Lust in Sonnet CXXIX (129) Essay - 2029 Words

Lust in Sonnet CXXIX (129) A Savage Action Full of Blame - The essences of pure lust and its’ dark side. That is, in a word, what Shakespeare in his Sonnet CXXIX1 describes. His language is full of anger, frustration and self-blaming. A real, emotional, affected language - no flourishes. Shakespeare doesnt write about eternal love, the beauties of a woman or spiritual relations - all themes which we might expect from a classical sonnets. No - he talks about lust and the feeling of being dominated and helpless. And even a certain kind of vicious circle is strongly reflected in his choice of word and the atmosphere of the poem. If we first take a brief look at the formal aspects of Shakespeares Sonnet, we detect†¦show more content†¦All these human character traits that are ascribe to lust, make the reader realize that lust isnt something inanimate, but rather a very living, acting and dominating being. Therefore, one can form a very good impression of the ideas around lust that Shakespeare tries to bring us closer to. But how does Shakespeare describe lust? Generally, in the whole poem, different attitudes are ascribed to lust, especially concerning the ideas of before, during and after the act ( or action (l. 2) ) of lust. Also in this first quatrain, we find these ideas. Before the act ( see quote above ), lust is presented to us, in a very direct way, as something mean, lying, deceitful and almost sadistic1. But ... is lust in action... (l.2), the poet regards it as an ... expense of spirit in a waste of shame... (l.1). So, the act of lust itself isnt described as bluntly as before; Shakespeare presents us in the first line a very strong metaphor of lust. As the word spirit is very often considered to be a synonym for vital energy2, so, the reader starts to tend to interpret the first line as an image of an orgasm - which definitively would be a very strong and rather unusual opening. But it is as least as important also to take into account the second expression, namely the waste of shame. O rgasm and the feeling of shame