Sonnet 136 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
Structure
Verse structure Sonnet 136 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme scheme of the form abab cdcd efef gg and is composed in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The 7th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter: × / × / × / × / × / In things of great receipt with ease we prove (136.7) / = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
The 9th line begins with a common metrical variation, an initial reversal: / × × / × / × / × / Then in the number let me pass untold, (136.9) Initial reversals also occur in lines 2, 5, and 13, and potentially in line 10. Mid-line reversals potentially occur in lines 2 and 3; however, both of these lines present similar metrical difficulties. In line 2 for example: / × × / ? ? ? ? ? / Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy "Will," (136.2) If "blind" is given accent, the meter in that section becomes regular; however it is not clear that this is rhetorically appropriate (for example, it is not being contrasted with a "sighted soul"). If not given accent, this results in a case where both "blind" and "soul" have tonic stress, but that of "blind" is normally subordinated to that of "soul", allowing them comfortably to fill odd/even positions, but not even/odd (as they do here). The string of functional monosyllables which follow must themselves be scanned by context rather than implicit lexical stress. A reversal of the third ictus (which would better accommodate "soul") is normally preceded by at least a slight intonational break, which "blind soul" does not allow. Nevertheless, the line might be scanned: / × × / / × × / × / Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy "Will," (136.2) Peter Groves calls this a "harsh mapping", and recommends that in performance "the best thing to do is to prolong the subordinated S-syllable [here, "blind"] ... the effect of this is to throw a degree of emphasis on it".
Rhetorical structure In her book, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Helen Vendler identifies three different ways of representing the division of the sonnet. The first of these follows a 6-6-2 pattern and is identified by the lack of the use of the words will and love in the inner six lines.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997.) The two words are a major focus of quatrain 1, quatrain 2, and the couplet, but are conspicuously absent from quatrain three.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. ) Vendler's second method of dividing the poem is by speech acts, and follows and 4-2-2-5-1 division.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997.) Each division of the sonnet focuses on a particular style of speech, which change as the speaker changes his tactic for addressing the subject. The divisions are as follows; adjuration (lines 1–4), promise (5-6), proposition (7-8), plea (9-13), and result/conclusion (14).(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997.) The final method of division that Vendler identifies is a pronominal distinction, and is divided by a 6-2-6 pattern. In the first six lines are representative of the pronoun I, in which the speaker focuses on the fantastic private aspects of love. This is followed by a "turn" at lines 6-7 when the speaker suddenly becomes public with his use of the pronoun we,(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. ) which is generally viewed as referring to all humankind.(Smith, QTD in Schiffer, James. "Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays", pg ) The poem turns again at the couplet when the speaker again returns to the use of the pronoun/.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. )
Robert Matz finds Shakespeare to "draw comically on the Renaissance tie between a woman's sexual infidelity and her failure more generally to conform to the period idea of the "good" woman." The multiple uses of "will" "refers to the lady's willfulness rather than her passivity, her strong sexual desire, and her vagina."(Matz, Robert. The World Of Shakespeare's Sonnets : An Introduction / Robert Matz. n.p.: Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2008.).
Analysis Along with Sonnet 135, Sonnet 136 is counted as one of the "Will" Sonnets.( Cormack, Bradin. "On Will: Time and Voluntary Action in Coriolanus and the Sonnets." Shakespeare. 5.3 (2009): 253-270. Web. 26 Oct 2014.) They are highlighted by their bawdy nature and self-deprecating humor on the part of the speaker.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. ) The two sonnets use the word "Will" in three distinct ways. The first reference is to William Shakespeare as the speaker of the poem, the second is representative of a person's wants or wishes; and it also carries the sense of a sex-desire which was a common usage in Shakespeare's time.
