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Shakespeare Poems Part III

The Wedding Directory’s collection of Shakespeare’s love poems continued…

Sonnet 145: Those lips that Love’s own hand did make

Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said “I hate”
To me that languished 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 altered with an end,
That followed 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.”

It has been suggested that Shakespeare wrote this sonnet for his wife, Anne Hathaway. He confesses how much he hates to see her unhappy or hearing her utter the words ‘I hate’, particularly if it’s in relation to him. But when she realizes just how much it pains him when she does this, she decides to make some changes, ensuring that he knows that her husband is indeed appreciated.

Love Sonnet 147: My Love is a Fever, Longing Still

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as mad men’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed.
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Sonnet 147 tells us about the poet’s utter defencelessness against love. He likens love to a sickness, a fever, which cannot be cured, so dramatic and intense are the emotions he feels for his sweetheart. Abandoning all reason, he gives himself up to the all-encompassing power of love.

Love Sonnet 153

Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep:
A maid of Dian’s this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
Which borrow’d from this holy fire of Love
A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
But at my mistress’ eye Love’s brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
And thither hied, a sad distemper’d guest,
But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire–my mistress’ eyes.

Shakespeare, once again, refers to love as a sickness which cannot be cured. The only comfort for him in his vulnerable love-state is the ‘fire in his mistress’ eyes’, or that look which she gives him…

O Mistress Mine (From Twelfth Night)

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming? O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting; Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know. What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies not plenty; Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, set on the Adriatic Sea. The central female character, Viola, masquerades as a page boy in the household of the Duke Orsino. Then she falls in love with him! But, alas, he is in love with her twin sister, Olivia…

O, She Doth Teach the Torches to Burn Bright (From Romeo and Juliet)

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shines a snow-white swan trooping with crows,
As this fair lady o’er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
I never saw true beauty till this night.

One of the greatest love stories ever written, Romeo and Juliet tells the tragic story of two ‘star-cross’d lovers’ from two opposing families from Verona – Romeo Montagu and Juliet Capulet. Their families disapproving of their relationship, they must marry in secret…