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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 129
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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 129Sonnet 129
129
Synopsis:
This sonnet describes what Booth calls “the life cycle of lust”—a moment of bliss preceded by madness and followed by despair.
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and, till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,
4Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
8On 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;
12Before, 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.