“Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame.” How to Deconstruct Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129. The lure of lust.

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This is, of course, a Shakespearean or Elizabethan Sonnet, 14 lines consisting of three quatrains (4-line stanzas) and a couplet (2-line stanza), with a rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg, in iambic (poetic “foot” consisting of a unstressed and stressed syllable) pentameter (5 feet per line). Generally, this type of sonnet follows a logic of three variations (the quatrains) of concept, and a resolution (the couplet), as it does here.

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So many of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets have to do with beauty and the redemptive power of love–Shall I compare thee, When in disgrace–that it may come as a surprise, if not shock, to discover Sonnet 129, Th’ expense of spirit, which is about sex, the actual act of sex.

Since so many of the sonnets are idealized in expression–again Shall I compare thee and When in disgrace, Let me not to the marrige of true minds–even when about darker subects, such as To me fair friend (aging), My mistress’ eyes (plain features)–most people probably think of the sonnets as being “poetic.” And, of course, many of them are, as we have listed; Shakepeare was a master with words. But there is another, even more significant reason that he is widely regarded as perhaps the greatest writer in the English language: after more than four centuries, his apprehension of the human condition is as apt as ever. The characters and actions of his plays, the content of his sonnets are still amazingly relatable.

Among the sonnets that are not idealized are those which deal with common concerns: sex (Th’ expense of spirit), vulnerability(So now I have confessed), even insomnia (Weary with toil).

Th’ expense of spirit doesn’t waste any time in presenting its subject, sex, particularly orgasm (expense, ejaculation; spirit, semen), with a double entendre choice of words brilliant in context, that orgasm is achieved at a cost (expense) to one’s character (spirit). The speaker identifies the sexual desire not as loving sexual congress, but as lust, the key word of the poem, i.e., desire for its own sake. He is stripping sexual desire of its social patina, “love,” and exposing its identity as an urge, what we might call a biological imperative. This is an important distinction to make. The poem is not a condemnation of sex–the English Renaissance was not prudish–but of lustful desire which, when acted upon (action), saps us (waste) of our spirit and results in shame.

The intense, persistent urge (till, i.e. “until,” action) for satisfaction drives one to a host of condemnable human behaviors: deceit (perjured, full of blame, not to trust), physical and emotional violence (murd’rous, bloody, savage, extreme, rude, cruel). If you have read Shakepeare’s plays, you will recognize these traits as plot elements in many of them. The irony is that once consummation is achieved, it is fleeting and leads to guilt (Enjoyed no sooner but depised straight), implying that this is not an action taken with a free will, but an enforced action, overwhelming reason (past reason). The sinister nature of lust acts like a trap (on purpose laid) with its urges as bait, which, when taken (swallowed bait), creates madness, a result of the extreme behaviors it promotes, whether had, having or in quest to have. The trap is a lure of bliss in urges and at consummation (proof and proved), but afterward a very woe due to recriminations. Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

In this sonnet , the ending couplet does not lead to resolution but to censure. Once again beneath the social veneer, we are all aware of lust’s destructive nature (All this the world well knows), but not enough to keep away from its power of promise (shun the heaven) that only leads to self-condemnation when fufilled (leads men to this hell).

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