“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Introduction

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“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Summary

“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Themes

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  Self-Pity, Isolation, and Despair

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• 

  Love and Wealth

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”

• Lines 1-4

  When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
  I all alone beweep my outcast state,
  And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
  And look upon myself and curse my fate,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
  Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
  Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
  With what I most enjoy contented least;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
  Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  Like to the lark at break of day arising
  From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
         That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

  

  

  

  

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“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Symbols

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  Heaven

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  The Lark

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“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Hyperbole

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Synecdoche

  

  

  

  

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“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” 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.

• Fortune
• Beweep
• Outcast
• State
• Bootless
• Hope
• Scope
• Contented
• Haply
• Lark
• Sullen

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Speaker

“Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”

More “Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Elizabethan Sonnet Sequence — An article from the British Literature Wiki covering the broad dynamics of the Elizabethan sonnet sequence, with special attention to Shakespeare's sequence.

  • Sonnet 29 Read by Sir John Gielgud — Shakespearean actor Sir John Gielgud reads "Sonnet 29."

  • When the Bard Had the Blues — Alicia Ostriker analyzes "Sonnet 29" and writes about how it has affected her approach to her own writing—and the struggles that come with writing.    

  • Lovers' Laments — Former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky writes about the sonnet craze of the 1590s.

  • The Social Structure in Elizabethan England — Liza Picard describes the class system of Elizabethan England for the British Library.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare

  • Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

  • Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame

  • Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time

  • Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

  • Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

  • Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes

  • Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still

  • Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  • Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

  • Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted

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

  • Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

  • Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen

  • Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

  • Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments

  • Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore

  • Sonnet 65 ("Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea")

  • Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead

  • Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

  • Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"