Interpretations: Sonnets 35 and 52 of Shakespeare

“No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done:
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are;
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
(Thy adverse party is thy advocate)
And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence:
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an accessary needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.”

Line 1: Don’t be ashamed at what you have done in the past. Let it go and forgive you.

Lines 2-4: Even those who seem perfect and flawless sin and make mistakes. Some are better at masking it than others but the flaws are still there.

Lines 5-7: Everyone makes mistakes, and there is no reason to hold contempt for someone just because they seem to have a better life than you. Jealousy is a sin in itself; don’t fall into a trap of your own making. As I stressed before, EVERYONE has flaws, some not as visible as others.

Lines 8-11: Don’t avoid your sins or try to cover them up because that only makes things worse. As I said in line one: forgive yourself of your mistakes. Don’t dwell on such small things and leave them in the past. If you let them stay in the back of your mind, it will only grow more contempt for those who you think are “better” than you in a sense. Others can be better at a certain ACTIVITY, but NO ONE can be BETTER than you.

Lines 12-14: Be kind to those who seem to be doing better than you as they too are going through their own struggles. Understand their pain, even if they refuse to understand yours and are not forgiving of you. In a religious sense, know that God repents all sins in the end and that you just need to put your trust in Him.

Perhaps Shakespeare was going through a time of spiritual darkness/doubt at the time he wrote this sonnet and felt that everyone had it better than him, despite his acclaim as a wonderful playwright. I certainly have had times in life where I feel that EVERYONE has it better than me- not even just the stars and celebs. On the opposite side of things, maybe he was trying to offer comfort to those who felt that way and remind them that even famous people like himself have issues too, and that in the end we are all human beings who are flawed and make mistakes.

I don’t know how spiritual and religious Shakespeare was, but this sonnet to me almost sounded like a plea to God. If not comforting, crying out: asking God to take away his sins and the sins of those around him, to give him the graces he needed to forgive them for all the hurt they had caused him and ALSO give them the strength to forgive him of any wrongs he himself had committed.

This is sonnet 35. It is one of the few sonnets Shakespeare wrote that was not about love.

“So am I as the rich whose blessèd key

Can bring him to his sweet up-lockèd treasure,

The which he will not every hour survey,

For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.

Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,

Since seldom coming in the long year set,

Like stones of worth they thinly placèd are,

Or captain jewels in the carcanet.

So is the time that keeps you as my chest,

Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,

To make some special instant special blest

By new unfolding his imprisoned pride.

  Blessèd are you whose worthiness gives scope,

  Being had, to triumph; being lacked, to hope.”

I don’t even need to arrange this sonnet into different lines to get the point of it across- I think it is pretty clear that Shakespeare is trying to say that even though you may have something great, too much emphasis on it can truly make it not that great. That is why (so Shakespeare says) holidays are so far spaced apart- so that when they do come around, they are that much more special. Who would want Christmas every day? Think about it. At first, it would be GREAT. A feast, gifts, and a merry time EVERY DAY. But after about a week, you’d get sick of it and want a normal life again.

It’s like the richest person in the world. Have you ever thought what THAT would be like in the hands of the wrong person? I’m sure that at first instinct we would all say “Yeah, I’d love that!”  But would we really? How long would it be before we let our wallets get the best of us? Humans have impulses that tell them to always have goals, wants and needs and to strive to fulfill those wants and needs. If we were the richest people in the world (and imagine for a moment that you are), how long would it take for us to satisfy ALL of our needs and wants?

With all that money, we would be satisfied- correct? No. We would still want SOMETHING, even if we had no idea WHAT it was. That is why it is better to have a moderate amount of everything and have goals and wants to work towards- that way it feels so much nicer when you achieve them. Say, for instance, that you have been saving up for an expensive car or TV. It feels MUCH better buying it after you have worked your tail end off for it than just buying it with money you had anyway.

Be the one who has a treasure, but savors it for the right moment- Have the money to get what you want, but don’t exploit it. Have limits and boundaries to you compulsiveness. Don’t take life for granted, for within an instant it could be gone. Take your life for what it is and nothing more. If you are a little more fortunate than others, good. If not, fine- your life is yours to live and no one else’s. I think that I have made good decisions in mine and savored the wonderful and joyous parts- have you?

Maddie