Sonnet notes 17

Sonnet 56, line 1: “Sweet love renew thy force…”

The poet is talking to himself. Something is different about his love for the Young Man. His eyes now wink closed with fullness, threatening to kill the spirit of his love with a perpetual dullness. Could the one whom the poet once compared to a summer’s day have become a dullard? Has familiarity bred contempt? Or is the poet jaded? Does his sensitive nature require the excitement of a new love with all its force? Is the poet not attuned to the way love matures? Is he unable to appreciate the distinction between the consumption of food and the joining of souls? What is going on in this relationship?