1. “Sonnet 144” (1609)
William Shakespeare

2. Index
Location
“Sonnet 144”
Content analysis
Form analysis
Conclusion

3. 1. Location
Title: “Sonnet 144” or “Two loves I have of comfort and distress”, included in Sonnets (1609).
Genre: poetry; subgenre: Shakespearean or English sonnet
Author: William Shakespeare ( )  Literary period: Renaissance
The greatest writer in the English language (aka. “the Bard”)
He wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long narrative poems.
Major qualities:
Outstanding psychological comprehension of human passions
Unrivalled poetic imagination and sense of structure
Flexibility to combine all the best in other authors’ work and to use the most diverse materials
Variety: equal aptitudes for tragedy & comedy, for the sentimental & the burlesque, for lyrical fantasy & character-study
Relevance of Shakespeare’s Sonnets:
Lyric verse was fashionable during his time but he introduced some novelties:
Most poems are addressed to a young man (i.e. the Beautiful Youth).
He included four participants: the poet, the Beautiful Youth, the Dark Lady and a second poet.
He wrote about fresh topics like the connection of love and friendship with time.

4. 2. “Sonnet 144”
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still; The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend Suspect I may, but not directly tell; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another's hell: Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

5. 3. Content analysis (summary)
Love triangle:
Poet
Dark Lady = evil
Beautiful Youth = good
To make the poet jealous, the Dark Lady has tempted his Beautiful Youth.
Poet = uncertain whether his Beautiful Youth will fall for her or not.

6. 3. Content analysis (themes)
Jealousy and uncertainty
Evil vs. good
Sexual love vs. Platonic love

7. 3. Content analysis (structure)
FIRST QUATRAIN = SITUATION The poet is constantly tempted by two spirits: a good male angel and a bad female spirit
The Beautiful Youth  brings “comfort“, is “a better angel”, is “a man right fair”
The Dark Lady  brings “despair”, is a “worse spirit”, is “a woman coloured ill”
SECOND QUATRAIN = EMOTIONAL PROBLEM His female evil has seduced and corrupted his better male angel to make the poet jealous
The Beautiful Youth  “my better angel”, “my saint”, “his purity”
The Dark Lady  “female evil”, “corrupt”, “her foul pride”
THIRD QUATRAIN = SOLUTION? The poet doesn’t know for sure that his angel has been turned fiend but he suspects.
The Beautiful Youth  “my angel”, “one angel”
The Dark Lady  “another’s hell”
COUPLET = EVALUATION OF SOLUTION The poet will live in doubt until they sleep together.
The Beautiful Youth  “my good one”
The Dark Lady  “my bad angel”

8. 4. Form analysis (rhyming scheme)
A (despair)
B (still)
A (fair)
B (ill)
C (evil)
D (side)
C (devil)
D (pride)
E (fiend)
F (tell)
E (friend)
F (hell)
G (doubt)
G (out)

9. 4. Form analysis (rhythm)
“Sonnet 144” is composed (mostly) in iambic pentameter (5 pairs of metrically weak/strong syllables)
The worser spirit a woman colour‘d ill.
x / x / x / x / x /

10. 4. Form analysis (literary devices): SYMBOLS & ANTITHESIS
BEAUTIFUL YOUTH
DARK LADY
Platonic love = love between two minds
Timeless, eternal
Comfort
Angel and saint  Heaven
Purity
Sexual love = love between two bodies
Temporary
Despair
Fiend and devil  Hell
Corruption and pride

11. 4. Form analysis (literary devices): METAPHORS
“Man right fair”
“Woman coloured ill”
TENOR: Beautiful Youth
VEHICLE: right fair
COMMON GROUND: honesty and beauty
TENOR: Dark Lady
VEHICLE: coloured ill
COMMON GROUND: moral darkness and disease

12. 4. Form analysis (literary devices): SIMILE
“like two spirits do suggest me still”
TENOR: Beautiful Youth & Dark Lady
VEHICLE: spirits
COMMON GROUND: they constantly tempt the poet

13. 4. Form analysis (literary devices): EMJAMBMENT
To win me soon to hell, my female evil 
Tempteth my better angel from my side, 
Play with the expectations of the reader.
Provide a sense of both suspense and surprise.

14. 5. Conclusion
William Shakespeare = brilliant playwright + outstanding poet (154 sonnets)
“Sonnet 144” = unique sonnet  explicit reference to DL and BY
“Sonnet 144” = atypical sonnet  poet = detached + “objective”
Personal interpretation of “Sonnet 144”:
“LOVE” TO THE OTHER SEX
View on women (misogynist?)
Despair, worse, ill, evil, corrupt, foul, hell, bad
Careful with gender stereotypes!!
SAME-SEX LOVE
Fresh topics which are relevant today
Shakespeare is not that boring! 
LOVE TO ONESELF
Jelousy  Uncertainty
Insecure + not self-confident  jelousy  uncertainty + suffering