sonnet 144

Sonnet 144

Analysis of Sonnet 144 Line-By-Line

Sonnet 144 is the only sonnet out of a total of 154 that involves both the fair youth and
the dark lady, the two lead roles in Shakespeare's sonnet sequence. Consequently,
sonnet 144 is a high drama, high stakes poem where both characters battle it out for the
heart and soul of the speaker.

Line 1

The first line, with its inverted word order, Two loves I have, and psychological
extremes, comfort and despair, signals to the reader that they are about to undertake an
unusual journey.

There is an immediate feeling of stress, the language portraying a person caught

between two poles - positive and negative, ease and unease, hope and hopelessness.
One love brings comfort, the other despair.
Line 2

The fact that the speaker is affected psychologically/emotionally, causes him to view the
loves as spirits, entities of the air (or the mind). This is why they are able to tempt him
constantly (suggest me still).

Note the enjambment which takes the reader straight to the next line. Iambic
pentameter is dominant in both opening lines and continues on.

Line 3

The love that brings comfort is the better angel, a man right fair—the fair youth, the
lovely boy from previous sonnets. With the introduction of a biblical term, angel, the
focus shifts somewhat. We've entered the religious realm of Christian imagery.

Line 4

In contrast, the adversary is a woman with a dark complexion, the dark lady of previous
sonnets, now a rival lover, a worse spirit. So the scene is set. These two are walking
onto the stage and bringing with them their respective auras and histories.

Line 4 is the first to slightly deviate from pure iambic pentameter, the rhythm altering
mid-line so there is a pause after spirit, a natural caesura.

This first quatrain presents the reader with the antagonists, introduces religious
language and has the speaker well and truly caught in a triangle of love. He is trying to
work things out in his mind, inviting the reader into a suggestive world of hetero and
homo.

Line 5

Now we're being told that the female, the dark lady, is evil. Why? Because she's
causing hell for the speaker. And the word soon only worsens the desperate situation
the speaker finds himself in.

Line 6

Enjambment takes the reader straight into line 6, the evil woman now a temptress,
taking the man right fair away from the speaker. This is shocking news. The reader is
beginning to understand now just what is at stake. This is becoming a battle of good
versus evil, embodied in these two characters, and the speaker is clear that the fault lies
with the woman.

Line 7

In the process of distracting the better angel, the worse spirit is also corrupting him.
There is more religious language—saint, devil—which suggests that there is a danger of
her using her feminine charms, to tempt the young man into sin.

These biblical undertones are growing stronger. The image is conjured up of a saintly
innocent being sexually seduced by a female whose dark powers will send him (and the
speaker) directly to hell.

Line 8

All of this action in the second quatrain is summed up in line 8 as the woman woos, tries
to gain the love, of a pure and fair young man. She is using her physical prowess, her
sexual advances which are blatant and obscene.

Line 9

If the fair young man has been turned into something diabolic, changed from a spiritual
person into a demon because of the dark lady and her powers . . .

Line 10

. . . which is difficult to tell, but is likely so . . .

Line 11

. . . because he knows them both, they share common ground as friends, even if they're
away from each other, which is not the ideal situation he wants to be in . . .

Line 12

. . . so the fair young man and the dark lady will get what they deserve, he being in a
hell created by her, both of them victims of lust, sin and unspeakable acts.
This third quatrain is a little ambiguous. Has the speaker denounced the better angel
because he has been tempted away from his side by the lustful advances of the dark
lady?

Passion seems to have gained the upper hand. In Shakespeare's time, hell was also
used as a double entendre, being in hell was an allusion to sexual intercourse. It seems
that heaven has been brought down by the hellish antics of the female spirit.

Lines 13 and 14

And so to the concluding couplet and the agony of the speaker who isn't really certain
about these two friends after all. He is destined to live in doubt and ignorance because
he hasn't actually caught them red-handed, in the act, he only suspects that she is up to
something and fears for his fair friend, the young man, who could end up a sorry,
corrupted figure.

The speaker will only get to know for certain if she gets rid of him and he contracts a
venereal disease. Then he will know. This last line is based on a metaphor which was in
common use in Shakespeare's time - that of using fire to get a fox out of its hole. It was
also an allusion to the onset of venereal disease—let's not forget this was a pretty
serious ailment back in the Elizabethan era.

Shakespeare as ever takes us to heaven and back down again to hell, revealing life and
love and the agonies apparent in both as no other poet has. Was he actually involved in
such a triangle in real life? Impossible to tell, so little is known about the day-to-day life
of the Bard of Avon.

It does seem highly likely that at some stage in his emotional love life, the only way for
him to understand what was going on was to write sonnet after sonnet, transforming life
into art as only he could.

More Analysis of Sonnet 144

Sonnet 144 is a typical Shakespearean sonnet, that is, it has fourteen lines made up of
three quatrains and an end couplet.

The first quatrain sets the scene, the second is full of action and the third deals with
reaction. A conclusion is to be found in the end couplet.
 Rhyme

The rhyme scheme is conventional for this sort of sonnet: ababcdcdefefgg and all of

the end rhymes are full, except for lines 5 and 7 evil/devil.

Metre (Meter in American English)

 Usually, this sonnet is composed in an iambic pentameter. Some lines include

five feet each line, 10 syllables, including the common daDUM daDUM daDUM
daDUM daDUM daDUM stress mostly on second word/syllable.

 There are certain lines that do not follow this rhythm. Lines 4,5,and 7 have an
extra beat, 11 syllables, which means that the rhythm is slightly altered, the steady
iambic stretched.
 And lines 6 and 8 contain an opening trochee, with the stress on the first
syllable: DAdum. This makes for a slight stall.
First, let's take a look at the opening line, which is pure iambic pentameter:

 Two loves / I have / of com / fort and / despair,

Five equal feet, a familiar regular, rising rhythm.

Now let's move on to lines 6 and 8:

 Tempteth / my bet / ter an / gel from / my side,

 Wooing / his pur / ity / with her / foul pride.
In line 6 the first word has the stress on the first syllable so is a trochee (DAdum), which
tends to slow the reader down slightly. Iambs follow. Line 8 also starts off with a trochee
and has an interesting pyrrhic (dadum) as third foot which causes the reader to fade
away mid-line, before iambs restore the balance.
Analysis of Sonnet 144:

Shakespeare describes his two loves in the first quatrain of Sonnet 144. While one of
them calls soothing, the other gives sorrow. He goes on to state that all loves urge him
as much as spirits do. The best angel is a man who is beautiful and beautiful, while the
worst spirit or angel is a woman who is dark in her colors. It is very clear that the poet
favors a man's companionship to that of a woman. The man and the woman appear to
represent opposites in the poet's life, and they are more of an antithesis of each other.
He is decent and bright, and he is evil and corrupt. Although he's fair, he's gloomy, he's
soothing, and he brings depression to the poet.

In the second quatrain, he states that his female lover will eventually take him to hell by
enticing his better angel away from him. Here he may not say hell in the actual sense,
but the uncertainty of trying to compromise between his mutual allegiance and not
knowing what will be the ultimate outcome of this love triangle. He claims he's trying to
corrupt his better angel with the devil and corrupt his spirit with pride. Interestingly, he
puts on the lady all the blame of the relationship between his male and female partners.
The poet is unsure if his fair friend, the better angel, is going to transform the enemy,
but he suspects that this is so. He thinks so, that both the best angel and the bad spirit
are away from him.

In the last quatrain, he says one angel is the other hell. However, even if he has
concerns, he will not be certain. And his suspicions can only be proven if the dark
angel pushes the positive out.