Sonnet 3 Meaning

......Look in a mirror and tell yourself that now is the time to beget a child (“form another”). There is no woman, after all, who is so outstanding that she will refuse to marry you and engage in intimate relations. It is not right that a man should love only himself, refusing to take a wife and pass on his good qualities to a child. Your mother bequeathed to you your excellent attributes, and you in turn should bestow them on your own child, who will reflect your youth when you are old. If you choose not to marry and have a family, no one will remember you. 

Sonnet 9 Meaning

......The first two lines ask whether the young man is afraid to marry for fear that he will leave behind a saddened widow when he eventually dies. If he remains single because of that fear, the sonnet says, he should keep in mind that the world itself will weep for him because he died without children to preserve his image in them. He will become less than a wastrel, who lives on after his death in the still-circulating money that he spent. Shakespeare ends the sonnet by saying that the young man’s avoidance of marriage is shameful. 

Sonnet 12 Meaning

......The toll or tick of a clock, the setting sun, withering flowers,  falling leaves, the autumn harvest all make me aware of the passing of time, reminding me that you (the young man) too will grow old and die. Therefore, now, while you are still young, you should marry and breed (have children) who will live on after you. Only in this way can you defeat death.

.......Will future readers of my verse believe me when I tell them about all of your superior qualities? So far, I have only hinted at these qualities because a full description of them would make readers doubt that anyone could have such extraordinary attributes.  They would call me a liar. They would say I am exaggerating (with “stretched meter”). However, if you marry and father a child, people will see a reflection of you in the child and, thus, my poetry about you will be taken as the truth. 

.......This sonnet is presented and explained on the main page (The Sonnet: A Study Guide). It is probably the most popular of all the sonnets because of the beauty of its poetry and rhythm. It is differs from the previous 17 sonnets in one key respect: It does not urge the young man to marry and have children. The reason for this new approach is that the author is now convinced that his poetry alone is enough to preserve the memory of the young man's outstanding qualities. 

.......Even though my mirror tells me that I am aging, the poet says, I will not grow old while you remain young. However, when I see wrinkles (“time’s furrows”) on your face, then I will look for death to come for me and take me as payment for any offenses I may have committed in my life. Your heart and mine are bound together, and I will guard yours as carefully as a nurse caring for a baby. But do not presume that you will be unaffected when my heart is no longer able to beat for you. Here, the poet appears to be warning the young man that ending their relationship would have adverse consequences.

.......This sonnet is a metaphor that compares the young man to the sun. In the morning the sun turns its “sovereign eye” (light) on the mountaintops, then on the green meadows and streams. (In other words, when all is well between the poet and the young man, everything is cheerful and bright.) However, dark clouds come between the sun and the earth (just as a barrier–perhaps a disagreement–has apparently come between the two men). Then, obscured by the clouds, the sun continues on its daily journey across the sky. Nevertheless, the poet says, he will not diminish his love and admiration for the young man. After all, the last two lines say, human relationships cloud over from time to time just as the sky does. The implication here is that the clouds will eventually move on and the sun will shine again.
.......The word flatter in the second line could indicate that the poet–despite the forgiving attitude he mentions in Line 13–may be a bit peeved. In most dictionaries, one of the definitions for flattery is insincere praise. Thus, it could be that Shakespeare is chiding the young man for giving perfunctory, artificial praise, then returning to his “celestial orbit” and remaining there.
.......In the fifth line, basest clouds appears to refer to despicable persons or regrettable circumstances that estranged the two men. 

......In this sonnet, Shakespeare–though young when he wrote it–assumes the persona of an old man reflecting on his advancing age.  Here is what he tells the young man: 
......I am like trees as they appear late in the year–either autumn (signified by yellow “leaves”) or early winter (signified by “none”) when most or all of the leaves have fallen from the trees. The boughs of the trees, once alive with choirs of singing birds, now are bare–like empty seats in the chancel or choir loft of a decaying church. (Many churches and monasteries in Shakespeare’s day were in ruins as a result of  King Henry VIII’s crackdown on Catholicism before Shakespeare was born.) I am also like evening after the “sunset fadeth.” The blackness of night, or death, will eventually take me, sealing me from life as I lie at eternal rest. Finally, I am like dying embers on ashes–the burned-out remnants of the fire of my youth. 
......The last two lines are addressed to the young man. They appear to have two meanings: (1) You will love the old man all the more because you know that I am near death; (2) you will love and appreciate your own life more because you now realize that the green leaf of youth will soon turn yellow and fall. 

