Poetry · Chapter
XLV explained
The poet describes how his thoughts and desires, represented by air and fire, travel to his beloved, leaving him in a state of melancholy until they return with news of the beloved's health, only to be sent back again, causing a cycle of jo
What happens
The poet describes how his thoughts and desires, represented by air and fire, travel to his beloved, leaving him in a state of melancholy until they return with news of the beloved's health, only to be sent back again, causing a cycle of joy and sadness.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The poet's desire is personified as fire, sent in 'tender embassy of love' to the beloved.
Time and Mortality
The poet's life sinks 'down to death' when his elements are absent, reflecting mortality's presence.
Characters to notice
- William Shakespeare
The speaker who sends his thoughts and desires to the beloved.
Key passages
“The other two, slight air and purging fire, Are both with thee, wherever I abide; The first my thought, the other my desire, These present-absent with swift motion slide.”
My thoughts and desires, like air and fire, are always with you, even though I am elsewhere, moving quickly between presence and absence.
The poet explains how his mental and emotional faculties are constantly traveling to his beloved.
“My life, being made of four, with two alone Sinks down to death, oppress’d with melancholy; Until life’s composition be recured, By those swift messengers return’d from thee.”
My life, composed of four elements, is reduced to two when my thoughts and desires are gone, sinking toward death until they return from you and restore me.
The poet describes the melancholy and near-death state he experiences when separated from his beloved.