Sonnet 62 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet

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 ...

. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, addressed to the young man with whom Shakespeare shares an intimate but tormented connection. This sonnet brings together a number of themes that run through the cycle: the speaker's awareness of social and other differences between him and the beloved; the power and limitations of poetic art; and the puzzling sense in which love erases the boundaries between individuals.

Structure

Sonnet 62 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, with three quatrains followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the form's 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 ...

, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is composed in 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 ...

known as

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 ...

based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The sixth line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

 ×   /    ×   /    ×   /   ×   /   ×  / 
No shape so true, no truth of such account, (62.6)

:/ = ''ictus'', a metrically strong syllabic position. × = ''nonictus''. The first line (as do some others) has an initial reversal:

 /  ×   ×    /    ×  /  ×   /    ×   / 
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye, (62.1)

Reversals can be used to bring special emphasis to words — especially action verbs, as in line ten's "beated" and line fourteen's "painting" — a practice Marina Tarlinskaja calls ''rhythmical italics''.

Source and analysis

The

conceit An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact bet ...

of the poem is derived most nearly from

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

; however, the idea of lovers who have in some sense exchanged souls is commonplace and proverbial. The connected theme—the speaker's unworthiness compared to his beloved—is likewise traditional. Line 7 has posed some problems.

Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinbur ...

hypothesized that "for myself" meant "for my own satisfaction," and certain editors suggest that "do" be amended to "so." Consensus, however, has settled on some version of the gloss of

Nicolaus Delius Nicolaus Delius (19 September 1813 – 18 November 1888) was a German philologist. Delius was born at Bremen; he was distinguished especially as a student of Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English ...

: "I define my own worth for myself," with "do" as an intensifier. For "beated" in line 10,

Edmond Malone Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare. Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first p ...

suggested "bated," and

George Steevens George Steevens (10 May 1736 – 22 January 1800) was an English Shakespearean commentator. Biography Early life He was born at Poplar, the son of a captain and later director of the East India Company. He was educated at Eton College and at ...

"blasted." Dowden speculated, without accepting, the possibility that "beated" referred to a process of

tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

; John Shakespeare was a glover. Stephen Booth notes that the use of "bating" in this sense is not attested before the nineteenth century. Helen Vendler sees the speaker of the poem as harshly criticizing his own weakness and foolishness, but for most critics the poem is lighter in mood. Though it echoes other poems in the sequence which present the connections created by love as painful, in this poem, the presence of the beloved is comforting rather than terrifying.

Interpretations

John Sessions John Marshall (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), better known by the stage name John Sessions, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', as a panellist o ...

, for the 2002 compilation album, ''

When Love Speaks ''When Love Speaks'' is a compilation album that features interpretations of William Shakespeare's sonnets – some spoken, some set to music – and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians, released under EMI Classics in April ...

'' (

EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...

)

Notes

References

*Baldwin, T. W. ''On the Literary Genetics of Shakspeare's Sonnets''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.

External links

Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonnet 062 British poems Sonnets by William Shakespeare