William Shakespeare wrote "Sonnet 45" in the 1590s, and it was first published with his collected sonnets in 1609. Like the surrounding poems in Shakespeare's "Fair Youth" sequence, this sonnet addresses a handsome young nobleman whose exact identity is unknown. In "Sonnet 45," the speaker describes feeling woeful and out of sorts when his beloved is away. Through an extended metaphor portraying his emotional volatility as an elemental imbalance (a health issue), the speaker conveys the deep pain that the beloved's absence has caused.
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The Full Text of “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire”
1The other two, slight air and purging fire,
2Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
3The first my thought, the other my desire,
4These present-absent with swift motion slide.
5For when these quicker elements are gone
6In tender embassy of love to thee,
7My life, being made of four, with two alone
8Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy;
9Until life's composition be recured
10By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
11Who even but now come back again, assured
12Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:
13This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
14I send them back again and straight grow sad.
The Full Text of “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire”
1The other two, slight air and purging fire,
2Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
3The first my thought, the other my desire,
4These present-absent with swift motion slide.
5For when these quicker elements are gone
6In tender embassy of love to thee,
7My life, being made of four, with two alone
8Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy;
9Until life's composition be recured
10By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
11Who even but now come back again, assured
12Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:
13This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
14I send them back again and straight grow sad.
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Summary
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Themes
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Love and Longing
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire”
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Lines 1-4
The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with swift motion slide. -
Lines 5-8
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy; -
Lines 9-12
Until life's composition be recured
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: -
Lines 13-14
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Symbols
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The Four Elements (and Humors)
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
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Apostrophe
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Juxtaposition
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Metaphor
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Parallelism
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” 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.
- Slight
- Purging
- Abide
- Quicker
- Elements
- Embassy
- Melancholy
- Composition
- Recured
- Fair
- Recounting
- Joy
- Straight
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Speaker
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“Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire”
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More “Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire” Resources
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External Resources
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First Edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets — Read "Sonnet 45" (and the rest of the sequence) as it was originally circulated in 1609.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to a recitation of "Sonnet 45." Note the modern-day English pronunciation, which is slightly different than the poem would have sounded in Shakespeare's day.
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The Poem's "Companion" — Read "Sonnet 44," which appears directly before this poem in Shakespeare's sequence of sonnets and is often considered its companion piece.
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The Elizabethan Sonnet Sequence — Learn more about the sonnet cycle format, including Sir Philip Sidney's sequence, which established the trend and which Shakespeare references in this poem.
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Shakespeare and the Four Humors — A brief explanation of the four humors, with links to related documents and information about their appearance in Shakespeare's plays.
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"The Balance of Passions" — Learn more about humorism through an exhibition on the history of Emotions and Disease.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare
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