Sonnet XC Analysis

Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;

Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,

Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,

And do not drop in for an after-loss:

Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scoped this sorrow,

Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe;

Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,

To linger out a purposed overthrow.

If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,

When other petty griefs have done their spite

But in the onset come; so shall I taste

At first the very worst of fortune's might,

And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,

Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.

.: XC sonnet :.

Shakespearean Sonnet XC
Over the next five paragraphs I will be doing an in-depth analysis of William Shakespeare’s sonnet XC. In this sonnet he uses the transition from being lonely to self-care back to lonely then once again self-care.
As it says in the first through fourth lines “ Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; / Now while the world is bent my deeds to cross/ Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow/ and do not drop in for an after-loss:” In this he is saying, if that person wants to hate him then let them. However, they should hate him now while the world is twisted and sick because if it ever becomes straight he will not change for the world he will be his own person. And if that person after hating him decides to come back to ask for forgiveness it will be too late. As I said in the intro he has started out with loneliness now we will be talking about his transition into death.
In the fifth through eighth lines he starts out by saying “Ah, do not, when my heart hath ‘scoped this sorrow/come in the rearward of conquered woe/ give not a windy night a rainy morrow/to linger out a purposed overthrow. In this he is saying, when he has figured out this sorrow in his heart if that person should come back with their tail between their legs so to speak it will be to late and it will be his turn to turn his back. He’s is also being nice about it though by giving that person a word of advice by saying if your having a hard time, that person should look at each morning in a new way in other words he still has strong feelings for this person. However he doesn’t want to get hurt again. And he is also saying don’t come back just to do him harm. Now I will transition to the next part.
In lines nine through eleven it states,” If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last/when other petty griefs have done their spite/ but in the on-set come; so shall I taste”. In these lines he is saying if that person was to leave they should leave now, and not be the last to make a move. Next he says don’t leave him in malice because he has felt the scorn of that so many times before. However he also knows that in the future he will have no choice but to feel that so he would rather the person do it now rather than later, that way he could just move on with his life.
In lines twelve through fourteen he says,” At worst the very first of fortunes might/and other strains of woe, which now seem woe/compared to the loss of thee will not seem so.” In these final lines of this terrific sonnet he says, at first to him it might seem great to lose that person that way he can get on with his life, However, in the end he will realize that the pain he carried before was not pain because now at the loss of whoever this may be he now feel a loss of all he ever had.
In conclusion William Shakespeare’s sonnet XC is a great sonnet that has many different meanings but this is the one that I think fits. In this he has went from loneliness to sorrow, and visa-versa. And this is my translation of this sonnet.

| Posted on 2008-01-31 | by a guest