6 Authorizing … compare justifying your misdeeds by making comparisons
7 corrupting compromising morally (plays on the sense of “infecting”)
salving healing/soothing
salving thy amiss (by) smoothing over your misdeeds
8 Excusing … are going to greater lengths to excuse your sins than they deserve/offering excuses that are greater than your relatively small sins
9 For … sense to defend your sins of the body I introduce reason
10 Thy … advocate your legal opponent is also your defense lawyer
11 gainst … commence I initiate a lawsuit against myself
13 accessory accomplice
1 twain two separate beings
3 blots disgraces
5 respect mutual regard
6 separable spite malignant situation that separates us
7 sole single/unique
9 not … thee never greet you publicly again
10 my bewailèd guilt the shame I have already lamented
12 take … name are prepared to damage your reputation
13 sort a way
14 As … report that, because you are mine, your good reputation is mine also
3 dearest spite deeply felt injury
4 of in, from
5 wit intelligence
7 Entitled … sit you rightfully sit crowned among your good qualities
8 make … store graft my love onto this plentiful stock (and am enriched by it)
10 shadow image (of his friend’s good qualities)
11 sufficed fully satisfied
13 Look what whatever
1 Muse poetic inspiration
want … invent lack material for literary invention
3 argument subject matter
4 vulgar … rehearse commonplace piece of writing to describe
5 aught anything
6 Worthy perusal worth reading
stand … sight meet your eye
7 dumb lost for words
8 dost … light brings the light of inspiration
9 tenth Muse in classical mythology, there were nine Muses, goddesses who presided over and inspired people in the various branches of the arts
10 rhymers invocate poets call upon (rhymers is disparaging)
12 Eternal … date immortal verses that will outlive all time
13 slight Muse small talent
curious exacting, highly critical
14 pain effort
1 worth merit/value
with manners decently (without boasting)
5 Even for precisely because of
6 dear beloved/valuable
7 That so that
11 entertain while away
12 Which … deceive you, absence, who cunningly charm away that time and those thoughts
13 twain two
14 here in the place where I am/in this sonnet
hence elsewhere
1 Take with connotations of sexual possession
all my loves all the different kinds of love I have/all those I love
5 for my love in return for my love/out of love for me
thou … receivest you accept my love/you have sex with one I love
6 for … usest because you employ (or exploit) my love/because you have sex with one I love
7 this self i.e. me, your other self
8 wilful taste lustful indulgence in sexual pleasures
refusest perhaps refers to the young man’s refusal of lawful sex in marriage
10 steal thee take for yourself
my poverty the little I have
12 love’s wrong an injury done by a lover
13 Lascivious grace an oxymoron: the young man is still lustful yet full of grace (charm/favor/virtue)
all … shows all that is bad seems good, all vices appear virtues
14 spites injuries
1 liberty freedom/sexual license
3 Thy … befits (such wrongs) befit your beauty and youth
4 still constantly
5 Gentle well-born/tender, compliant
6 assailed wooed vigorously/seduced (military metaphor)
8 sourly ill-naturedly
prevailed won (sexually)
9 my seat forbear stay away from my lover
seat place where I have sexual rights/vagina
10 chide scold
straying unfaithful
11 riot debauchery
even there to that very place
12 truth troth, vow, pledge
13 Hers her vow to me
14 Thine your vow to me
false unfaithful
3 of … chief my chief sorrow
5 Loving offenders you who injure me by your loving/because I love the offenders
7 even so in the same way
8 Suff’ring allowing
approve praise/try out sexually
9 my love’s i.e. my female love’s, my mistress’
11 both twain the two of them
12 cross burden, affliction
14 flatt’ry comforting delusion
1 wink close my eyes
2 unrespected not worthy of respect
4 darkly … directed able to see in the dark, are directed to your light in the darkness
5 shadow … bright image makes the darkness bright
6 thy … show your real presence make a joyful spectacle
8 shade imagined image (plays on the sense of “darkness” to generate an oxymoron in shade shines)
10 living full of life and activity
11 imperfect incomplete, because only an image (fair imperfect is oxymoronic)
13 are … see appear like night
1 dull heavy, inactive, spiritless
2 Injurious harmful, malicious
3 despite in spite
4 limits regions
where to where
5 No matter it would not matter
11 so … wrought made so completely out of earth and water (the body was thought to be composed of earth, water, fire, and air)
12 attend time’s leisure wait for time to pass (the image is of a lowly petitioner waiting for a great man)
14 heavy sorrowful/weighty
badges … woe signs of the sorrows of each of these elements (earth being heavy and water wet)
