Theme: Absence
Content: A re-working of Sonnet 97 where the author contemplates the period of absence and sees reflections of his subject in nature. The term of address in this sonnet is changed from Sonnet 97's "From thee" to "From you", apparently the two being variant exercises on the same idea.
From you have I been absent in the spring
When proud-pied
April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put
a spirit of youth
in
everything,
That heavy Saturn
laughed and leapt
with
him.
- “I have been away from you during the most spirited time of the year.”
- Clearly linked to Sonnet 97 and now explicitly includes the season absent from 97: Spring.
- Saturn was said to have a gloomy influence on everything but here literally gets a “spring” in his step. He was also the Roman God of agriculture and vegetation thereby linking back to the harvest imagery in Sonnet 97. Saturnalia was also an ancient Roman festival celebrated in December until the Reformation when it was replaced with Twelfth Night festivities. So this may also be a further paradox overlapping from Sonnet 97 that identifies December as the month of celebration and happiness compared to Spring when he was absent from his subject.
- Possible echo of “you” in youth.
- This is a p sonnet: spring…proud-pied April…put…spirit…leapt.
Yet nor the lays
of
birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hew
Could make me any summer's
story tell,
Or from their proud
lap pluck them where they grew;
- “And the beauty of nature at this time doesn’t ameliorate the sense of absence.”
- As in Sonnet 97, Q2 starts with a qualifying Yet.
- The (phonetic of) laughed and the word leapt at the end of Q1 now morph into the lap at the end of Q2.
- Possible echo of “you” in hew.
- summer's story is, ironically, the opposite of The Winter's Tale.
- The p usage continues: proud lap pluck.
Nor did I wonder
at the lily's white,
Nor praise
the deepvermilion
in the rose.
They were but sweet, but figures of delight
Drawn after you, you pattern
of all those;
- “Even nature’s beauty, that is patterned after yours, can’t substitute the real thing.”
- Wonder is replicated in the lily’s white whilst the rose is replicated in praise.
- The p usage continues: praise…deep…pattern.
Yet seemed it
winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow
I with these did play.
- “I missed your warmth and made the best of those things that remind me of you.”
- The paradox of winter is used again: a period that it seemed like because its characteristics describe his sad feelings but a period where he would actually be with the subject, only able to play with shadows of the subject during Spring.
- The sonnet ends the p usage on play.
- The lays of birds of Q2 now morph into play.
- The sonnet opens with Spring and ends with Winter. Summer is sandwiched in Q2, but no mention of Autumn this time.
Critical text © NigelDavies.home@Virgin.net