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Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes


            William Shakespeare opens his sonnet, "Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes," with a paradoxical comparison of his lack of social good fortune with his self-worth and love of his subject, a woman. Shakespeare uses the argument of good fortune in opposition to self-worth to allude to the tone of the author's state of misfortune and loneliness, which improves with wishing and desiring.
             After examining "Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes," the reader sees that Shakespeare enters into the simplistic nature and purpose of the poem. Shakespeare is writing about the emotions of jealousy and isolation. Shakespeare says, "Desiring one man's art and that man's scope (line 7)" which is a clear-cut piece of evidence of his jealous tendencies towards other men's belongings. In this case, being the love of a woman, which Shakespeare treasures as wealth, "For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings (line 13)." The love of a woman is the sweetest thing that could happen to a man, it is something to be remembered. Although the author has had many encounters with calamity, he sees himself as a lark that has had lowly beginnings and has risen sharply to the highest point, his poetry being compared to songs at heaven's gate. Having been crying to Heaven about his lack of fortune earlier in the sonnet, he is now singing at Heaven's gate motivated by the love of a woman that reciprocates his love for her. Having been an outcast in society, he is now in a happy state within his own personal love life because he has finally found someone to love and to be loved in return. All this leads up to the final line of the poem, "That Then I scorn to change my state with Kings," The sonnet superbly resolves to the author now dismissing any desire to change his state in society, even to the level of kings, as he is quite content with his priority being the personal love of his subject.


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