Sonnet 121: 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE detailed line by line analysis

 

Sonnet 121: 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

·      One of 154  sonnets

·      Member of the fair youth sequence

·      Poet expresses his love for the lover

POEM

’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed

When not to be receives reproach of being,

And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed

Not by our feeling but by others' seeing.

For why should others’ false adulterate eyes

Give salutation to my sportive blood?

Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,

Which in their wills count bad that I think good?

No, I am that I am; and they that level

At my abuses reckon up their own:

I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;

By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown,

    Unless this general evil they maintain:

    All men are bad and in their badness reign.

 

Explanation

·      Condemns hypocrisy and decides not to be  a hypocrite

·      Hypocrites forces us to lose out on life’s pleasures

·      Shakespeare suggests that it is better to be vile than to make people feel that one is vile

·      Because of fear of criticism by hypocrites, one doesn’t even get the pleasure of doing things that one likes

·      The poet questions why people who are corrupt themselves show eagerness in finding fault with others

·      Concludes by saying that the poet is straightforward and the hypocrites are crooked

·      The poet says that you cannot measure my actions by their foul thoughts, unless they are willing to believe that all men are bad and thrive in their badness

·      The speaker declares his intolerance to hypocrites who try to judge him

Themes

·      Judgement

·      Morality

·      Hypocrisy

Structure

·      ABAB CDCD EFEFF GG

·      Iambic Pentermeter

·      Typical Shakespearean Sonnet