Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet CXX explained
The speaker reflects on how a past unkindness from the beloved now benefits him, as it allows him to understand and seek forgiveness for his own transgressions.
What happens
The speaker reflects on how a past unkindness from the beloved now benefits him, as it allows him to understand and seek forgiveness for his own transgressions. He acknowledges his own hypocrisy in not having offered comfort sooner, and concludes that their mutual wrongs can be redeemed through reciprocal ransom.
Themes in this chapter
Truth and Deception
The speaker acknowledges past unkindness and deception, and the need for honest reckoning to achieve redemption.
Love and Desire
The poem explores the complexities of love, including hurt, forgiveness, and the desire for mutual absolution.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker of the sonnet, reflecting on past unkindness and seeking mutual forgiveness.
Key passages
“That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that sorrow which I then did feel Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammer’d steel.”
Your past cruelty now helps me, because the pain I felt then forces me to humble myself for my own wrongdoing, unless I were made of unfeeling metal.
The speaker uses the beloved's past unkindness as a mirror for his own faults.
“O, that our night of woe might have remember’d My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, And soon to you, as you to me, then tender’d The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits!”
Oh, if only that time of sorrow had reminded me how deeply true grief strikes, so that I might have quickly offered you the same gentle comfort that you once gave me.
The speaker regrets not having offered timely sympathy.
“But that your trespass now becomes a fee; Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me.”
But now your offense serves as a payment; my wrongdoing redeems yours, and yours must redeem mine.
The speaker envisions a mutual forgiveness where each person's fault cancels the other's.