Monday, January 27, 2014

His mistress' eyes

Penultimate sonnet!—
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CLIII

  Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep:
  A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
  And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
  In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;
  Which borrow'd from this holy fire of Love,
  A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
  And grew a seeting bath, which yet men prove
  Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.
  But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
  The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
  I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
  And thither hied, a sad distemper'd guest,
    But found no cure, the bath for my help lies
    Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes.
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Once again, a volta in the Petrarchan position and another volta in the Shakespearean position, both marked by the same word but; also, the second one would be the main volta, and the point of the poem would be the last three words.  What’s new is the development of a backstory with mythological underpinnings in the first two quatrains, thereby elevating the Dark Lady to mythological dimensions when she is connected to the back story in the third quatrain and the closing couplet.  Tomorrow, the last sonnet in the book …

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