Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet CXXXIII explained
The poet laments that his beloved's cruel eye has enslaved both him and his friend, creating a triple torment of separation and possession.
What happens
The poet laments that his beloved's cruel eye has enslaved both him and his friend, creating a triple torment of separation and possession. He pleads for his friend's heart to be freed even if his own remains imprisoned, yet acknowledges that all he has belongs to the beloved.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The poet's intense emotional bondage to the beloved and his friend, expressed through metaphors of imprisonment and slavery.
Truth and Deception
The beloved's cruel eye deceives and enslaves, twisting the poet's sense of self and possession.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker who groans over the wound given to his friend and himself.
Key passages
“Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!”
Curse that heart which causes my heart to ache because of the deep injury it inflicts on both my friend and me.
The poet curses the beloved's heart for wounding both him and his friend.
“Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken, And my next self thou harder hast engross'd: Of him, myself, and thee, I am forsaken; A torment thrice threefold thus to be cross'd.”
Your cruel eye has taken me away from myself, and you have more harshly seized my dearest friend. I am abandoned by him, myself, and you—a triple torment multiplied three times over.
The poet describes the threefold abandonment and torment caused by the beloved's actions.
“Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward, But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail; Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard; Thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol: And yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee, Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.”
Imprison my heart in the cell of your steel-like bosom, but let my poor heart bail out my friend's heart. Whoever holds me, let my heart be his guard; then you cannot be harsh in my prison. Yet you will, because I, confined within you, am necessarily yours, along with everything inside me.
The poet offers to exchange his own imprisonment for his friend's freedom, but acknowledges that he is wholly owned by the beloved.