Brent Hardy

 

English Composition II

 

Todd Ramsey

 

May 5, 2003

 

            Thank you for inviting me ladies and gentlemen.  I want to talk to you a little bit about the nature of happiness and what really counts as wealth in this world.  When Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes, he was trying to make a point about the reality of life and what true wealth is.  We see the speaker as a man who feels lost in a sea of self-pity, much like many people are today.  However, we need to stop and take count of the things we do have in our lives, no matter how bad it seems.  The speaker talks about the ways in which he is destitute, but in the end he realizes what makes a man truly wealthy.  The speaker thinks that he is misfortunate and disgraced before men, but realizes that he has love and is therefore more wealthy than those who do not.

            In the poem, the speaker talks about how he has nothing in this world.  He says that he "trouble(s) deaf heaven with my bootless cries" (3)  In the subtext, it explains that the word "bootless" means "futile, useless," but there is more that can be taken from that choice of wording.  Bootless implies that he is without something, and since boots are very important, especially in that time frame, he must be cursed with bad luck.  The speaker wants to be "like to one more rich in hope," he wants to have hope in his future and that things will be better for him (5).

            The speaker also talks about how he is looked down upon by men.  He says that he has no friends, and wishes to be someone who does.  He says that he finds himself "desiring this man's art and that man's scope," showing that he is envious of the material posessions that other, more affluent persons, possess (6).  He feels that he is inadequate and no manly enough because he does not possess material wealth, and because of this he feels that other men look down upon him.  He feels that "with what I most enjoy contented least," showing that those things he does have he is not content with (7).

            The speaker realizes, though, that he should not find himself "in these thoughts myself almost desising,"  because he has for himself something that many other men do not have-love.  When he realizes that he is thinking these depressing thoughts about what he does not have, "haply I think on thee," and that his state "from sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate" (10, 12)  This tells us that his emotions turn from looking down in sadness to joy.  He feels that with his lover he can do anything, and that as long as he has this love he would not trade it, not even to "change my state with kings" (14).

            The speaker in this poem sometimes has his priorities out of order.  He does not need money or fine art or the wealth of kings, all he really needs is love.  He finds that, instead of being cursed by fortune, he is instead blessed by it.  Just like Richard Cory has money and popularity but is not happy, the speaker in this poem finds that he has no money and men look down upon him, but as long as he has love nothing else matters.  Shakespeare is thus trying to tell us that, no matter how many material things we possess, we cannot be truly judged as being happy until we recount the good things we have felt in our life.  "Just like a lark at break of day arising," we will find ourselves happy when we realize what we do have that many other people do not, such as love and caring.  We should all go home tonight and take stock of the truly important things in our lives:  our families, our friends, and the things we most enjoy.  Just because America is a wealthy nation does not mean we are all truly wealthy.  We should consider ourselves lucky that we have people who love us, and who we can return that love to.