Re: Suns
of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.
Posted by The Fallen on February 01, 2002 In Reply to: Suns
of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth. posted by Word Camel on
February 01, 2002
: "Suns of the world may stain when heaven's
sun staineth." is the last line from Shakespear's sonnet 33.
: I think I understand
the rest of the poem, on a superficial level at least, but this last line confuses
me. I'm not sure what he means. Is it a pun?
: please lend me your good minds.
: Thanks,
: C
:
: I'm putting the rest of the poem below for reference.
:
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 splendor on my brow;
: But out, alack! he
was but one hour mine;
: The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
:
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
: Suns of the world may stain
when heaven's sun staineth.
We're going to get embroiled in the "Shakespeare
was gay" thing again, I fear... however.
The poet throughout compares the beauty
of the (male) object of his affection to the Sun. Halfway through, he notes forlornly
that ugly clouds can obscure even the Sun's radiance, and apparently send it slinking
off to set in shame. He draws a sad direct analogy between the sullying effect
of clouds on the Sun, and the potentially depressing fact that his love only hung
around for an hour, but then perks up by realising that, hey, if the *real* celestial
Sun can be marred by the passage of clouds, then Hell, who is he to complain if
his relationship with a figurative worldly sun is occasionally not everything
he might wish for? So the poet's talking himself into cutting his love some slack.
By
the way, the object of the poet's affection is clearly male... I mean he only
hung around for the bare minimum of an hour the morning after, and I bet he never
called or wrote...
The Fallen (unashamedly male)
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