Sonnet 56
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
love
appetite
renewal
absence
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd,
To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might:
So, love, be thou; although to-day thou fill
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness,
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness.
Let this sad interim like the ocean be
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
Come daily to the banks, that, when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
Else call it winter, which being full of care
Makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.
What It Means
Shakespeare worries that love, like appetite, might dull with familiarity. A full stomach loses interest in food; the eyes might grow bored of seeing the same face. He calls on love to sharpen itself. The image is of the sea between two shores — they seem separate for a while, but the tides return and reunite them. Intermission is not ending; it makes the reunion sweeter.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The fear of love growing dull is a psychological honesty rare in the more elevated earlier sonnets.
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