Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt
If he is going to drop him, the embattled poet would prefer his friend to get on with it.
published 1609
King James I 1603-1625
If he is going to drop him, the embattled poet would prefer his friend to get on with it.
published 1609
King James I 1603-1625
Sonnet 90 finds the narrator expecting that ‘the fair youth’, a rather worthless young man whom he nevertheless idolises, is going to drop the acquaintance. His only concern is to make his thoughtless friend understand that, given the other pressures the poet is under right now, if it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.
Then hate me when thou wilt;* if ever, now;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah! do not, when my heart hath ’scap’d this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquer’d woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purpos’d overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come: so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compar’d with loss of thee, will not seem so.
* In the collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets published in 1609 (it is not known whether Shakespeare had a hand in it) these lines appear to be addressed to the ‘fair youth’ introduced to us in Sonnet 1. We are asked to imagine that these sonnets are written by a middle-aged and somewhat emotionally insecure poet who craves this young man’s love and attention. He will eventually see through 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.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
What does the Poet want his friend to hurry up and do?
To break their friendship, if he must.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
People like him. I’m not one of them.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IBaffle. IIPopularity. IIIWhy.