SONNET 33 PARAPHRASE ANALYSIS Flatter...Sovereign Eye. (2): the Sun Here Is Compared to a King Or Queen

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SONNET 33 PARAPHRASE Full many a glorious morning have Many times I have seen a glorious I seen morning Flatter the mountain-tops with Light up the mountain tops, sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the Bathe the green meadows in meadows green, golden rays of sunshine, Gilding pale streams with heavenly Color the streams with its heavenly alchemy; magic; Anon permit the basest clouds to And then [the morning] allows the ride darkest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face, In a mass across the sun's face, And from the forlorn world his And from this sorrowful world the visage hide, sun hides, Stealing unseen to west with this Fleeing to the west unseen while disgrace*: the sky remains overcast; Even so my sun one early morn did Like this, my own sun one morning shine did shine With all triumphant splendor on my With glorious splendour on my brow; face; But out, alack! he was but one hour But, alas, my sun was mine for only mine; an hour; The region cloud hath mask'd him The concealing clouds have from me now. masked him from me now. Yet him for this my love no whit Yet love thinks no less of him for disdaineth; this; Suns of the world may stain when If the sun in heaven can be heaven's sun staineth. overcast, so can the suns in the world below.

ANALYSIS Flatter...sovereign eye. (2): The sun here is compared to a king or queen - a monarch's eye is said to "flatter whatever it rests upon" (Dover Wilson, 134). ugly rack (6): i.e., the thick mass of clouds blocking the sun's rays. this disgrace (8): again referring to the cloud mass.

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Between the time Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 32 and 33, the poet's entire attitude toward his relationship with his young friend had changed. While he had been focused on his own mortality throughout Sonnets 27-32, now the poet has a new and more pressing dilemma to jar him from his previous obsession. In Sonnets 33-35 the

poet makes it clear that he has been deeply hurt by his young friend, who many believe to be the historical Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron. We cannot say what specific wrong-doing prompted such displeasure, although we can assume that the young man had many interests other than the poet, and he may have surrounded himself with other friends (and possibly other lovers), leaving the poet feeling isolated and unwanted. The poet's dislike of his friend's actions are clear from the overall reading, but also from his choice of words: "ugly", "disgrace", "basest", "disdaineth", and "staineth." Moreover, the sun permits the clouds to cover his face as he cowers off to the west, and the direct comparison is made between the sun and the poet's friend in the third stanza. Even though he denies it in the concluding couplet, the poet seems to resent the friend for causing a rift in their relationship.

As mentioned, the sonnet does end on a positive note with the poet ready to forgive his friend, content to accept that disappointment in this life is wholly natural. "Two Renaissance commonplaces, the sun-king comparison and the sun-son word play, are put to such good use in the friend's behalf that 'out alack', the emphatic but conventional phrase denoting the speaker's regret, seems no more than a polite formula. The excuse offered in the couplet may be unconvincing in the view of the next two Sonnets, but it is so plausible within the limits of this one that the quatrains seem to exist mainly to provide grounds for it" (Landry, 58). J.D. Wilson argues that you can trace the story of the young man's transgressions by reading the sonnets in this order: 48, 57, 58, 61; 40, 41, 41; 33, 34, 35; 92, 93, 94.

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References

Holden, Anthony. William Shakespeare: His Life and Work. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002. Landry, Hilton. Interpretations in Shakespeare's Sonnets. Berkeley: U of CP, 1964. Lee, Sidney, Sir. A Life of Shakespeare. New York: Macmillan, 1916. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. A.L. Rowse. London: Macmillan, 1964. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Ed. Tucker Brooke. London: Oxford UP: 1936. Shakespeare, William. The Works of Shakespeare. Ed. John Dover Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969. Smith, Hallett. The Tension of the Lyre. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1981. Spender, Stephen. The Riddle of Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: Basic Books, 1962. Tucker, T.G. The Sonnets of Shakespeare. Cambridge: UP, 1924. Wright, George Thaddeus. Shakespeare's Metrical Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

How to Cite this Article http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/33detail.html

Mabillard, Amanda. An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 33. Shakespeare Online. 2000. (day/month/year you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare- online.com/sonnets/33detail.html >.

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Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespearean Sonnet Basics Shakespeare's Sonnets: Q & A Are Shakespeare's Sonnets Autobiographical? Shakespeare's Greatest Love Poem

The Order of the Sonnets The Date of the Sonnets Who was Mr. W. H.? Are all the Sonnets addressed to two Persons? Who was The Rival Poet? Shakespearean Wedding Readings Shakespeare on Love

Words Shakespeare Invented Reasons Behind Shakespeare's Influence Shakespeare's Blank Verse Daily Life in Shakespeare's London What did Shakespeare drink? What did Shakespeare look like? Shakespeare's Language

2----http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xsonnetanalysis.html#33

