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. Sonnet 75 . (original language, but moderately updated) 01. So are you to my thoughts as food to life, 02. Or as sweet season'd showers are to the ground; 03. And for the peace of you I hold such strife, 04. As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found. 05. Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon 06. Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure, 07. Now counting best to be with you alone, 08. Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure, 09. Sometime all full with feasting on your sight, 10. And by and by clean starved for a look, 11. Possessing or pursuing no delight 12. Save what is had, or must from you be took. 13. Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, 14. Or gluttoning on all, or all away. |
. Sonnet 75 . (paraphrased) 01. You nourish my thoughts the way food nourishes my living body, 02. Or, the way springtime showers produce new growth from the ground, 03. And, for the security of having you, I feel such covetousness, 04. That it's like the way a miser feels for his riches - 05. One minute, the miser congratulates himself in his enjoyment of having his riches, but soon 06. He suspects and fears that because of all the thieves there are these days, somebody will steal his treasure; 07. Sometimes I count it best to be alone with you, 08. Then, other times, I think it even better that people should see the pleasure I take in your company; 09. Sometimes I'm repleted from "feasting my eyes" by gazing upon you, 10. Then, by and by, (when I haven't seen you for a while,) I'm utterly famished for a look at you, 11. I possess, or pursue, no pleasure, 12. Except what I have from you, or what I must take in your presence. 13. That's how it is, as I first yearn, and then satiate myself, from one day to the next, 14. Either gluttoning on all I can get of you, or having nothing when you're away. |
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Sonnet 75 Gloss
L2: sweet season'd - The "sweet season" is springtime. L3: peace = security. L3: strife = covetousness. Strife is caused by people wanting things, coveting them. L5: proud = complacent; entirely satisfied. Self-congratulatory. Implies vanity. L6: Doubting = suspecting; worrying; fearing. L6: filching = thievish. L8: bettered = thinking it even better. L10: clean starved = utterly famished. L14: Or = either. |
Sonnet 75 Notes
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