Sonnet notes 24

Sonnet 119, lines 11-12: “And ruin’d love when it is built anew / Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater”

Sonnet 119 is another attempt by the poet to excuse his straying, his wretched errors. He’s been distracted, he says, by a madding fever. At first he said he was just trying to test the Young Man’s constancy (Sonnet 117). Then he said he was being proactive, preventing maladies unseen by taking bitter sauces to counteract the Young Man’s ne’er cloying sweetness (Sonnet 118). Now he says it was all for the best because ruin’d love when it is built anew is better than it was, fairer…more strong, far greater. Can this be true? He’s rebuk’d, he’s gained by ill thrice more than he has spent, he says. What lesson is he teaching? “All you lovers out there, be sure to ruin your love so that you can build it back better afterwards.” I don’t like that word ruin. I don’t think I like this teacher. There seems to be something wrong with his ideas about love. Either that, or he’s just desperately grasping for excuses.