Sonnet 129

“Sonnet 129” is a poem exclusively about lust. In this poem, the speaker takes a severe approach to the topic, deriding lust as bad in thought, action, and reflection. The poem does not focus upon a particular person or relationship, instead functioning more as a general admonishment or piece of advice for readers. Despite the poem’s rigid stance on lust, the conclusion of the poem asserts that lust cannot be overcome despite the fact that all people know how dangerous it is.

The speaker makes his position clear right away with harsh diction to describe lust. In the first line alone, he calls it an “expense,” “a waste,” and “shame.” The initial description of an “expense of spirit” (Line 1) is a double entendre, referring to both lust’s effects on the soul and the physical expense of semen upon the consummation of lust. This positions the poem from a male perspective, and the rest of the sonnet can be read as an admonishment of male lust for women. The speaker is arguing that such pursuits are unbecoming of men and do nothing but lead them to bad things. Given the context of the poem within the beginning of the Dark Lady sonnet sequence, this might point to the poem being an attempt at self-reflection, self-restraint, and self-admonishment for the speaker himself.

The poem has a bitter and cynical perspective on lust, especially considering the way the speaker compares lust to a trap. In the second quatrain, he introduces the simile of an animal who lusts after bait only to regret biting it after realizing it has been caught (Line 7). He notes that the purpose of bait is to drive an animal so “mad” that it loses control over itself and falls for the trap. This, to the speaker, is the same way lust works: It causes the lover to lose his reason and behave in a way contrary to his own self-interest. In the end, the lover’s consummated lust is transformed into a “woe” (Line 11) that makes the “bliss” (Line 11) of consummation appear, in hindsight, as a mere “dream” (Line 12). The speaker asserts that the momentary “heaven” (Line 14) of consummation can never make the resulting “hell” (Line 14) worthwhile.

In addition to the use of the trap metaphor, the poem also uses alliteration, contrast, antithesis, and parallel structures to argue how strong lust is and how cyclical the lust/consummation/regret progression is. The use of these devices is strongest in the second and third quatrains, as demonstrated by the line-by-line analysis below:

Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight (Line 5)

This line relies on the contrast between enjoying/despising. The speaker is arguing that the lust the lover feels before and during consummation becomes something he immediately despises as soon as the possession of the beloved is over. The parallel structure with the word “but” and the caesura dividing the line evenly emphasizes the antithesis between what the lover experiences before and after the fulfillment of lust.

Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had

Past reason hated as a swallowed bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad (Lines 6-8)

Lines 6 and 7 use the repetition of “[p]ast reason” and the repetition of the “h” sound to form another contrast regarding the lover’s feelings before and after consummation. Before he secures his beloved, the object of his lust is “[p]ast reason hunted,” suggesting that there is something irrational and unrestrained in the pursuit, or “hunt,” driven by one’s desire (Line 6, emphasis added). After consummation (“no sooner had”), the act (and perhaps the beloved herself) becomes “[p]ast reason hated,” suggesting that the lover’s feelings of regret or shame are likewise irrational in intensity and degree (Line 7, emphasis added). There is also an internal rhyme in hated/bait and laid/make. The imagery of the “swallowed bait” (Line 7) that makes “the taker mad” (Line 8) reinforces the sense of the lover as acting in an animalistic and illogical manner in pursuing his lust.

Mad in pursuit and in possession so (Line 9)

This line exhibits a repetition of the “p” sound and repeats the structure of “in pursuit/in possession” to create a sense of similarity between the lover’s emotional state when both “in pursuit” and “in possession” of the beloved—he is “mad” during both stages, once again stressing the irrationality of lustful behavior.

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme (Line 10)

This line employs alliteration in “had, having, and [. . .] have” to once more create a sense of uniformity, as the lover is depicted as “extreme” throughout the entire process of experiencing, pursuing, and consummating lust. The speaker shifts rapidly between the past, present continuous, and infinitive form of the verb “to have” in quick succession to demonstrate the similarity of this unrestrained state at each stage of the process of possession.

A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe (Line 11)

Here the speaker creates another contrast between the joy, or “bliss,” promised by consummation and the unpleasant aftermath, or “woe,” he claims is the actual result. The act of consummation is a “proof” of the lover’s success in winning over his beloved, and yet, in having that success “proved,” the speaker argues that the lover will ultimately be disappointed or disadvantaged in some way once the consummation has taken place.

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream (Line 12)

In this line right before the couplet, the speaker resorts to the same literary devices used previously. He repeats the “b” sound in “before” and “behind” and forms a parallel by repeating the structure of the words/phrases on each side of the caesuras, as represented by the commas and semicolon. In keeping with his contrasting technique throughout the sonnet, the speaker dwells on how the expectations the lover has before consummation and the experience he actually faces afterward are two different things: He anticipates a “joy” only to discover that it was all illusory—a mere “dream.”

However, despite the poem’s rigid stance on lust, the speaker admits in the closing couplet that lust cannot be overcome despite the fact that all people know how dangerous it is: “All this the world well knows; yet none knows well / To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell” (Lines 13-14). The speaker therefore suggests that even though each lover “well knows” how deceptive the joys of lust can be, they will nevertheless keep risking the “hell” in order to experience the “heaven” that precedes it, suggesting that the cycle will never end.