Write the critical appreciation of the sonnet No. 138 entitled When My Love

Write the critical appreciation of the sonnet No. 138 entitled When My Love.

Ans.

Introduction

The sonnet No. 138 entitled When My Love is in contradiction of the previous one. In the sonnet No. 137, the poet’s heart believes one thing, that she (the Dark Lady) is only his, but knows that it is not true. In the present sonnet, the poet insists on believing something which he knows to be untrue. In this sonnet, the poet reveals both the nature of his relationship with the Dark Lady and the insecurities he has about growing older. Unlike his intense yet healthy love affair with the young man, the poet is fulfilling his most basic needs of both sexual pleasure and continual reassurance that he is still worthy of love despite his age. So emotionally detached is the poet from his mistress that he prefers simply to ignore her lying and adultery. The sonnet takes us into Shakespeare’s relationship with the lady. The relationship is both purely sexual and utterly unromantic.

Thought-Content

When the poet’s mistress swears that she is completely truthful and loyal, the poet believes her even though he knows she is telling lie. He pretends to stupidly believe her false words while fooling himself into thinking that she thinks he is young, even though she knows his days of youth have disappeared. In this way both of them suppress the simple truth. The poet asks why she does not say that she is a liar and why he does not say that he is old. He thinks that perhaps it’s easiest to love someone who seems to be trustworthy, and old people who are in love, hate to hear their age discussed. Therefore, he sleeps with her, and she sleeps with him, and they both flatter themselves by lying about each other’s faults.

Theme of the poem

The sonnet presents a psychological study of the mistress that many of her hypocrisies. Certainly she is still very much the poet’s mistress, but the poet is under no illusions about her character:

“When my love swears that she is made of truth

I do believe her, though I know she lies.”

He accepts without protest her “false-speaking tongue” and expects nothing better of her cynically, he too deceives and is comforted by knowing that he is no longer fooled by the woman’s character of fidelity to him, nor she by how young and simple-minded he presents himself to be. In a relationship without affection or trust, the two lovers agree to a relationship based on mutual deception. Both agree never to voice the truth about just how much their relationship is built on never spoken truths:

“But wherefore says she not she is unjust?

And wherefore say not I that I am old ?”

The main theme is lust, but it is treated with humour. The poet is content to support the woman’s lies because he is flattered that she thinks him young-even though he knows how old he is. Ultimately the poet and the woman remain together for two reasons, the first being sexual relationship, the second that they are comfortable with each other’s lying.

Form, Style and Language

The structure of the sonnet consists of three quatrains of predominantly iambic pentameter, followed by a rhymed couplet:

“Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,

And in our faults by lies we flattered be.”

The poet has used the figure of speech personification in the following line:

“And age in love loves not t’ have years told.”

The Use of References and Allusions

In the line “her false-speaking tongue”, there is a reference to the false serpent (the devil) which betrayed Eve, Adam in the Garden of Eden.