Learning so many of the stories about the life and work of the average person - circumstances that most of us would never imagine, brought home to me this Sonnet had to be written about a woman of means which during the seventeenth century would be limited to the upper class or royalty having the advantages that would allow a woman to appear beautiful and to delay her marriage till her late teens or even her early twenties -
Here are examples of the upper class women and the average woman.
Taking this Sonnet as a stand alone poem - not following the story we see in proceeding 'woe is me', 'I cannot get her to love me' Sonnets - what he says, yes, is flattering but then can you imagine instead of one of these play acting tones of the many on Youtube who quote this poem but rather, said as a man in love spilling his admiration for her beauty as he holds her hands or kneeling before her - it is really quite a moving bit of admiration - to be compared to Helen and Springtime and Adonis as less than - whow - and as
Leah you noticed the words
constant heart meaning steadfast affection - again, wow - can you just feel what that must be like to have someone say that to you,
But you like none, none you, for constant heart. - could be manipulative flattery or as
Pat suggests, he is reassuring himself - my romantic heart prefers that he is complementing her - we can all dream can't we...
Interesting quote
Leah - "For it is the tradition of sonneteering that all cruelties by the beloved must be forgiven by the lover." Maybe that is part of the magic of Shakespeare's Sonnets - each Sonnet about love expresses the gamete from minimizing the cruelty felt, to accepting what he sees as cruelty and bemoaning how he feels - always turning the rejection on himself and continuing to elevate this person loved, regardless how he feels and as we read it, with our twenty-first century eyes, we think he is often expecting too much. Or, is that what he would have us believe, his misery? - only by reading a book studied during the seventeenth century of rhetoric, logic, and grammar was there direction that he was making fun at his own expense, using tongue and cheek for his message.
Maybe this is the poem of forgiveness that makes up for all the 'woe is me' Sonnets - but as a stand alone it sure marks a jaw dropping ability to speak in adoration to this woman - Didn't y'all get a kick out of
every one, one shade, followed by,
And you, but one, can every shadow lend. - sounds like there were no women around whose skin was other than the one shade
obviously not multi-cultural.
Now
Bellamarie I can go there where he is seeing his lover "more beautiful than anything or anyone of great beauty, be it art, person, season" Had not thought but yes, he is comparing her to art and a season as well as the natural shadows that show on her face. He really includes it all doesn't he... he is making her into almost an alter of adoration - a museum is seldom filled with candles and flowers but a church alter where there is art and seasonal flowers and the natural shadows of light through magnificent windows - hmm for comparisons that would work.
Well as a continuation of a theme there is the forgiveness of cruelty - then the discussion if the cruelty was real or imagined since he was spurned or at least his expectations were spurned or is this a stand alone Sonnet that is showing an admiration for the beauty of this beloved person. I'm imagining the next few Sonnets will clear that up for us - Now we have a task that who knew would become a task - don't you just love it with us having our various viewpoints -
