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Sonnet 27 Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 27 Summary & Analysis
by William Shakespeare

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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The Full Text of “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"”

1Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

2The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;

3But then begins a journey in my head

4To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired.

5For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,

6Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

7And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

8Looking on darkness which the blind do see.

9Save that my soul’s imaginary sight

10Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

11Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

12Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

13Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

14For thee and for myself no quiet find.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Introduction

    • "Sonnet 27" is part of William Shakespeare's Fair Youth sonnet sequence, a large group of poems addressed to an unidentified—but apparently very attractive—young man. It occurs relatively early in the overall sequence and is the first of five poems in which the speaker contemplates this youth from afar. "Sonnet 27" specifically focuses on the obsessive, restless side of love and infatuation: the speaker is trying to sleep after a long, exhausting day, but his mind won't let him rest. Instead, he's kept awake by thoughts of his absent beloved.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Summary

    • Tired from work, I hurry myself to bed, seeking precious rest for my arms and legs that are so exhausted from traveling. But then more traveling begins in my head, making my mind work even though my body's job is done for the day. It's then that my thoughts, from this great distance where I am now, undertake a devoted mission to find you. They keep my heavy eyes wide open, as they stare out onto pitch black darkness, seeing what people who are blind see. But, though I can't see, my soul's imagination brings your image into my vision. It's like a jewel dangling in this horrible night, and it makes this blackness beautiful, as if night's old face were suddenly young again. Ah! During the day my limbs, and at night my mind, find no rest for either you or me.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Themes

    • Theme Love, Separation, and Longing

      Love, Separation, and Longing

      This poem focuses on a classic theme of the sonnet genre: the painful, obsessive longing for an absent beloved. Part of Shakespeare's Fair Youth sequence (a group of sonnets addressed to a beautiful young man), “Sonnet 27” finds its speaker attempting to sleep after a long day of work and travel. Though his body is tired, his mind has other ideas, with thoughts of his lover running wild and making rest impossible. The poem thus speaks to the disruptive power of love and lust—how difficult it can be stop thinking about the object of one's desire.

      The speaker really wants to sleep: he's had a long, exhausting day and can’t wait to get to bed. But just as he lays his body down to rest, his mind steps in and "begins a journey" to his beloved. His body might be tired, but his thoughts seem to take on a life of their own and keep his “drooping eyelids open wide.” Love, here, is its own source of (unwanted) energy, a kind of adrenaline that prevents the speaker from getting the “dear repose” (that is, wonderful rest) he so sorely longs for.

      The speaker goes so far as to describe his wandering thoughts as being on a “pilgrimage” to his absent beloved, which shows just how devoted he is: this isn’t merely day- (or, rather, night-) dreaming, but a kind of intense, spiritual trek. The speaker's imagination thus doesn’t just stop him from sleeping, but actually creates more work for him—only this time it's mental labor.

      The speaker’s longing is so powerful, in fact, and his mind so restlessly obsessive, that he feels he can “see” his lover in his “soul’s imaginary sight. And while seeing the lover in his mind's eye ultimately makes the speaker even more tired, the poem also suggests that this might be better than nothing.

      On the one hand, the speaker resents his perpetual restlessness; on the other, he at least gets to appreciate his beloved's beauty. He even compares his vision to a "jewel" that brightens the "black night" and makes it "beauteous," like an old face becoming young.

      Of course, bright lights also stop people from sleeping—and, metaphorically speaking, that's exactly what happens here. Because of the obsessive nature of love and desire, the speaker can find "no quiet," even though he is in a silent, pitch-black bedroom. In short, romance is exhausting!

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"”

    • Lines 1-2

      Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
      The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;

      The speaker begins the poem by stating that he's simply exhausted, worn out from the "toil" of work and travel and ready to hit the hay. Bed, the speaker says, offers "dear repose," or sweet rest, for his weary "limbs." It's easy to imagine the speaker trudging up some stairs to find his bed, looking forward to some precious shuteye.

      Note how the sounds of the poem seem to conjure the speaker's fatigue. The alliteration of "Weary with" and later of "travel tired" draws readers' attention to just how "weary" and "tired" the speaker is.

      Also listen to how the speaker plays with meter in the poem's opening line:

      Weary | with toil, | I haste | me to | my bed,

      The poem is written in iambic pentameter, a meter with five iambs (poetic feet with a da-DUM rhythm) per line. But the first foot is actually a trochee (basically the opposite of an iamb, DUM-da): "Weary." The speaker then follows that flipped first foot up with a caesura—that pause after the word "toil."

      Altogether, the poem starts on a heavy, intentionally clunky footing. Its very language starts slowly and sleepily, as if it shares in the speaker's exhaustion.

    • Lines 3-4

      But then begins a journey in my head
      To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired.

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    • Lines 5-8

      For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
      Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
      And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
      Looking on darkness which the blind do see.

    • Lines 9-12

      Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
      Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
      Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
      Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

    • Lines 13-14

      Lo! Thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
      For thee and for myself no quiet find.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Alliteration

      Alliteration keeps the poem sounding interesting and draws readers' attention to certain moments and images. In the poem's opening line, for example, the breathy /w/ sounds of "Weary with" might evoke heavy breathing—and, it follows, the speaker's exhausted state. In the very next line, the crisp, spiky /t/ sounds of "travel tired" emphasize the speaker's intense fatigue.

      Much as the speaker wants to sleep, he can't. The start of his mind's journey (as opposed to the real-life one he has undertaken that day) is also signaled with alliteration: the two bold /b/ sounds in "But then begins" in line 3 add a big jolt to the poem, almost like an alarm going off.

