Sonnet 49

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Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects». 

All pride is missing in this sonnet, whose first four lines continue the poet’s fear of the “truth” evoked in the preceding sonnet.

Sonnet 49
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Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call’d to that audit by advised respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass
And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity,–
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.

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Moreover, the poet is prepared to place blame on himself for the youth’s no longer loving him: “And this my hand against myself uprear . . .” In this carefully structured poem, there is no mistaking the poet’s humility and sadness, indicated especially in the repeated phrase “Against that time” at the beginning of each quatrain.

The first two instances of this phrase describe the youth’s future desertion; the third defends it. Writing of the young man, the poet accepts the inevitable time “when thou shalt strangely pass”; he shall scarcely blame the youth for leaving “poor me.”

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Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

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