I
icandance
Guest
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless1 cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
5 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.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
10 Haply2 I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
1. With whom is the speaker in Sonnet 29 in “disgrace?”
2. How would you describe the shifting moods in Sonnet 29? What causes this shift?
3. How do the last two lines of Sonnet 29 summarize the theme of the poem?
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless1 cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
5 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.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
10 Haply2 I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
1. With whom is the speaker in Sonnet 29 in “disgrace?”
2. How would you describe the shifting moods in Sonnet 29? What causes this shift?
3. How do the last two lines of Sonnet 29 summarize the theme of the poem?