Sonnet 153 is a
sonnet by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
.
Synopsis
Sonnets 153 and
154
Year 154 ( CLIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Lateranus (or, less frequently, year 907 '' Ab urbe con ...
are filled with rather bawdy double entendres of sex followed by contraction of a
venereal disease
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...
. The sonnet is a story of
Cupid, who lays down his torch and falls asleep, only to have it stolen by
Diana, who extinguishes it in a "cold valley-fountain." The fountain then acquires an eternal heat as a result and becomes a
hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by c ...
where men still come to be cured of diseases. The speaker then states that as his mistress looks at him, Cupid's torch is ignited again, and Cupid tests the torch by trying it on the speaker's heart. The speaker becomes sick with love and wants to bathe in the hot spring to cure himself, but he cannot. The speaker discovers the only thing that can cure his discomfort is a glance from his mistress.
Structure
Sonnet 153 is an English or Shakespearean
sonnet. The English sonnet has three
quatrains, followed by a final rhyming
couplet. It follows the typical
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB r ...
of the form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and is composed in
iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...
, a type of poetic
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 12th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest, (153.12)
:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''.
The 1st line begins with a common metrical variation, an initial reversal:
/ × × / × / × / × /
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep: (153.1)
Line 9 potentially incorporates an initial reversal, and line 6 has a mid-line reversal. The 3rd line features the rightward movement of the first ictus (resulting in a four-position figure,
× × / /, sometimes referred to as a ''minor ionic''):
× × / / × / × / × /
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep (153.3)
A minor ionic also occurs in line 4.
The meter demands that line 10's "trial" be pronounced as two syllables.
Analysis
Sonnets 153 and
154
Year 154 ( CLIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Lateranus (or, less frequently, year 907 '' Ab urbe con ...
are
anacreontic Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. ...
s, a literary mode dealing with the topics of love, wine, and song, and often associated with youthful hedonism and a sense of ''carpe diem'', in imitation of the Greek poet
Anacreon
Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...
and his epigones. The two
anacreontic Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. ...
sonnets are also most likely an homage to
Edmund Spenser. Spenser's
Amoretti and Epithalamion (poem), Epithalamion has a three-part structure: a sonnet sequence of 89 sonnets, a small series of
anacreontic Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. ...
verses and a longer epithalamium. Shakespeare imitates Edmund Spenser, Spenser with a sequence of 152 sonnets, two
anacreontic Anacreontics are verses in a metre used by the Greek poet Anacreon in his poems dealing with love and wine. His later Greek imitators (whose surviving poems are known as the ''Anacreontea'') took up the same themes and used the Anacreontic meter. ...
sonnets and a long complaint.
The central conceit of Sonnet 153 derives from a work by Marianus Scholasticus, a poet writing in Greek in the 5th-6th centuries AD. The original epigram reads in translation "Beneath these plane trees, detained by gentle slumber, Love slept, having put his torch in the care of the Nymphs; but the Nymphs said to one another 'Why wait? Would that together with this we could quench the fire in the hearts of men.' But the torch set fire even to the water, and with hot water thenceforth the Love-Nymphs fill the bath."
[Paul Edmondson - Author, Stanely Wells, ''Shakespeare's Sonnets'', Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, p.21]
Notes
Further reading
External links
Commentary and analysis of the sonnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 153
British poems
Sonnets by William Shakespeare