Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet CXVIII explained
The speaker uses metaphors of appetite and medicinal purging to explain why he sought out bitter experiences in love, having grown sick from too much sweetness.
What happens
The speaker uses metaphors of appetite and medicinal purging to explain why he sought out bitter experiences in love, having grown sick from too much sweetness. He admits that this preventive strategy backfired, creating real faults where none existed, and concludes that such 'drugs' only poison one who is already sick with love.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The speaker's love is described as 'ne'er-cloying sweetness,' yet he deliberately seeks bitterness to sharpen his appetite.
Truth and Deception
The speaker employs 'policy in love'—a deceptive strategy meant to anticipate ills—which only leads to assured faults.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker of the sonnet, reflecting on his own misguided strategy in love.
Key passages
“Like as, to make our appetite more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge, As, to prevent our maladies unseen, We sicken to shun sickness when we purge”
Just as we use sharp flavors to stimulate hunger, or purge ourselves to prevent hidden illness, making ourselves sick to avoid sickness,
The speaker compares his actions in love to these paradoxical practices.
“Even so, being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness, To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding”
In the same way, because I was satiated with your never-cloying sweetness, I turned to bitter experiences.
He admits to seeking out bitterness because he was overwhelmed by sweetness.
“Thus policy in love, to anticipate The ills that were not, grew to faults assured”
This calculated strategy in love, meant to prevent future problems, actually created certain faults.
His preventive measure backfired, causing real harm.
“But thence I learn, and find the lesson true, Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.”
From this I learn a true lesson: the remedy poisons the one who is already lovesick for you.
The speaker concludes that his attempt to cure his love only made things worse.