General Introduction
Sonnet no 136 falls in the second category that is dedicated to Dark Lady. As far the metrical structure and the stanza concerns resemble previous sonnets. The recurrent style and structure of Shakespearean sonnet have three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It imitates typical rhyming pattern abab cdcd efef gg, and is composed in iambic pentameter. The current sonnet continues the earlier sonnet no 135, generally, critics label these sonnets as the “Will” sonnets. In these sonnets speaker (author) depreciate himself and appreciate the counterpart. The label “Will” has been contemplated in three distinct ways. The first one refers to William Shakespeare as the speaker of the poem; the second one points out to the literal meaning of “Will”. The last one carries the sense of sexual- appeal, which was common in those days.
Analysis
In the first quatrain, the poet is addressing to the Dark Lady and arguing her to read her own soul. The poet is referring Dark Lady’s soul as blind soul arguing that if her soul prevents her to think as he is near to her. More emphatically, the poet is assuring her that (I was thy “Will”) he is her “Will”. Further, he says that her soul knows full well, has admitted, even-though your soul checks you. In the successive stanza, the word “Will” can be interpreted in many ways. The most probably, the concurrent sense is conveyed of Sex-desire. The speaker is proposing her by supplying special love for. He says, for her there would be many lovers but suits her more than anyone. In the third quatrain, nothing is drawn more valuable or anything worthy contemplative. Indirectly, some slang terms have been used in the last quatrain. Here the speaker is beseeching the Dark Lady for making love that could quench the thirst for sexual pleasure.
In the concluding part as the couplet, the speaker shifts from the argument of “love my Will” to “love my name”. In the final line of the poem, the poet declares the ambiguous reference of the word “Will”; one will is the speaker himself and the other one stands for “wish”
Paraphrases of the poems
Miscellaneous
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