SONNETS 22-33
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Sonnet 22
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee time�s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.
For all that beauty that doth cover thee,
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart,
Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me,
How can I then be elder than thou art?
O therefore love be of thy self so wary,
As I not for my self, but for thee will,
Bearing thy heart which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill,
Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav�st me thine not to give back again.
Sonnets 20 and 21 reasserted the relationship between Nature (the sovereign
mistress), the Mistress as Nature�s direct representative, the Master Mistress
as the adolescent youth derived from the Mistress, and the Poet as the mature
male who has reconciled his youth with the Mistress and appreciates the
logic of truth and beauty. The Poet accentuates the natural qualities of the
Master Mistress because any youth derives from Nature through the Mistress
and hence exhibits both feminine and masculine traits.
In sonnet 22 the Poet considers the logical implications of his own youth.
His image in the 'glass' (mirror) will not grow 'old' (22.1) since he and the
youth are logically the same person. They share the same or 'one (birth)
date' (22.2). When the Poet sees 'time's furrows' in his brow he recognises
that 'death' (22.4) will soon end his days. But, just as the youth's heart is
within the Poet, the external beauty of the youth is the internal 'raiment'
of the Poet's once youthful 'heart' (22.6). Their 'hearts' are one and the same
because the youth is logically a persona of the Poet.
The aging Poet carries within him the �heart� he had when young and
so the effects of its youthful potential. It is the same heart because it represents
the �love� or increase that is common to them both. The �heart� lives
in the youth�s �breast� and the Poet�s �breast� (22.7). The Poet�s logic precisely
characterises the relation between the external world of the senses and his
internal world of understanding.
The Poet advises the youth to be �wary� (22.9) of misunderstanding the
nature of his �love�. The Poet cares not for �my self � but for the potential of
youth. He �bears� the youth�s �heart�, respectful that the �heart� needs to be
�nursed�warily so that it does not �fare ill� from the adolescent tendency to
selfishness (22.12). The couplet confirms that the Poet�s �love� for the �youth�
is based in the interconnectedness of their �hearts�. �Youth� is the logical
precondition for the poetry that will die if the youth does not appreciate
the consequences of the Poet being �slain� before the logical potential of the
youth�s heart is realised through increase.
The youth as a persona represents both the Poet�s own youthful experiences
and the older Poet�s idealistic memories. As a �babe� he characterises
the gap between the Poet�s mature poetry and the immature poetry of those
unable to express the mythic status of �love�. Sonnet 22 relates the logic of
the Poet�s experience of the external world to the capacity he has to understand
the external world through the operations of his mind. The double
reading, built so logically into the Sonnets, gives them their capacity to evoke
credibly the multiplicity and reflexivity of understanding.
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Roger Peters Copyright © 2001
Introduction
1-9
10-21
22-33
34-45
46-57
58-69
70-81
82-93
94-105
106-117
118-129
130-141
142-153
154
Emendations
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