This sonnet is a metaphor that compares the young man to the sun. In the morning the sun turns its “sovereign eye” (light) on the mountaintops, then on the green meadows and streams. (In other words, when all is well between the poet and the young man, everything is cheerful and bright.) However, dark clouds come between the sun and the earth (just as a barrier–perhaps a disagreement–has apparently come between the two men). Then, obscured by the clouds, the sun continues on its daily journey across the sky. Nevertheless, the poet says, he will not diminish his love and admiration for the young man. After all, the last two lines say, human relationships cloud over from time to time just as the sky does. The implication here is that the clouds will eventually move on and the sun will shine again...... The word flatter in the second line could indicate that the poet–despite the forgiving attitude he mentions in Line 13–may be a bit peeved. In most dictionaries, one of the definitions for flattery is insincere praise. Thus, it could be that Shakespeare is chiding the young man for giving perfunctory, artificial praise, then returning to his “celestial orbit” and remaining there...... In the fifth line, basest clouds appears to refer to despicable persons or regrettable circumstances that estranged the two men.

3-http://www.gradesaver.com/shakespeares-sonnets/study- guide/section27/

Sonnet 33 - "Full many a glorious morning have I seen"

What's he saying?

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen / Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,"

I have seen many beautiful mornings make the mountains look more beautiful than they are,

"Kissing with golden face the meadows green, / Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;"

Making the green meadows and the pale streams appear gold;

"Anon permit the basest clouds to ride / With ugly rack on his celestial face,"

But soon ugly clouds overtake the sky,

"And from the forlorn world his visage hide, / Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:"

Hiding the sky as morning becomes night:

"Even so my sun one early morn did shine, / With all triumphant splendour on my brow;"

In this way, the fair lord used to bless me with his presence;

"But out, alack, he was but one hour mine, / The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now."

But that was only for a short time, and now he is gone.

"Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth; / Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth."

But that does not weaken my love for him one bit, since if the sun in the sky can sometimes be overcast, so can my beloved.

Why is he saying it?

While the poet has been focused on his own mortality in Sonnets 27-32, in Sonnet 33 it is clear that his attitude toward the fair lord has changed drastically. The fair lord has rejected the speaker, and the speaker's negative attitude is conveyed through his choice of diction. He uses the words "ugly" and "basest," in stark contrast to the beautiful, heavenly character he has created of the fair lord in previous sonnets. This focus on being hurt by the fair lord is extended through Sonnets 34 and 35, as well.

The morning is personified as a king in the first four lines of Sonnet 33. The use of the word "sovereign" calls a ruler to mind, as well as the term "flatter;" however, if the sun is the king and the mountains his courtiers, the role of flattery has been reversed. The morning and the sun become the same character through the term "sovereign eye;" the sun is like the eye of the sky, and through the idea of "kissing," which the sun seems to do to the meadows.

Imagery of alchemy pervades this sonnet; alchemy was perceived to be part science, part magic, and involved turning base metals into gold. It involved trickery, and thus is fitting for describing the betrayal by the fair lord that the poet feels he has suffered. In line 4, the glorious morning is described as "Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." To "gild" something means to cover it with gold; in this case, the sun is performing a kind of "heavenly alchemy" by seeming to transform the water of the pale streams into gold. But in line 5, "basest clouds" overtake the sky; the word "base" is a reference to dull metals.

The final couplet can be read as a return to the previous devotion the poet had for the fair lord; though he has been rejected, his love does not falter. However, it can also be read with sexual implications, especially since the word "stain" implies some impurity, perhaps that of a sexually transmitted disease. In that case, the final couplet can be taken to mean that the fair lord has contracted a disease, and will pass it on to the "suns of the world" with whom he has sexual contact.

It is also likely that the "disgrace" suffered by the fair lord is the same disease. Though he used to shine brilliantly, now his face is obscured by an "ugly rack" of clouds. This idea is enforced by the use of the word "stealing" to describe the now overcast sun's movement across the sky; it implies that the fair lord has been engaging in illicit sex, and thus contracted a disease. That disease is the "region cloud" that now hides the fair lord's beauty from the poet.

4- http://wellreadjourney.blogspot.com/2009/07/full-many-glorious-morning-i- have-seen.html

"Full Many a Glorious Morning I Have Seen" by William Shakespeare Sonnet 33

Full many a glorious morning have I seen, Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green; Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy: Anon permit the basest clouds to ride, With ugly rack on his celestial face, And from the forlorn world his visage hide Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: Even so my sun one early morn did shine, With all triumphant splendour on my brow, But out alack, he was but one hour mine, The region cloud hath masked him from me now. Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth, Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth.

--William Shakespeare

Sonnet 33 is a Shakespearean sonnet: a 14-line rhyming poem in iambic pentameter, with three quatrains containing a succession of ideas and a final couplet declaring the argument of the poem. The structure is mainly a dramatic one, presenting a series of scenes that the reader can visualize in his or her mind. The poem follows a rhyme scheme of ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG (the B's are imperfect rhymes).

In order to lead up to this argument, the speaker presents a situation that is a figurative representation of what occurred between him and his friend. He introduces the friend's character in the beginning: "Full many a glorious morning I have seen/Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,/ Kissing with golden face the mountains green,/ Gliding pale streams with heavenly alchymy;" (lines 1-4).

