It reads: “Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young.” There is another example in line five in which Shakespeare uses a natural pause in the middle of the metrical line.
![william shakespeare in love william shakespeare in love](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8NYeroVi6BM/TSt7txskTFI/AAAAAAAAFH4/Qc3fi2bzV48/s1600/shakespeare-in-love-98-04-g.jpg)
For example, line two reads: “I do believe her, though I know she lies.” This is an example of how punctuation is used to create an example of caesura. Caesura: occurs when the poet inserts a pause in the middle of a line.For example, “faults” and “flattered” in line fourteen and “sides” and “simple” in line eight. Alliteration: the repetition of words with the same consonant sound.These include but are not limited to examples of: Shakespeare makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Sonnet 138’. The poem can also be divided into three sets of four lines and a final two-line couplet. The first is unstressed and the second stressed.
![william shakespeare in love william shakespeare in love](http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25000000/Shakespeare-in-Love-shakespeare-in-love-25094248-640-375.jpg)
This means that each line contains five sets of two beats, known as metrical feet. The poem is also written in iambic pentameter. They rhyme ABABCDCDEFEFGG as the vast majority of Shakespeare’s sonnets do. This means that it contains fourteen lines that are divided into two quatrains, or sets of four lines, and one sestet, or set of six lines. ‘Sonnet 138’ by William Shakespeare is a traditional Shakespearean sonnet. Without their lies, their relationship (whatever it might be) would fall apart. He knows the Dark Lady has been unfaithful to him just as she knows he’s old and getting older. The mutual deception appears to be what’s holding them together. But, interestingly enough, lies they’re both aware of. Their complex and incredibly unhealthy relationship is built on lies. Throughout this poem, the poet engages with themes of truth/lies and relationships. No matter how strange and complicated this is, the two take comfort in one another’s deceit. The best thing, he decides, is to pretend to trust one another and continue to lie. It seems to be an integral part of their relationship. He’s actually aging, something she’s well aware of.Ĭontinuing, the speaker wonders why the two can’t admit to one another that they’re lying. She’ll think he’s young and inexperienced when he’s not. This presents him in a certain light, as a naive man, something he thinks benefits him. Despite this, he knows on a deeper level that she is actually lying. In the first lines of ‘Sonnet 138,’ the speaker begins by saying he believes the Dark Lady when she tells him that she’s honest. ’Sonnet 138’ by William Shakespeare is a poem about the deceitful relationship the speaker has with the Dark Lady. Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,Īnd in our faults by lies we flattered be. O! love’s best habit is in seeming trust,Īnd age in love, loves not to have years told: On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed:īut wherefore says she not she is unjust?
![william shakespeare in love william shakespeare in love](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IdR8QV_drrM/WgSDWSZJYTI/AAAAAAABRgI/FJLk092JakkjEXWMJMGN6IfaOEOPx8wHACLcBGAs/s1600/6b4dc58edee07e4337f1e7c26aa41a6d.jpg)
Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue: Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,Īlthough she knows my days are past the best, Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties. That she might think me some untutored youth, When my love swears that she is made of truth, They take comfort in one another’s lies rather than the love they should share. This particular sonnet further elaborates on the difficult relationship the two have. They deal with the speaker (who is usually considered to be William Shakespeare himself) and his relationship with his mistress, the Dark Lady. It is part of the Dark Lady sequence of sonnets. It was published along with some other sonnets in 1599 in The Passionate Pilgrim. ‘ Sonnet 138′ is one of William Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets.