On Love’s Lips
William Shakespeare recalls how the love of his life once teased him to the brink of despair.
published 1609
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
William Shakespeare recalls how the love of his life once teased him to the brink of despair.
published 1609
Queen Elizabeth I 1558-1603
This Sonnet is held to be one of William Shakespeare’s earlier works, owing in part to its relatively simple form. However, keen-eyed observers have noted that the husband of Anne Hathaway seems to have buried some tender-hearted little clues in the closing lines.
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.’*
‘Languished for her sake’: William is hurt that his wife Anne (to whom the Sonnet appears to be addressed) has used such harsh words as ‘I hate’ towards him, when he more than anyone else is anxious to please her.
Anne, quick eyed, notices the effect of her words, and silently reproves herself for her words (‘chiding her tongue’), which were unusually bitter for someone who always pronounced judgment (‘doom’) gently.
Anne adds a couple of words onto her criticism, and as a result the impact on William changes entirely, as night changes to day.
Note that ‘hate away’ is not so very far from ‘Hathaway’; likewise, ‘And saved my life’ sounds not unlike ‘Anne saved my life.’ Anne relieves William by making it clear that she does not hate him.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.