Essay: Analysis of Sonnet 83 :: Sonnet essays

Analysis of Sonnet 83   I never adage that you did painting did need, And therefore to your fair no painting set. I found, or thought I found, you did exceed The barren tender of a poets debt. And therefore entertain I slept in your report, That you yourself-importance, being extant, well might show How far a modern quill doth come too short Speaking of expense, what worth in you doth grow. This silence for my sin sis you impute, Which shall be muost my glory, being dumb, For I impair not being beauty being mute, When others would give life and assume a tomb. There lives more life in one of you fair eyes Than both you poets can in praise devise.     In some of Shakespeares Sonnets we the referee can see that he was against the use of cosmetics. Commonly referred to as painting, we see this sonnet to prove his dislike for the use of beautifying agents. 1-2 I never thought, because of the way you advance to me, that you ever needed cosmetics, and theref ore, you dont need a cosmetic kit to make you beautiful. Set here can also be read as a verb, as in the drying of the make-up. (Make-up in Elizabethan England was quite different from todays, including some such elements as lead in the composition). 3-4 Exceed does refer to the barren tender, but it wouldnt be inappropriate to infer that Shakespeare is reflecting upon an exceeding amount of cosmetics applied. But better is the exceeding in the absent or of no worth payments (of flattery) of a poets debt. Debt is taken to mean both the debt that poets be possessed of to beauty, as their duty to praise it, and also a pun on monetary deficiency. This then refers back to tender, meaning both soft and mobile as well as currency. All of these words create a theme of finance, perhaps outlining the worth of the addressee. 5 Report meaning description. 6-8 Because your (still) existing self very well may show just how far a modern quill writing instrument at the time comes too short in ta lk of your worth, the worth that grows in you.