Sonnet 75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
love
possession
generosity
desire
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found;
Now proud as an enjoyer and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure;
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight
And by and by clean starved for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight,
Save what is had or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
What It Means
The young man is to Shakespeare's thoughts what food is to the body. He hoards him one moment (wanting to keep him all to himself) and then wants to share him with the world. He's a miser about the young man and yet a spendthrift — he can't decide whether to possess or to share. He ends up just counting over his wealth, looking at it, unable to use it.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The food metaphor for love recurs across several sonnets.
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