Sonnet notes 15

Sonnet 49, line 14: “Since why to love, I can allege no cause”

The relationship between the poet and the Young Man has been swinging wildly. After assuming all the guilt in Sonnet 36, the poet is taken aback with new evidence of the Young Man’s disloyalty in Sonnets 40-42 (“Aye me, but yet thou migh’st my seat forbear”—Sonnet 41, line 9). But the forgiveness is instantaneous (“Sweet flatt’ry, then she loves but me alone”—Sonnet 42, line 14) and the next five sonnets are loving and charming. Sonnet 48 then brings a foreboding note: “For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear” (line 14). And so we have Sonnet 49, where the poet looks forward to a time (if ever that time come) when he will no longer have the comfort of a loving relationship with the Young Man. He is ok with that, I ensconce me here, he says, in the comfortable knowledge that he never deserved the Young Man’s love in the first place (“Since why to love, I can allege no cause”). Do we believe anything the poet is saying? Do we believe that he has any doubt that the time will come when the Young Man will strangely pass and scarcely greet him? The poet must know something he is not telling us. Why shouldn’t the Young Man love him? We do, don’t we? He’s so charming! And could he really be comfortable with a future that does not include the Young Man’s love? After everything he has said? That doesn’t seem right. Is the final line of this sonnet just the exaggerated humility of the conventional sonneteer? It sounds like so much more, so much sadder. Is it a return to reality from the mania of new love? Is it a guilt trip? Whatever it is, it sounds like a real relationship. It’s ingenious.