Theme: Separation
Content: A continuation of Sonnet 36 where the author and subject are separated as the sonnet progresses.
O, how thy worth
with manners may I sing
When thou
art all the better part of me?
What can mine own praise to
mine own self bring,
And what is 't but mine own when I praise thee?
- O, how thy worth addresses the subject, which is countered in line 9.
- The word to appearing in every quatrain and the couplet may be punning on the author's desire for the two people to be together.
- Possible reference to the subject's and author's name in When thou art all the better part of me. The probable subject is Wriothesley whose name includes the author's: Wriothesley. The author seems to be saying here that "all" of the subject's name is better than the "part" of his name that it contains.
And our
dear love lose name of single
one,
Even for this let us divided
live,
That by this separation
I may give
That due to
thee which thou deserv'st alone.
- And our dear love lose name of single one now explicitly references naming and that of one of their names being lost hence separating the two of them in person and literally.
- The relationship graphically breaks down in our, divided, separation, alone.
- sing in Q1 now morphs to single showing how the words in the poem gravitate to the subject of loneliness and separation.
O absence,
what a torment wouldst thou prove
Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave
To entertain the
time with thoughts of love,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive,
- O absence addresses the abstract persona of absence, as opposed to the subject in line 1.
And that thou teachest how to
make one twain
By praising him here who doth hence remain!
Critical text © NigelDavies.home@Virgin.net