Simple Thoughts of Sonnet 129

Since we didn't spend much class time discussing the sonnets that we were assigned to read I'm going to make a few comments on number 129.  I'm familiar with most of the other sonnets on the list, but this particular work struck me as new and refreshing.  Truly Bill was no stranger to love and lust, as it is scene parodied over and over throughout all of his poems and plays, but with this sonnet he attempts to twist the traditional "love story" into more of a biting criticism on lust.  Seemingly, it is always lust that gets characters and people into trouble.  The following is Sonnet 129


The expense of spirit in a waste of shame 

 image courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book
 and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Is lust in action; and till action, lust 
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, 
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, 
Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, 
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had 
Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait 
On purpose laid to make the taker mad; 
Mad in pursuit and in possession so; 
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; 
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; 
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. 
   All this the world well knows; yet none knows well 
   To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. 


I particularly enjoy this poem because it reads differently to me...almost violently.  In the first eight lines the speaker tells us what lust is.  Lust certainly isn't a "summer's day" but instead it is "savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust."  There isn't a better way to describe it.  In the language of this sonnet you can actually feel the intensity of lust and how dancing with lust will only humor you for a moment, then spit you back out with a heart shamefully ripped to shreds.  Like a typical Shakespearean sonnet there is a build-up throughout the quatrains; in this case it seems that the speaker is talking about the build up of lust, and the actual action of lust.  The sonnet suggests that lust is maddening and even contagious. 


 It is not to say that lust is without passion.  In Venus and Adonis  the love affair between the two was full of sexual passion, but in the end it was only sexual lust that Adonis felt towards his adoring Venus.  And, an argument could easily be made that Venus simply lusted for and not loved the hansom hunter.  It is humorous to consider that Venus, the goddess of love, succumbed to lust.  Adonis attempts to protest the lustful attack from Venus, but "she murders him with a kiss" thus only furthering the power of lust that Shakespeare identifies is Sonnet 129.  One more similarity I'd like to point out in closing is that of the last two lines of the sonnet, All this the world we know; yet none knows well/  To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.  And, the following lines from Venus and Adonis, Poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn/ To love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn! (lines 251-252)  There is a certain amount of failure that should be expected when once lusts after another, and even when two lust towards one another.  Venus, goddess of love, failed at love.  Perhaps she should have been more familiar with sonnet 129.