Created by: Athira Babu

Context
• "Sonnet 129" belongs to the "Dark Lady" sequence of
Shakespeare's of 154 sonnets.
• Whereas the first 126 of these sonnets (known as the "Fair
Youth" sequence) are about the strong connection that the
speaker (often taken to be Shakespeare himself) has with a
young man, the sonnets in the Dark Lady chunk are more
blatantly sexual and often present romantic passion as a
sickness.
• This is clearly the case in "Sonnet 129," which frames lust
as an overpowering, misery-inducing force.
Context
• Whereas the sonnets about the Fair Youth tend to be
wistful and affectionate, many of the sonnets about the
Dark Lady are full of intense, self-destructive passion.
• "Sonnet 129" doesn't even mention the Dark Lady, instead
focusing on the ravaging effects of lust.
• The poem is about the frustrating, torturous side of sex and
desire. It presents lust as a "savage," all-consuming force
that drives people "mad," pushing them to seek
out physical satisfaction at all costs.
 Analysis

The expense of spirit in a waste of • The speaker calls lust as an "expense of spirit,"
shame -a metaphor that implies that lust uses up
Is lust in action; and till action, lust one's mental, physical and spiritual energy.
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of • It's little more than a "waste of shame"—lust is
blame, not only a pointless use of energy, but also as
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to something that leads to guilt
trust,
• "Lust," then, is something capable of driving
people to deplete their "spirit" and vitality as
they go looking for a sexual release.
 Analysis

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame • He goes on to explain that this refers only to “lust
Is lust in action; and till action, lust in action.” But, “till action,” lust is something else
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of entirely.
blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, • He sees it as an angry, “bloody,” and “savage”
emotion. It is “cruel” and untrustworthy.
• To waste energy in the pointless, embarrassing
act: that's what it means to have sex.
• But until people have sex, their desires will be
misleading, cruel, violent, shameful, wild,
intense, inappropriate, merciless, and deceptive.
 Analysis

Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, • The speaker jumps between longing,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had fulfillment, and memory. No sooner is lust
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait “enjoyed” than it is “despised.”
On purpose laid to make the taker mad; • The moment someone experiences the
fulfillment of their lust—engages in sex—they
will hate it immediately.
• A person pursues the object of their lust past
the point of reason, and then hates the object
of their lust past reason, as if it is a bait that,
when swallowed, makes the person crazy.
 Analysis

Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, • As soon as people give in to their sexual
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had desires, they hate them.
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait • Lust pushes people to irrationally chase after
On purpose laid to make the taker mad; sex, even though, as soon as they have it, they
hate the impulse that drove them toward sex
in the first place—as though they were a fish
that'd swallowed a fisherman's bait, a trap that
was specifically set to attract them and make
them go crazy.
 Analysis

Mad in pursuit and in possession so; • The speaker says that lust is mad in all three of
Had, having, and in quest to have, its forms: in pursuit and possession, it is mad,
extreme; and in memory, consummation, and longing ,it
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; is “extreme.”
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a • While it is experienced it might be “a bliss in
dream. proof,” but as soon as it is finished (“proved”) it
becomes “a very woe.” In longing, it is “a joy
proposed,” but in memory, the pleasure it
afforded is merely “a dream.”
 Analysis

Mad in pursuit and in possession so; • People go mad trying to fulfill their longings,
Had, having, and in quest to have, and feel just as mad when actually doing
extreme; so; such passions are intense and
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; overwhelming regardless of whether people
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a have already had sex, are in the middle of
dream. having sex, or are seeking out sex.
• Having sex is a blissful act, but people are
miserable once it ends; the prospect of sex is
great, but once it's over, the pleasure vanishes
as if it were all just a dream.
 Analysis

All this the world well knows; yet none • In the couplet, the speaker says that the whole
knows well world knows these things well; but
To shun the heaven that leads men to nevertheless, none knows how to shun lust in
this hell. order to avoid shame.
• Everyone knows this, but nobody has the good
sense to resist the heavenly allure of sex in
order to avoid the hellish torments of lust.
Analysis

• Sonnet 129, is very different in tone - it doesn't deal with

beauty, nor does it express the plight of a courtly lover or
directly address a beloved, or even make use of a single
personal pronoun.
• Instead, it acts as a sermon that warns against the lust for sex,
which, in Christian doctrine of the time, was considered a sin.
• A common belief at the time was that a human being consists
of a heavenly part (the soul) and an earthly part (the body), the
latter of which is prone to sin and which has the potential to
corrupt the soul.
Analysis

• The first line, in defining lust as an "expense of spirit," refers to the

Elizabethan belief that when someone (particularly a male) has an
orgasm, he transforms some of his vital spirit into semen, which he
then expends.
• The belief was that a person had a finite amount of vital spirit, so
that having too much sex would lead to an early death because
each time someone had an orgasm, they would shorten their life by
one day: in other words, they would die a little bit.
• For this reason, the phrase to die in Elizabethan literature often has
the double meaning of "to have sex." For example, in Romeo and
Juliet, after Romeo has spent the night with Juliet, he says, "I must
be gone and live, or stay and die." So the notion that someone is
expending their spirit by having sex is quite literally intended.
Analysis

• A major idea in this sonnet is that lust causes someone to act

without reason. It was believed in the time of Shakespeare that
will and reason were the causes of human action.
• Reason, or understanding, is the faculty that recognizes what is
good. But both will and reason were corrupted by the biblical
fall from grace and are prone to evil, especially as a result of
lust.
Poetic Devices

• Metaphor:
✓ 'The expense of spirit' (sex as something that costs people their own "spirit" or vitality)
✓ 'a dream' (sexual pleasure is fleeting).
✓ 'To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.' ("heaven" is the fleeting physical
satisfaction of sex, and "hell" is the feeling of feverish desire that drives people crazy.)
• Simile - "swallowed bait," (sexual desire is like a trap of some kind).
• Personification - 'lust perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,Savage, extreme, rude,
cruel, not to trust' (Lust as a man who act in cruel ways)
• Irony - Lust can be murderous and at the same time blissful, everyone knows about this but
nobody could resist it.