Sonnet 79 (Addressed to the Unidentified Young Man as a Complaint About the Rival Poet)
 

Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid,	When only I wrote about you
My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,	and only my poetry captured your gentle qualities
But now my gracious numbers are decay'd	Now I have worn myself out writing about you; numbers: poems
And my sick Muse doth give another place.	sick Muse: flagging, overtaxed creativity
I grant, sweet love, thy lovely argument	argument: excellent qualities that "argue" for attention
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,	travail: writing, poetry; the work of writing poetry
Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent	whatever quality this other poet writes about
He robs thee of and pays it thee again.	See paragraph below
He lends thee virtue and he stole that word	See paragraph below
From thy behavior; beauty doth he give	See paragraph below
And found it in thy cheek; he can afford	See paragraph below
No praise to thee but what in thee doth live.	See paragraph below
......Then thank him not for that which he doth say,	See paragraph below
......Since what he owes thee thou thyself dost pay.	See paragraph below

Sonnet 79 Meaning

......When only I wrote about you, mine was the only poetry that extolled your gentle virtues. However, now that I have worn myself out praising you in verse, another poet has taken my place and is writing his own poems about you. Of course, I realize that your lovely qualities deserve the attention of another poet. Yet all he seems to do is reflect your virtues in words--that is, he takes your good qualities, then simply gives them back to you. He doesn't really interpret you creatively; he merely repeats what is already written in your behavior or in your cheek. Thus, you don't owe him any thanks for what he writes about you. In fact, he owes you thanks for what you are giving him. 

Sonnet 81 Meaning

......Shakespeare says his poetry about the young man will immortalize the youth. It will serve as an epitaph that future generations will read and talk about. Although Shakespeare himself will lie in a humble grave, forgotten, the young man will "lie" in a memorial of fame constructed by Shakespeare's poetry. After everyone in the world of Shakespeare and the young man is dead, the young man will continue to live in Shakespeare's words. (Shakespeare, of course, was right about one thing: He did immortalize the young man. But he was wrong about another: that he himself, as author of the sonnets, would be forgotten.)

Sonnet 91 Meaning

......Some men glory in having a prestigious family name. Others glory in special talents–or perhaps their wealth or physical strength. Still others take great pride in wearing the latest fashions, even though sometimes they choose horrid apparel. And there are all sorts of other things that command the attention of men. As for me, I prize your love above all else. It is better than horses and hawks and all of the other pursuits and pleasures. However, if you choose to ignore me, I will become woeful and desolate.

Sonnet 100 Meaning
.
......Shakespeare has apparently been experiencing writer’s block or some other problem hindering him from producing new poems about the young man. So, in this sonnet, he asks the Muse for new enthusiasm, new ideas, so that he may continue to extol the virtues of the young man. A Muse was a Greek goddess. There were nine of them in all. It was believed that they infused poets, painters, and other artists with the fire of creativity. Shakespeare, of course, did not believe in goddesses. He was simply using the word Muse as a metaphor for the intellectual stimulation required to write a good poem. Since ancient times, writers have used Muse in this way. In modern America, we call upon the metaphorical "Uncle Sam" to protect us against enemies or "Lady Luck" to bring us good fortune in a gambling casino. And, we also call upon the "Muse" to inspire us to write a good essay for English 101. 

......In my eyes, you can never be old, for you look the same now as you did when I first saw you. You still retain your beauty. Since that time, three cold winters have shaken the leaves of three summers off the trees, and three beautiful springs have turned into the yellow color of autumn. During those three years, the fresh fragrance of three Aprils burned away in the hot sun of three Junes. Yet still you are young, unchanged. The hand of the clock may be stealing your beauty, but hand must be moving very slowly because I perceive no change in you. Your sweet complexion still looks the same, even though it is aging, but I realize time may be deceiving my eye. In fear that I am being deceived, I urge you who have yet to be born, all of you of future generations, to pay attention to this observation: You cannot grow up to be truly beautiful, because beauty--which has been fully and supremely realized in the young man I am writing about--will die when he dies. In him, beauty has used itself up. 

