The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 80

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: Rival Poet
Content: Huge self-effacement in the face of what he regards as a superior rival poet taking his place with his patron.

O, how I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,

"How weak it makes me feel when I know a better rival writes verse of/for you."

Transformation of the rival from the low-life robber of 79 to the better spirit.

Possible pun on spirit identifying George Chapman as the Rival who claimed he was directly inspired by the spirit of Homer.

And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me tongue-tied, speaking of your fame!

His rival is obviously a powerful and able adversary and the author feels intimidated by his literary prowess.

Rhyme of name with fame emphasises the subject's public profile, status and fame.

But since your worth, wide as the ocean is,
The humble as the proudest sail doth bear,
My saucy barque, inferior far to his,
On your broad main doth wilfully appear.

Beautiful analogy of his subject's vast oceanic worth being lauded by different poets symbolised by boats of varying stature.

Extremely deferential to the talents of his rival to whom Shakespeare declares himself as inferior far to. Modesty in the extreme.

Possible pun on his own name in wilfully: "On your broad main doth Will fully appear."

Possible pun on a ship's prow in proudest.

Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat
Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride;
Or, being wrecked, I am a worthless boat,
He of tall building and of goodly pride.

Very emphatic of the majesty of his adversary.

Brilliant imagery of the shallows that Shakespeare rides compared with the depths that his Rival courses.

Emphasises his fragility by being wrecked either by him being too inadequate to ride on this ocean or being swept aside by the rival's might.

The author's feeling of being worthless contrasts with the subject's worth in the first quatrain.

Possible nautical pun on oar in Or.

Difficult to think that he actually sent this sonnet. It's such an unequivocal endorsement of his rival's abilities over his own.

Then if he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this: my love was my decay.

"If I lose, it will be through a broken heart/because of my subject."

Ambiguity in the meaning of love: the emotion of love he has for his subject or his subject being my love.

Anticipation of the author's and subject's relationship ending by him being cast away.