Sonnet 35 addresses an older man giving advice to a younger man later in life during the Renaissance period. It discusses finding the good in all things, even those considered bad. The document provides context on the time period and author, and cites multiple references under Creative Commons licenses analyzing various aspects of Shakespeare's sonnets.
5. [1] John Klause, " Shakespeare's Sonnets: Age In Love And The Goring Of Thoughts,"
Studies in Philology, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 300, 1983. License: Attribution-NonCommercial
3.0 Unported. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode
2] Don Paterson, " Shakespeare's sonnets," The Guardian, 2010. License: AttributionNonCommercial 3.0 Unported. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/legalcode
[3] D. Petrescu, " Analysis of Shakespare's Sonnet no. 35," Quicken DocStoc, 2009. . License:
Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unportedhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/legalcode
[4] Christine E. Hutchins, " English Anti-Petrarchism: Imbalance and Excess In "The
EnglisheStraine"," Studies in Philology, vol. 109, no. 5, pp. 552-580, 2012.License:
Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unportedhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0/legalcode
[5] William Shakespeare, Amanda Mabillard, " Sonnet 35," Shakespeare-Online, 2009.
“This Way to Shakespeare’s grave”. Elliot Brown. Flickr.com. License: Attribution 2.0
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“Question Mark Cloud”. Micky Aldridge. Flickr.com. License: Attribution 2.0
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“Heisenburg”. Vince Gilligan. Wikipedia.org. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
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“Confused Dog”. Laura F. Deviantart.com. License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
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Editor's Notes
“All men make faults, and even I in this, “Everybody commits faults, and even I in doing this,Authorizing thy trespass with compare, Justifying your crimes by comparisons,Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss, Making myself a corrupt pleader by trying to remedy your misdeeds,Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are.” [5] Excusing your sins and even sins you haven't committed” [5]
According to Scottish poet and writer Don Paterson, it is not known when exactly each sonnet (including 35) was created in relation to which stage of Shakespeare’s life [1]. This could be either a young or older Shakespeare, but it is unclear exactly when he wrote his sonnets in his lifetime. One piece of evidence that shows incongruence is Sonnet 117 [1]. This sonnet (117) sounds like a younger Shakespeare judging by how it was written, versus the mature Shakespeare we see in Sonnet 35 [1]. According to Professor of English John Klause, there was a lot of speculation as to who the poet of these sonnets was supposed to be. Klause claims he may have been an older man, due to the fact that Shakespeare refers to his own “weary spirit, wrinkled skin, decaying wit and strength” in some of his later sonnets [2]. But it is not the age of the poet that is important, but it is the expected fact that the man has lived a long, exhausting life [2]. It is hard to say whom exactly the poet is addressing, but according to writer D. Petrescu, whomever the poet is addressing is a person who committed sin (either towards or to the knowledge of the poet) and it is a man committing this “sin” [3]. Petrescu states it is unclear what exactly the sin committed was, for it does not say [3]. This sin committed may have been something dark or extreme because in line three Shakespeare refers to “clouds and eclipses”. According to Petrescu, “In Elizabethan Age clouds and eclipses were both a metaphor for diseases” [3]. It is possible that this man was a lover or a close acquaintance. According to Christine Hutchins, if it were his lover, Shakespeare’s lovers seemed to not only be single, but also extremely physically available [4]. Shakespeare was said to have been credited with the first sonnet sequence “to depict torture and torturing lovers who not only consummate their sexual relationships but also generally make themselves excessively erotically available” [4].
Since Shakespeares’ sonnets were not written or assembled in chronological order, it’s hard to tell exactly when Sonnet 35 was written. But, you can tell by the use of certain writing techniques approximately when he may have done it in his lifetime. This was most likely written later in his lifetime. According to Petrescu, in the third quatrain, Shakespeare begins to use legal terms to break away from the “biblical and theological language of sin and redemption” [3]. This leads him into the fourth quatrain. The significance of the couplet is that he emphasizes how badly the poet feels, however his strong, emotional feelings for the sinner are much stronger than whatever damage was caused by the sinner’s sins [3]. Shakespeare also integrated some anti-Petrarchism style into his sonnets. “Readers of these sonnets might cringe at how horrible the relationships were between lovers, from worship to slavery, he used intense and vivid imagery”, according to Hutchins [4]. He would have used these techniques later in his lifetime; around the time many others had started doing the same. Hutchins says that those who opposed “English Petrarchan tradition” or love poetry would say that style of using intense romanticism and vivid emotional and sexual imagery was only unique to Shakespeare. However, plenty of Italian, French and English sonnet writers also took to using that style of Petrarchan tradition in their poetry” [4].
Many English sonnet writers were credited for adding a lot of praise and blame (both self and on others) as well as “overemphasizing conflicting states of pleasure and pain” according to Hutchins [4]. Klause points out where Shakespeare somewhat over exaggerates in sonnet 35: “The Poet goes so far as to take upon himself the ‘sin’ and ‘excusing’ his Friend’s amiss’” [1]. The poet claims he was “robbed” (of a lover) when really he or she really could have just left him for someone else. Klause states that Shakespeare’s sonnets can be read as rhetorical. If this is the case, the meaning and tone of the pieces change in their entirety. Shakespeare makes multiple references to love, friendship, betrayal and self-examination in his sonnets and if they were to be taken as rhetorical and not serious as though it sounds, they lose their meaning [1]. It can be seen rhetorical in sonnet 40 when his friend commits an infidelity. Klause claims that Shakespeare wants to show despair from the infidelity, but then shows a notion that the poet has known the truth and has been at terms with it all along [1]. Petrescu shows something interesting about line 4. When the poet is talking about a canker in a bud, it sounds like the speaker is referring to an actual flower. However, Petrescu points out that “bud” being used in that context has a double meaning; the meaning it has is buddy or friend [3]. According to Petrescu, Shakespeare is referring to the worm in the bud as “there is something bad in his friend” [3].
