Shakespeare, sorta

I’m kind of drawing a blank on any interesting biographical bits to share about the Bard today.  There are lots of interesting factoids about him; I’m just not really in the “researching” state of mind at the moment, and nothing comes immediately to mind.

The Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare’s plays were famously performed, burned down as the result of a cannon misfire.  There, how’s that?

Meh… on to the weekly sonnet.

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 thyself so wary
As I, not for myself, but for thee will;
Bearing thy heart, which I will keep so chary
As tender nurse her babe from faring ill.
      Presume not on th’ heart when mine is slain,
      Thou gav’st me thine not to give back again.

What I get out of it

Shakespeare is considering his increasing age as he writes this poem.  He could, at this point in his life, be feeling the ravages of time (or any other cliché you might care to use), but he refuses to be negative about his own lost youth.  He says that his mirror, or “glass,” won’t make him feel depressed about growing “old”… at least, not yet.

“So long” as the object of the poem has his or her “youth,” Shakespeare claims that he won’t feel old.  When “time’s furrows” appear on the young person’s face, on the other hand, the poet feels that “death” will bring an end to his “days.”

The poem’s metaphors get a little more complicated as Shakespeare explains that his own heart lives in the heart of the youngster to whom the poem is addressed, and the younger heart lives within Shakespeare’s “breast.”  The “beauty” that appears in the young man or woman’s face therefore is “raiment,” or clothing, for the poet’s heart.  “How,” we are asked, can Shakespeare “then be elder” than the youthful body which contains his heart?

I’m thinking that this might be one of the more tangled sonnets I’ve discussed here.  The tangling continues:  Shakespeare promises to be “wary” (cautious) with his own body - as cautious as a “tender nurse” is cautious with “her babe” — not to preserve his own life, but rather to protect the youngster’s heart beating in his chest.  Likewise, he would appreciate some care taken for his own heart.

To understand the last couplet, I admit, I sought help.  I wasn’t sure in what sense “presume” was being used.  It appears that after the tender expression of love Shakespeare offers in the first dozen lines, he throws in one brief admonition:  if my heart (in your body) is “slain,” don’t expect to get yours back.  You “gav’st me” your heart freely, and I don’t intend “to give [it] back again.”  This might, possibly, be just a hint of a threat… if your carelessness or infidelity breaks my heart, I can do as I please with the heart you have given me.

Is it relevant?

I don’t know the average ages of my readers, but even I (who am still young) have felt years younger while watching or interacting with a child.  Grandparents and parents often say that playing with children makes them feel young again.  Shakespeare is expressing similar sentiments to the object of his poem.

Once again, a sonnet which is usually labeled as a love poem could also represent an expression of familial love.  I’ve probably mentioned before that, whatever Shakespeare’s relationship with his wife, he apparently loved his children dearly.  The first dozen lines could be a way of letting his children know that they make him feel young again… and the closing couplet could be a warning that they’d better make the old man proud.

Or not.  It probably is a romantic poem.  It’s just fun, sometimes, to look for other applications.  Shakespeare was a complicated man, and I hate making assumptions about what he had in mind.

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. — Proverbs 4:23

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