1 two i.e. two elements (the theme continues from Sonnet 44)
slight insubstantial
purging purifying
3 the first i.e. air
the other i.e. fire
4 present-absent both with the poet and not with him
5 quicker speedier/more lively
6 In tender embassy to deliver an affectionate message (tender also implies the greater delicacy of the quicker elements)
7 two alone i.e. only earth and water
8 Sinks … melancholy the oppressive nature of melancholy is emphasized by the extra syllable in the line
9 life’s … recured bodily balance is restored
11 even but now just this moment
13 joy rejoice
14 straight straightaway
1 mortal deadly
2 conquest … sight spoils of war (the sight of you)
3 Mine … bar my eyes want to ban my heart from seeing you
4 freedom … right liberty to exercise that right
5 plead urge the claim (legal term)
6 closet cabinet, but also used for the pericardium, the membranous sac around the heart
7 defendant i.e. the eye, the opponent in the lawsuit
9 ’cide decide
title claim, entitlement
empanellèd enrolled as a jury
10 quest jury
tenants i.e. and therefore loyal to their landlord
11 determinèd decided/adjudged
12 moiety share
13 As thus as follows
outward part external appearance
1 league alliance (in contrast to the mortal war of Sonnet 46)
3 When
that when
4 Or heart or when my heart
himself itself
5 With on
6 bids invites
12 still always
1 took my way set out on a journey
2 under truest bars firmly under lock and key
3 to my use ready for my use
4 From … falsehood safe from thieving hands
sure secure
wards protection/guards/parts of locks’ mechanisms
5 to whom compared to whom/in whose eyes
7 care responsibility/preoccupation/cause of anxiety
8 vulgar common
11 closure enclosure, containment
12 at pleasure as you please
14 truth (even) honesty
dear valuable/beloved
1 Against in anticipation of/to defend myself against
3 When as when
cast … sum calculated its final total (i.e. closed its account)
4 advised respects careful consideration
5 strangely like a stranger
7 converted changed
8 reasons … gravity find weighty reasons for no longer knowing me/find reasons to maintain a dignified distance
9 ensconce me fortify myself
10 mine own desert what I deserve
11 this … uprear raise my hand as if testifying against myself in a court of law
12 guard defend
13 strength of laws law on your side
14 why … cause I can offer no reason why you should love me
cause reason/adequate legal grounds
1 heavy miserably/unwillingly/slowly
2 what … friend when the urge to reach my destination and rest only reminds me how far I have traveled from my friend
5 beast i.e. horse
6 dully slowly
7 wretch poor thing
8 being made journeying away
11 heavily miserably
1 slow offence offense of slowness
2 dull bearer horse
4 posting riding swiftly
6 swift extremity (even) extreme speed
7 spur use the spur
8 In … know even at the speed of flight I will not feel as if I am moving
10 perfects most perfect
11 no dull flesh being made of no heavy, earthly flesh (rather, being dominated by the element of fire)
12 for love for love’s sake/out of charity
jade worn-out horse
14 go depart/walk
1 So … rich I am like a rich man
4 seldom infrequent, rare
5 feasts feast days
solemn special, ceremonial
rare choice, splendid
7 thinly placèd spaced out, sparingly distributed
8 captain chief
carcanet jeweled collar or necklace
9 as like
chest treasure chest
special specially
11 instant occasion
12 imprisoned pride locked-away splendor
14 Being … hope for one to exult in having you, yet still feel hope in your absence
1 whereof of what
2 strange indefinable, odd/different, other/ foreign
shadows images (with connotations of various other senses of the word, including “ghosts/reflections/ shadows cast by the sun”)
on you tend follow, serve you
3 shade shadow cast by the sun/image
4 every shadow lend lend (attributes) to everyone else
5 Adonis in classical mythology, the beautiful youth loved by Venus, goddess of love (Shakespeare tells their story in Venus and Adonis)
counterfeit copy/forgery—i.e. the poor attempt to describe Adonis
7 On … new use all the arts of beautification to depict Helen and the result is a portrait of you in Grecian clothing (tires)
Helen Helen of Troy, supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world; her abduction by Paris provoked the Greeks to attack Troy
9 foison abundance, harvest
10 The … show the spring is a reflection of your beauty
11 bounty abundance (of attributes)
12 know recognize
13 grace beauty
2 By by means of
3 deem judge
5 canker blooms dog roses/wild poppies
6 tincture essence
7 play can have sexual connotations
wantonly sportively/recklessly/lasciviously
8 maskèd buds discloses opens their shut buds (an image that may suggest yielding lips or vaginas)
9 for … show because their worth lies only in their appearance (virtue may incorporate a sense of “chastity”)
10 unwooed unsought
unrespected disregarded/not esteemed
11 to themselves alone
12 sweetest odours made i.e. perfume distilled from rose petals
14 that i.e. your beauty
1 monuments tombs or other memorial structures
3 these contents the subject matter of these poems/these containers (poetry as a tomb)
4 with by
sluttish time time is personified as a slovenly housewife
5 wasteful destructive
6 broils turmoil, war
root out uproot
7 Nor … nor neither … nor
Mars his Mars’ (Roman god of war)
quick swift (plays on the sense of “living” to create a contrast with the destruction it causes)
9 all oblivious enmity hostility that is completely oblivious of everything/hostility that destroys all records of the past/all destructive hostilities
12 ending doom end of the world, Judgment Day
13 the … arise you rise from the dead on Judgment Day
14 this i.e. this sonnet
dwell live/linger
1 love the emotion/the object of love
appetite sexual appetite/hunger
3 but only for
6 wink close
8 dullness lack of enthusiasm/bluntness/sexual lethargy
9 int’rim interim, period apart
10 contracted new newly betrothed
11 that so that
13 it i.e. the sad int’rim
care anxiety, sorrow
14 rare special, splendid
1 tend attend, wait
5 chide rebuke
world-without-end seemingly endless
9 jealous suspicious/envious
10 suppose imagine, speculate about
12 those i.e. those who are with you
13 in your Will with regard to your desire (including sexual urges); plays on the sense of “as far as your Will Shakespeare is concerned”
1 That … slave i.e. may Cupid (the god of love who enthralled me to you) forbid
2 in thought even in my thoughts
control plays on the sense of “check and regulate payments regarding”
3 at … crave request an itemized account of how your time has been spent
4 vassal slave
stay your leisure wait for a time that is convenient for you
5 beck disposal, beck and call
6 Th’imprisoned … liberty the separation from you that your freedom of action brings and which is like an imprisonment to me
7 patience … sufferance with patient endurance/with the patience that comes from suffering
bide each check bear each rebuke or rebuff
9 list wish
charter right, entitlement
10 privilege authorize, license
12 to … crime it is your responsibility to pardon your own crimes (or crimes you have committed against yourself)
2 beguiled deceived
3 labouring toiling/being in childbirth
invention new subject matter
bear … child give birth mistakenly to a child that already exists (i.e. write about a subject that has already been tackled)
5 record memory
6 courses … sun years
8 mind �
� done thoughts were first expressed in writing
10 composèd … frame your miraculously well-constructed body (plays on the idea of literary composition)
11 mended improved
whe’er whether
12 revolution … same the cycle produces the same things again
13 wits clever men
3 changing place with replacing
4 In … contend toiling in succession, they strive onward
5 Nativity birth/a newborn baby
main broad expanse (figurative development from the sense “open sea”)
7 Crooked malign/distorted (as the moon seems to diverge from its usual course)
eclipses thought to be bad omens
glory beauty/luminescence
8 confound destroy
9 transfix pierce
flourish bloom/adornment
10 delves the parallels digs parallel lines, i.e. wrinkles
11 rarities delicacies, choice objects
truth integrity, essential quality
12 scythe the tool of Time, bringer of death
13 times in hope the hoped-for future
4 shadows images/illusions/ghosts
mock delude
8 scope … of purpose and purport of (or possibly “the domains legally held by”)
tenure authority, control/possession, plays on “tenor” meaning “purport”
13 watch I I cannot sleep/I stay on guard
wake stay awake (for sexual pleasure)
1 possesseth with connotations of disease or demonic possession
5 gracious lovely
6 true well-formed
truth well-formed physique/moral integrity
account value
7 for myself for my own pleasure/with regard to myself
8 As … surmount to the effect that I possess more virtues than everyone else collectively
9 glass mirror
10 Beated and chopped weather-beaten and chapped
tanned antiquity age with its leathery skin
12 Self … iniquity it would be sinful for one such as me to be so self-loving
13 ’Tis … praise it is you (my other self) that I praise as myself
1 Against in preparation for when/to counter the time when
2 injurious damaging
o’er-worn worn out
3 drained his blood blood was thought to dry up with age; also suggests “drained his vigor”
filed engraved/defiled
5 steepy precipitous (also suggests night’s power to engulf or “steep” the young man)
8 Stealing … spring (time) dishonestly taking the beauties of his youth/his youthful beauties creeping away
9 fortify strengthen defenses against attack
10 confounding destructive
11 That so that
12 though though he cut off
14 green fresh, youthful
1 fell fierce, cruel/destructive, deadly
2 proud cost splendid extravagance