The speaker is telling us (through metaphorical language) that his friend is usually warm-hearted and shows his sunny side, or "glorious morning", very often. He is also very regal, as seen by his "sovereign eye" (line 2) "flattering" the "mountain-tops", which perhaps symbolize the speaker and his character.

"Kissing with golden face the meadows green" (line 3) continues with the friend symbolized as a sun, but this time the speaker is represented by a "meadow"-- the friend's personality or actions cause the speaker to bloom in happiness, figuratively speaking. The word "alchymy" (line 4) denotes "a medieval philosophy concerned primarily with the transmutation of base metals into gold" and also "a seemingly magical power", according to the American Heritage Dictionary. So the friend's "heavenly alchymy" "gilds", or edges with gold, the "pale streams" in line 4.

Then a change of scene occurs in the next quatrain. An uglier image appears: "Anon permit the basest clouds to ride/ With ugly rack on his celestial face," (lines 5-6). The clouds symbolize something coming between the speaker and his friend, obscuring his friend's sunny, warm personality from view-- an argument, perhaps, or an action that the speaker disapproved of. The word "base" is defined as "morally bad; contemptible" and "lowly, menial". Its etymology derives from Medieval Latin's bassus, or low. "Rack" is explained in a footnote in my Norton Introduction to Poetry book as "moss".

The clouds hide the sun's visage, or appearance, from the "forlorn world" and "[Steal] unseen to west with this disgrace" (line 8), a blotch on the friend's formerly glorious character. For a moment the friend's warm-hearted disposition reappears: "Even so my sun one early morn did shine,/ With all-triumphant splendor on my brow" (lines 9-10), but is extinguished again in the next two lines: "But, out! alack! he was but one hour mine,/ The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now" (lines 11-12). This may represent the scenes where the friend reconciles with the speaker for one moment, only to offend him again or to change his mind when the argument resurfaces.

The basic argument of "Full many a glorious morning I have seen" is presented in the last two lines: "Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth,/ Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth" (lines 13-14). The speaker is saying that despite what a friend may do to hurt his feelings, he forgives his friend, because if even the sun's glory can be masked by dark clouds, then it is natural for human "suns" (a pun on the offspring "son") to slip once in a while.

5- http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=8797

This sonnet houses nature imagery, personifying certain elements of nature.

1-2: 'Ý have seen a large amount of glorious mornings' "flatter the mountaintops with (a) soverign eye." The sun here is the eye of the morning, making the latter in semblance of a person. Using "sovreign" to describe the "eye" gives the reader the impression of the sun as, perhaps, the ruler of nature, watching over the entire world. 2-4: 'With a golden face, the sun kisses the green meadows'- here, kissing refers to the sun as a loving object displaying affection upon the groundi while at the same time giving us an image of the physical eminence the sun has (there is also the possibility that Shakespeare sees the meadows being "green" in the sense of untamed or even naive. The pale streams are then brightened, becoming now golden through the sun's "gilding...with heavenly alchemy." Alchemy was a practice that attempted to make gold from base metals; thus, the sun being here a successful, god-like alchemist, giving the streams, and maybe everything, a golden hue. 5-6: Following the imagery of a king or queen, the sun is seen here to allow everything from "the basest clouds" to the "ugly rock" with it. 7: 'And hides his face from the lone and unhappy world.' 8-10: This stealing is unseen-a successful alchemist as well as that of thief; also meaning 'to steal away' or to disappear. "Disgrace" has a few meanings: first, it can be used meaning it is disgracejul to allow the base clouds and ugly rocks in its company, being a sovreign, or describing the act of "stealing" as being a disgrace. We can read both at the same time and lose no meaning. As for both acts being disgraceful, the "even so" in the next line gives way to an "all-triumphant splendor" on his face. Here the imagery of sovreignty is followed up with "triumphant." 11-12: 'But sure enough, the sun faded away and was mine for only one hour,' and the cloud in that area of the poet masked the sun's visage from his sight (and also taking away some of the holdings of the sovreign). 13: 'Yet my love [being both his emotional love and also his lover], at no amount [here is a possible double negative, seeing that "whit" means 'not any amount'], dislikes the sun because it is not worthy enough, 14: "suns" also means 'children', which is perfectly acceptable considering this group of sonnets appears after the procreation sonnets; therefore, the brightness and beautiful presence of children may not always be seen , just as the light of the sun sun is occasionally clouded over.

6- http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/33.htm

Sonnet 33: Translation to modern English

I've seen so many glorious mornings when the royal sun lights up the mountaintops, kisses the green meadows with its golden face and makes streams shine with its celestial magic. But then it allows the blackest clouds to ride across its heavenly face with ugly gloom, and hides that face from the dull world, sneaking off to the west with the disgrace of it. In just that way my sun shone on my brow early one morning with that same triumphant splendour. But alas, he was mine for only one hour: the dark clouds have hidden him from me now. Yet, my love doesn't condemn him in the least. The suns of humanity may show their faults if the sun of heaven does.