      Later, sibilant alliteration creates a hushed, quiet, even ghostly atmosphere that fits with the image of the speaker alone in the darkness:

      Save that my soul’s imaginary sight

      Finally, the /b/ sounds of "black" and "beauteous" in line 12 are like a bit of extra ornamentation or decoration that calls attention to the newfound "beauty" of the dark night.

    • Apostrophe

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    • Assonance

    • Caesura

    • Consonance

    • Metaphor

    • Oxymoron

    • Repetition

    • Simile

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Weary
    • Toil
    • Haste
    • Dear
    • Repose
    • Expired
    • Abide
    • Intend
    • Zealous
    • Pilgrimage
    • Thee
    • Thy
    • Lo
    Weary

    • Exhausted.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"”

    • Form

      "Sonnet 27" is a Shakespearean sonnet, meaning it consists of three quatrains and a closing couplet. The poem also features a change of direction at the start of line 9, which is the traditional turning point—or volta—in Petrarchan sonnets. This is the moment in which the speaker moves from talking about his inability to sleep to envisioning the jewel-like vision of his absent beloved.

      The closing couplet is more typical of a Shakespearean sonnet, offering what is essentially a summary of the 12 preceding lines. Here, that works in the poem's favor; that is, the way it circles back on itself evokes the way that the speaker's thoughts seem to endlessly circle around his beloved.

    • Meter

      "Sonnet 27" is written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line has five iambs, poetic units with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern (da-DUM). As an example, here's the meter of lines 5 and 6:

      For then | my thoughts, | from far | where I | abide,
      Intend | a zeal- | ous pil- | grimage | to thee,

      The steadiness of the meter here matches the speaker's mind's determination to make its "pilgrimage" towards the absent lover.

      But while the meter at this moment is steady, the poem actually starts out with a variation. The first line opens with a trochee (DUM-da) in its first foot: Weary. This stressed beat makes the poem feel tired and heavy right from the start. The speaker repeats this pattern a few times, in fact, as in lines 8 and 13. These trochees are like little alarms going off, jolting the drowsy speaker awake. It's almost as if the poem starts sloppily precisely because the speaker feels so exhausted.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      This poem follows the typical rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet:

      ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

      In other words, the three quatrains use an alternating rhyme pattern (the first line in each quatrain rhymes with the third; the second line in each quatrain rhymes with the fourth), before the ending caps it all off with a quick couplet. Here, the rhymes propel the poem forward, following their scheme as faithfully as the speaker's thoughts lead him to a vision of his lover.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Speaker

    • Many scholars take these sonnets to be somewhat autobiographical and thus interpret the speaker as Shakespeare himself (or at least a man representing Shakespeare—hence the use of male pronouns in this guide).

      That said, the sonnet itself doesn't offer much in terms of the speaker's specific identity. What's not in question is that the speaker is going a little crazy with longing for an absent lover! The speaker has been working all day and is understandably exhausted, but can't sleep because visions of his beloved are going around and around in his mind. In keeping the speaker anonymous within the poem itself, its message feels universal: anyone who's ever found themselves unable to stop thinking about the object of their affections can likely relate.

  • “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Setting

    • The poem takes place in the speaker's bedroom late at night. The speaker has just returned from a long day of work and travel, and he wants nothing more than to rest. The bedroom is notably dark—so dark that the speaker sees nothing whether or not his eyes are closed. This darkness creates a vivid contrast between the night itself and the imagined brightness of the speaker's lover. This contrast, in turn, reflects the power of the speaker's imagination and the intensity of his longing.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"”

      Literary Context

      "Sonnet 27" is one of Shakespeare's lesser-known sonnets. The poem was first published in the 1609 Quarto edition of Shakespeare's poems, alongside 153 others. The first 126 of these sonnets, in turn, are addressed to an unnamed male aristocrat that scholars call the "Fair Youth."

      There are numerous theories about the youth's identity. What the poems themselves suggest to readers is that this person was very attractive, of a higher social status than the speaker, and the cause of much jealousy.

      This sonnet and the three that follow it meditate on solitude, loss, and distance, the speaker apparently separated from the youth and unable to think of much else. "Sonnet 27" also echoes an earlier poem by Sir Philip Sidney, whose Astrophel and Stella sonnet sequence was a major influence on Shakespeare and on the sonnet genre more generally. Sidney's "Sonnet 89," for example, features a speaker who laments being "tired with the dusty toils of busy day" and "aches" for an absent lover.

      Writers like Sidney and the courtier Thomas Wyatt popularized the sonnet form in English, but its earliest pioneer was the 14th-century Italian poet named Petrarch. His works established many of the conventions of the sonnet, including its common thematic link to love and desire. Petrarchan sonnets typically have a turn in thought, or volta, in line 9, whereas Shakespearean sonnets tend to place their turn in the closing couplet. With the shift signaled by "Save," however, "Sonnet 27" blends both sonnet forms.

      Historical Context

      Shakespeare lived from 1564 till 1616 and published works during the reign of two English monarchs: Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. His sonnets were written over a number of years during Elizabeth's reign and subsequently appeared in print during James's (known as the Jacobean).

      Shakespeare enjoyed considerable success during his lifetime, reportedly even performing for the Queen. The sonnets represent a much more introspective side of the writer, however, and were potentially published by a man named Thomas Thorpe without Shakespeare's consent.

      If the poems are indeed autobiographical, then it would likely make sense that Shakespeare would want to keep them private: while close and affectionate friendships between men were common in the Elizabethan Era, sex between men was a crime. Some scholars question whether the male relationship chronicled in the "Fair Youth" sequence was truly romantic in nature, while others argue that the intense, passionate longing expressed in the poems is clearly more than platonic.

  • More “Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"” Resources

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