Sonnet 128 Analysis

Love unfailingly involves compromise: through the use of personification, the poet is

able to to make a compromise with his rival. The poet shows this by setting the scene as

romantic and then setting up a reason for a compromise. By personifying a keyed instrument and

its parts and repeatedly making the lines flow as if they were verses instead of stanzas, the poet

romanticizes the lines through the infusion of passionate musical qualities. When he ponders Do

I envy those jacks that nimble leap to kiss the tender inward of thy hand, the keys are shown to

kiss his mistress hand. The action of kissing reinforces the romanticism of the sonnet.

Furthermore, the poet presents how held back he is through this same romantic personification:

Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap, at the woods boldness by thee blushing

stand. Blushing, by its very nature, is present in embarrassment, especially in front of an

admired person. Because of his embarrassment of which he resolves to rid himself, he is inspired

to compromise with the melodies in order to get what he wants: the player. By ceding the

personified fingers to the keys, the poet gets to keep the players lips, reflecting the real-life

experience of letting the partner in a relationship keep certain traits and attitudes while also

having to give up others.

Keyly, the poet displays the first stanza without much pause, such as in the continuity and

flow of music. This mirroring of poetry and music presents a feud between the two, for they both

are vying to be the players. Most prevalently is, Upon that blessd wood whose motion sounds

With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently swayst The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

which shows no stop nor pause for three line; it is a form of music. The fact that music is within

the sonnet clearly represents the battle between the two: song versus poem, musician versus poet.

However, as the song progresses past the first quatrain, the lines become more regularly

punctuated, bringing
the poem further from sonata and closer to sonnet suggesting that the poet,
although withdrawn, is somehow coming to a resolution without the keys which he later is

revealed to be a compromise.