Shakespeare’s Sonnet 75 is a profound reflection on the tension between desire and restraint, the ephemeral nature of human life, and the tension between personal pleasure and the recognition of its transience. The sonnet, with its clear structure and emotional intensity, presents a speaker’s internal conflict in love, dealing with the paradoxes of longing, possession, and loss. Through detailed poetic language and imagery, Shakespeare masterfully expresses the contradictory emotions tied to a love that is both all-consuming and fleeting.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ’twixt a miser and his wealth is found:
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure.
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starvèd for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
The Structure and Tone of Sonnet 75
The poem follows the typical structure of Shakespearean sonnets, consisting of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter, and employing a regular rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The rhyme scheme, with its alternating rhymes and culminating couplet, mirrors the back-and-forth tension within the speaker’s emotional state. The iambic pentameter, with its rhythm of ten syllables per line, reinforces the steady yet unrelenting force of the speaker’s desires and frustrations.
The tone of the poem fluctuates between moments of passionate intensity and deep frustration. The speaker expresses yearning and satisfaction in one breath, only to fall into doubt or despair in the next. There is a sense of inner turmoil, as the speaker is torn between his love and the inevitable passage of time, which threatens to steal the very thing he holds dear. This duality is captured by the oscillating emotions of pleasure and pain, abundance and deprivation. The poem ultimately highlights the complexities of human desire and the emotional cost of love.
Analysis of Sonnet 75
Lines 1-4
“So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ’twixt a miser and his wealth is found:”
In these opening lines, the speaker draws an analogy between his lover and two essential life-giving forces: food and rain. Just as food sustains life and rain nourishes the earth, the speaker’s lover is portrayed as a necessary and vital presence in his life. The first simile evokes a sense of dependence: just as life cannot exist without nourishment, the speaker’s thoughts cannot exist without the lover’s presence. The second simile (comparing the lover to sweet-seasoned showers) further emphasizes the sustaining and enriching nature of this love. However, the second half of the quatrain introduces a sense of conflict. The phrase “for the peace of you I hold such strife” suggests that the speaker’s emotional connection is not without its challenges. He likens this internal struggle to that of a miser protecting his wealth. Just as a miser hoards his possessions and fears losing them, the speaker’s desire to possess his lover is fraught with anxiety over potential loss. This establishes the central tension of the poem: the fear of loss versus the need for possession.
Lines 5-8
“Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure.”
In these lines, the speaker’s emotional state oscillates between satisfaction and fear. In the first part of the quatrain, the speaker feels a sense of pride in “enjoying” the lover’s company, as though the love itself is a treasure to be savored. But almost immediately, he is struck by the fear that time will “steal” this treasure. The reference to “filching age” introduces the specter of mortality—an external force that threatens to deprive him of his joy. In the following lines, the speaker wrestles with his desire for private affection versus the public display of that love. At times, the speaker wants to be with the lover in solitude (“with you alone”), but at other moments, he seeks external validation or recognition (“bettered that the world may see my pleasure”). This fluctuation reveals the tension between personal intimacy and the need for external affirmation.
Lines 9-12
“Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starvèd for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had or must from you be took.”
Here, the speaker compares his emotional state to that of a feast followed by hunger. At times, he is “full” from the “feasting” on the lover’s presence, enjoying the indulgence of his affection. But just as quickly, he is “starvèd” for the lack of the lover’s attention. The paradox of abundance followed by deprivation is starkly presented, underscoring the inconstancy and instability of the speaker’s desires. The speaker seems unable to find satisfaction, as his pleasure is contingent upon the lover’s presence or attention, and nothing else can provide him with joy. This portrayal of the speaker’s emotional experience speaks to the intense, almost obsessive nature of the speaker’s longing, where fulfillment is momentary and fleeting.
Lines 13-14
“Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.”
In the final couplet, the speaker sums up the cyclical nature of his emotional state. He is caught in a constant loop of excess and deprivation, alternately “pining” and “surfeiting” on the love he desires. The use of “gluttoning” evokes an image of overindulgence, suggesting that the speaker consumes the love to the point of excess, only to later find himself wanting. The phrase “all away” speaks to the fear of losing everything, of having the object of his affection taken from him. The final couplet encapsulates the central conflict of the sonnet: the insatiable longing for love and the inevitable dissatisfaction that comes from trying to possess it fully.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 75 is a poignant exploration of the complexities of love, desire, and the human condition. Through vivid imagery and striking metaphors, the speaker conveys a deep emotional conflict: a longing to possess love fully while simultaneously fearing its loss. The oscillation between abundance and deprivation reflects the contradictory nature of desire, which is both fulfilling and frustrating. Ultimately, the poem serves as a meditation on the transitory nature of life and love, as the speaker grapples with the inevitable passage of time that threatens to undo his joy. The sonnet is a timeless reflection on the paradoxes of human desire, capturing the tension between the present moment and the inevitable future.