The message of this sonnet is simple and straightforward: If a person discovers impediments hampering his relationship with another person, he should not alter his love for that person. On the contrary, his love should remain fixed and constant, like a star that guides ships in a storm. In addition, his love should remain strong even when youth passes–in fact, “even to the edge of doom.”

Sonnet 128 Meaning

......You are my music. When you play music on the harpsichord, making beautiful sounds, I envy the keys which feel the kiss of your hands. It is I who should feel that kiss. But my lips remain untouched as your fingers walk gently over the keys, making the dead wood of the harpsichord more blest than my own lips. Since the harpsichord seems happy to know the touch of your fingers, then give it your fingers and give your lips to me. 

Sonnet 131 Meaning

......You are tyrannical, such as you are, like others whose beauty makes them cruel. You well know that, to me, you are the fairest and most precious jewel. Yet, in truth, some men who look at you say that your face does not have the power to make them sigh. I will not be so bold as to say that they are wrong, although I say that to myself when I'm alone. I know I am right about your beauty; the groans of desire I experience when I think of your face bear witness to this fact. Your dark beauty is the fairest kind, in my judgment. You are not black in anything except your reprehensible behavior, which I think is the reason that some men slander your physical beauty. 

Sonnet 135 Meaning

......Whoever has the attention of the Dark Lady has his own wish fulfilled and also has Will Shakespeare--in fact, an excess of Will Shakespeare, since my own will, my own desire, is centered in her. I am ever ready to add more of myself to you, dear Dark Lady, to please your will (desire), which is "large and spacious." Please put my will in your will--that is, desire me the way I desire you. (When Shakespeare speaks of the Dark Lady's "large and spacious" will and then of hiding his will "in thine," he may be alluding to sexual relations.) Does it seem right to accept the will of others while rejecting my will? True, you already have all of me. I am like a sea that fills you up. But the sea, though full, receives rain and therefore becomes more full. Do the same for me. Although you are already rich in 'Will'--me--receive more of me so that I become an even bigger 'Will' in you. 

Sonnet 141Meaning

......It is not my physical senses that make me love you. After all, my eyes, my ears, and the rest of my five senses perceive flaws in your body. Instead, it is my heart that loves you. But in spite of the way my physical senses see you, they cannot stop my heart from making myself your slave. In this regard, you rob me of self-control (who leaves unswayed) so that I have no choice but to serve you. Nevertheless, desiring you benefits me.

Note 1: In a footnote on Page 1997 of The Norton Shakespeare, the five wits are identified as “common sense, imagination, fancy, judgment, memory.”–Greenblatt, Stephen, general ed. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Page 1997.
Note 2: The Norton Shakespeare suggests the following meaning of this line: The Dark Lady causes the author to sin. To erase the sin, he mortifies himself–that is, he does painful penance which lessens his guilt in the eyes of God and therefore enhances his chances of a favorable destiny in the afterlife. 

Sonnet 153 Meaning

......Cupid put down the burning torch he often used (in place of his arrows) to inflame the human heart with love. Then he fell asleep. One of the maidservants of Diana happened by. (In Roman mythology, Diana, a virgin, was the goddess of the hunt and of the moon. She was also a protector of women.) The mischievous maidservant stole the firebrand and plunged it into the cold water of a fountain. However, the fire did not go out. Instead, it continued to burn, causing the water to heat up and create a steamy bath in which men could immerse themselves and cure strange illnesses resulting from their romantic relationships. As for Shakespeare, well, he wishes the boy (Cupid) would use on him the fire he captured from the emotional fire in the eyes of Shakespeare's mistress. Shakespeare is sick with love for her, but when he tried out the bath he found no cure. So the only help for him is the warmth in his mistress's eyes. 

Sonnets: Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets  Available at Amazon.com 
The Sonnets: Charles Robinson Illustrator  Available at Amazon.com
Sonnets: Complete Shakespeare Sonnets on Audiotape  Available at Amazon.com
William Shakespeare: A Poet for All Times Available at Amazon.com

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