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SONNET 35 |
PARAPHRASE |
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No more be grieved at that
which thou hast done: |
Do not grieve any more at what you have done: |
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Roses have thorns, and
silver fountains mud; |
Roses have thorns, and clear fountains mud; |
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Clouds and eclipses stain
both moon and sun, |
Clouds and eclipses obscure both the moon and sun, |
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And loathsome canker lives
in sweetest bud. |
And the canker worm chooses the sweetest bud to invade. |
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All men make faults, and
even I in this, |
Everybody commits faults, and even I in doing this, |
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Authorizing thy trespass
with compare, |
Justifying your crimes by comparisons [in lines 2/3], |
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Myself corrupting, salving
thy amiss, |
Making myself a corrupt pleader by trying to remedy your misdeeds, |
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Excusing thy sins more than
thy sins are; |
Excusing your sins and even sins you haven't committed; |
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For to thy sensual fault I
bring in sense-- |
For I bring reason to side with your sensual faults-- |
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Thy adverse party is thy
advocate-- |
The opponent in this case is your advocate-- |
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And 'gainst myself a lawful
plea commence: |
And against myself I begin a lawful plea: |
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Such civil war is in my love
and hate |
I am so torn apart by loving and hating you at the same time |
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That I an accessary needs
must be |
That I must become an accessory |
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To that sweet thief which
sourly robs from me. |
To [you] that sweet thief who robs me by being unfaithful. |
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ANALYSIS [Line 14]* Compare to Richard Barnfield's sonnet addressed to Cynthia, written in 1595: "There came a
thief, and stole my heart/And robbed me of my chiefest part". We cannot
be sure which poet's lines were first. Barnfield also wrote a now-famous ode
called Address to the Nightingale (1598), which many wrongfully
attributed to Shakespeare. Sonnet 35 reveals a dark
side to the relationship between the poet and his young dear friend, likely
the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron. The poet clearly battles
self-doubt and insecurity, and he shares the blame with his lover, who has
betrayed him. Despite the pain that his lover has inflicted upon him, the
poet decides to assume equal guilt in the corruption of their union. He accuses
himself of irrationally 'authorizing' his lover's sins, and using a clever
conceit of the courtroom, he illustrates that he is at once an accessory to
the crime and the victim pressing charges; the prosecutor of his lover and
his lover's chief advocate. All of the sonnets are a testament to
Shakespeare's sensitivity and sweetness, but none more so than Sonnet 35. |