Theme: Loss of Patron
Content: Pleading for the patron to not drag out his suffering. Obviously feeling the pain with the abundance of woe references (both explicitly and via assonance) also supported by other w words. Repeated usage of the "doubling" technique used in the recent sonnets.
Then hate me
when
thou
wilt,
if
ever, now,
Now while the world
is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with
the spite of
fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss.
- "Hate me as you will, and couple my troubles with my own lack of fortune".
- Use of now at the end of line 1 and start of line 2 strikes me as rather clumsy.
- if ever suggests the split is not yet final.
- Continuation of the theme of hate from 89.
- The sonnet's principal theme (Woe) is echoed in now, world & bow.
- This is a w sonnet: when…wilt…now…now…while…world…with…bow.
Ah do not, when
my heart hath 'scaped
this sorrow,
Come in the rearward
of a conquered woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed
overthrow.
- "Please don't kick a man when he's down: a short, sharp, break is better than a prolonged sorrow."
- Give not a windy night a rainy morrow is so precious.
- The theme of hate is reflected in the doubling in heart and hath.
- A feast of woe's is presented in the 4 rhymes: sorrow, woe, morrow & overthrow.
- Continuation of w word usage: when…sorrow…rearward…woe…windy…morrow…overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me,
do not leave me last,
When other petty
griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come;
so shall I taste
At first the
very worst
of
fortune's might;
- "Let me suffer once, not interminably."
- If thou wilt leave me again asserts that the loss is not yet final.
- Mid-line rhyme of first with worst.
- Doubling of leave me/leave me.
- Doubling of spite here in Q3 with that of Q1.
- Doubling of come here in Q3 with that in Q2.
- Woe is again echoed in worst.
- Continuation of w word usage: wilt…When…worst.
And other strains of woe,
which
now seem woe,
Compared with
loss of thee will
not seem so.
- Doubling of woe again strikes me as rather clumsy.
- Doubling of loss with after-loss in Q1.
- Conclusion of the woe preponderance in the rhyme of woe & so.
- Conclusion of w word usage: woe, which now…woe…with…will.
Critical text © NigelDavies.home@Virgin.net