,
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie.

There is a preoccupation with the author's self here as evidenced in the extensive use of the words I and my throughout the sonnet.

The author affirms that the subject is his all by his soul being in the subject's heart/breast.

That is my home of love, if I have ranged,
Like him that travels I return again,
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that my self bring water for my stain.

The author claims he has returned to the subject to the time as though no time has been lost as an apology for his absence.

bring water for my stain may refer to the author weeping for upsetting the subject with his absence, which he classifies as a stain.

Never believe, though in my nature reigned
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained
To leave for nothing thy sum of good;

The author's modesty is revealed yet again by his admission of possessing many frailties that different people of different blood possess - not a trace of any pride in possessing "noble blood".

The pre and the post of preposterously emphasise that the author's sin of absence is not an all-embracing matter staining everything before (pre) and after (post) his absence thereby leaving nothing.

For nothing this wide universe I call
Save thou my rose; in it thou art my all.

Pun on universe in that the author's verse unifies all of his subject.

The author's reference to rose arises again, possibly a pun on the subject's name (especially as it's capitalised in the Quarto) who may have been Henry wRiOtheSlEy, Earl of Southampton.