Sonnet 66

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Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born». 

Were it not that dying would take him from his love, the angry speaker of this litany of life’s disappointments would die.

Sonnet 66
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Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm’d in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall’d simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

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Everywhere he sees the undeserving win public esteem — “And gilded honor shamefully misplaced” — while the virtuous and needy are neglected, or even worse, disgraced.

However, the poet thinks that the youth would suffer by his demise. Therefore, he puts up with life’s disappointments and the public criticism of his life and art: “Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, / Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.”.

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Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

»»» Sonnets introduction
»»» Sonnets complete list

Shakespeare’s sonnets explore a wide range of emotions and themes, from love and loss to time and mortality. Many of them are addressed to a mysterious young man, whom scholars have speculated was a real person or perhaps an idealized version of Shakespeare himself.

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