Sonnet 145

sonnet|145
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'
To me that languish'd for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
'I hate' she alter'd with an end,
That follow'd it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away;
'I hate' from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you.'

ynopsis

The poet's lover seems to be about say she hates him despite his devotion to her. But as soon as she saw how sad he was, she repented, and changed the phrase "I hate" into "I hate not you"

Commentary

This sonnet is unique in the collection, because it is written in iambic tetrameter, instead of pentameter. It has generally been considered by critics to be one of Shakespeare's slightest works. Its fairly simple language and syntax, along with the oddity of the meter, have led to suggestions that it was written much earlier than the other, more mature, sonnets.

Though it is placed within the "Dark Lady" sequence, it has been claimed that the poem was originally written for Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. This was first proposed by Andrew Gurr in 1971. Gurr suggested that the words "hate away" may be a pun (in Elizabethan pronunciation) on "Hathaway". It has also been suggested that the next words, "And saved my life", would have been indistinguishable in pronunciation from "Anne saved my life". [http://eic.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/XXI/3/221.pdf]

ee also

Shakespeare's sonnets

External links

* [http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/145comm.htm Shakespeare sonnets.com]