Sonnet 129
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
lust
shame
desire
self-knowledge
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
What It Means
Sex outside marriage (lust in action) is a waste — shameful, deceitful, violent, cruel. Before the act, it is pursued madly. During it, it is enjoyed. After it, it is immediately despised. The desire promises everything and delivers shame. Everyone knows this. Nobody stops. This is the most brutally honest statement of sexual compulsion in the entire sequence — Shakespeare is not flattering his mistress or himself.
Context
Part of the Dark Lady sequence. Sonnet 129 is often read as the emotional center of the sequence — the honest account of the psychology driving the others.
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