Free College Essays - Shakespeares Sonnet 147 :: Sonnet essays

praise 147   SONNET CXLVII My savor is as a fever, longing pacify For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The enigmatic sickly appetite to transport. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions ar non kept, Hath left over(p)(a) me, and I desperate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. ago cure I am, now reason is erstwhile(prenominal) care, And frantic-mad with evermore excitement My thoughts and my discourse as madmens are, At random from the truth vainly expressd    For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,    Who art as nasty as hell, as dark as night. PARAPHRASE OF SONNET CXLVII My love is like a fever, still longing, For that which feeds the disease, Feeding on that which prolongs the illness, All to please the unhealthy desires of the body. My reason, loves doctor, Angry that I do not follow his directions, Has left me, and desperate I find that desire Leads to death, which physic (reason) will not allow. Now reason is past caring, now I am past cure, And I am frantic with continual unrest My thoughts and my words are like a madmans, Lies foolishly uttered    For I thought you were clean-living and bright (shining as a star),    But you really are disastrous as hell and dark as night.   Analysis Shakespeares scathing approach shot upon the clean-livingity of his mistress exemplifies their tumultuous and perplexing relationship. The three quatrains outline the poets familiar struggle to cope with both his lovers infidelity and the embarrassing self-admission that he still desires her to gratify him sexually, even though she has been with other men. The poet yearns to understand why, in venom of the judgment of reason (5), he still is enslaved by her charms. Confused by his own inexplicable urges, the poets whole being is at odds with his unsatisfiable "sickly appetite&qu ot (4) for the dark lady. He deduces in the final quatrain that he surely must be insane, for he calls his mistress just and moral when she obviously is neither. Not until later sonnets (150-1) do we see a mixed bag of tone and a cool-headed acknowledgment of the recklessness of the whole affair. In Sonnet 151, the poet admits that he cannot continue the relationship because it betrays his "nobler part" (6) i.