The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 152

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: I Lie
Content: The last original Shakespearean sonnet in the series of 154 and the last one in the series on the Dark Lady where the author finally reveals his honesty by paradoxically admitting that he has lied about her worth.

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing:
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.

sworn and swearing threads through the whole of this sonnet.

new faith morphs to new hate which morphs to new love.

But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee
When I break twenty? I am perjured most,
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost.

vowing threads through the first 2 quatrains of the sonnet.

oaths threads through the middle 2 quatrains of the sonnet.

No swearing in this quatrain where oaths are breached, broken and honesty is lost.

Curious rhyming of thee with itself.

For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,
And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see.

For I have sworn opens both the last quatrain and the couplet.

For I have sworn thee fair more perjured eye
To swear against the truth so foul a lie.

Pun on eye as in I: the author perjures himself by swearing the mistress is fair.

I am perjured most of Q2 now lessens to more perjured eye/I: most reducing to the lesser more.

At last, the author concludes that his view of the Dark Lady being fair, articulated in the recent sonnets, is in fact a lie, contrary to the truth, and a statement with which he has perjured himself.

The author said in Sonnet 105 that "'Fair, kind, and true' is all my argument, 'Fair, kind, and true' varying to other words" and here in the final personal sonnet of the series "fair", "kindness" and "truth" are resolved.

There are a perfect 14 variances of oaths, swearing and vows in this 14-line sonnet.

The mistress is just herself; it is the author who has tried to ameliorate to fair that which is not fair. It is the author who has been guilty of making false vows and oaths, but he knew that all along as revealed in the final rhyme: eye lie, i.e. I lie.