Quatrain 1
The speaker begins the sonnet by saying that if the subject's soul reproves her, then because it is not a conscious thought, she can still swear to her soul that the speaker is her William. This is significant because modern historians have tentatively identified the dark lady of the sonnets as Emilia Lanier,(Rowse, A. L. William Shakespeare : A Biography / A.L. Rowse. n.p.: New York : Pocket Books, 1965, c1963.) who was married to Shakespeare's friend Will Lanier. Because her soul knows this will (wish), this is taken as meaning that love is admissible.(Wilson, Katharine Margaret. Shakespeare's Sugared Sonnets [By] Katharine M. Wilson. n.p.: New York, Barnes & Noble , 1974. ) Atkins agrees, quoting Tyler as saying line 2 refers to a soul without eyes and which is therefore blind and dark.(Shakespeare, William, and Carl D. Atkins. Shakespeare's Sonnets : With Three Hundred Years Of Commentary / Edited By Carl D. Atkins. n.p.: Madison [NJ] : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c2007.)
Quatrain 2
"Will" in the fifth line is used as a pun on the speaker's name and his sexual desire.(Wilson, Katharine Margaret. Shakespeare's Sugared Sonnets [By] Katharine M. Wilson. n.p.: New York, Barnes & Noble , 1974. ) The speaker is saying both that he, Will, can fulfill the lady's desires and also that he can fulfill her sexually. It is possible that both uses of will in line six are used to mean sex-desire.(Wilson, Katharine Margaret. Shakespeare's Sugared Sonnets [By] Katharine M. Wilson. n.p.: New York, Barnes & Noble , 1974. ) The speaker is using this quatrain to allude to the fact that the lady has many lovers and he would only be one among many.(Wilson, Katharine Margaret. Shakespeare's Sugared Sonnets [By] Katharine M. Wilson. n.p.: New York, Barnes & Noble , 1974. ) Regarding line 8 listing one as not a number, this must be taken as if "number" were in the aggregate sense. In this case, "one" is no number because it is single and not a number of things.(Shakespeare, William, and Carl D. Atkins. Shakespeare's Sonnets : With Three Hundred Years Of Commentary / Edited By Carl D. Atkins. n.p.: Madison [NJ] : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c2007.) In her essay, Sex Without Issue, Valerie Traub finds Shakespeare's linguistic repetition and coital filling and merging to be an attempt to remove the differences between the sexes, and even to subvert the female desires with the poet's own male desires.(Schiffer, James. Shakespeare's Sonnets : Critical Essays / Edited By James Schiffer. n.p.: New York : Garland Pub., 1999.)
Quatrain 3
The third quatrain can be considered almost satirical in nature.(Zak, William F. A Mirror For Lovers : Shake-Speare's Sonnets As Curious Perspective / William F. Zak. n.p.: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, , 2013.) The word nothing is used both as a numerical value and also as a common Elizabethan slang term for vagina.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. ) The speaker changes tactics and beseeches the lady to simply "hold" him but think of him as "nothing", as long as he can please her. This has been interpreted as an attempt to talk the lady into bed after attempts at love have failed.(Zak, William F. A Mirror For Lovers : Shake-Speare's Sonnets As Curious Perspective / William F. Zak. n.p.: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, , 2013.) With this interpretation, the speaker has gone from pledging himself as a love interest, to thinking only of satisfying his own carnal desires,(Zak, William F. A Mirror For Lovers : Shake-Speare's Sonnets As Curious Perspective / William F. Zak. n.p.: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, , 2013.) by saying that she should consider him suited for her "nothing".(Shakespeare, William, and Stephen Booth. Shakespeare's Sonnets / Edited With Analytic Commentary By Stephen Booth. n.p.: New Haven : Yale University Press, 1977)
Couplet
In the couplet, the speaker changes his initial argument of "love my will" to "love my name". The final line of the poem then shows the speaker's name and his will (wish) is one and the same. Here the speaker uses the argument that "if you only do X, then Y will be true" or "since you love Will, then you will love me because my name is Will".(Shakespeare, William, and Carl D. Atkins. Shakespeare's Sonnets : With Three Hundred Years Of Commentary / Edited By Carl D. Atkins. n.p.: Madison [NJ] : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c2007.) Vendler identifies this as only mildly triumphant because it is obvious that the mistress was aware of the speaker's name beforehand.(Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. )
Gender