Poetry · Chapter
Sonnet LXVI explained
The speaker, weary of the world's injustices and moral decay, longs for death but is held back by the thought of leaving his beloved alone.
What happens
The speaker, weary of the world's injustices and moral decay, longs for death but is held back by the thought of leaving his beloved alone.
Themes in this chapter
Truth and Deception
The poem laments how 'purest faith' is forsworn and 'simple truth' is misnamed simplicity, highlighting the perversion of truth in society.
Time and Mortality
The speaker's cry for 'restful death' underscores a deep weariness with life and a longing for mortality's release.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker of the sonnet, expressing profound disillusionment with the world.
- Love
The beloved whose existence prevents the speaker from seeking death.
Key passages
“Tired with all these, for restful death I cry”
Exhausted by all these injustices, I long for the peace of death.
The speaker expresses a desire for death as an escape from the world's corruption.
“Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.”
Except that dying would mean abandoning my beloved.
The only thing preventing the speaker from seeking death is his love for another.