每日一首Sonnet (33)

XXXIII

1. Full many a glorious morninghave I seen
2. Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
3. Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
4. Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
5. Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
6. With ugly rack on his celestial face,
7. And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
8. Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
9. Even so my sun one early morn did shine,
10. With all triumphant splendour on my brow;
11. But out, alack, he was but one hour mine,
12. The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
13. Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
14. Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.

Commentary:

A sonnetthat hardly needs an introduction.This and the following record a rejection by the youth of the poet. Howserious or real this was we have no means of knowing. Perhaps it is animaginaryinterlude in the sonnet sequence. Most readers however take it ashavingautobiographical content, and that approach is given credence by whatappearsto be the genuineness of the sorrow, and by the fact that the episodeofestrangement, whatever caused it, is dealt with in this and thefollowingthree sonnets.
The fact that we aremore disposed to believe inthe biographical truth of the sonnet because of its beauty of imageryandlanguage is a reality of human nature which cannot be easily dispensedwith.It would be disapponting to learn that the youth and the poet'simpassionedlove for him were mere creations of an idle brain, with deliberateintentto lay a false trail and make truth out of fiction. For while we mayallowthat a Macbeth and a Hamlet are engendered in the heat of artisticcreation,their existence gives us a vicarious experience which is not harmed bytheirfictional reality. I am not convinced that this is so with the sonnets,for we long to trust their sincerity, and to see what it teaches us ofourown capacity for love, what it explores and what it defines. ThereforeIalways assume what I take to be the standard or Wordsworthian approach (paceBrowning), that this is a true record of love, no doubt edited andembellished,(for who could ever be word perfect in such matters?).
But we have toacknowledge also that the lover'sfrown and her (in this case his) overcast brow, like the sun cloudingoveron a fine morning, was also a part of the sonnet tradition. Shakespearewas here making use of that rich tradition, as well as recording in hisown inimitable way the feelings of one so cast down by his beloved'sdisdain.

Note:
1. Full many = very many.

2. Flatter - also has the meaning to stroke. In its normal sense it conveys the idea of insincerity and deception, and ultimate disillusionment. Hence the morning sun was making the mountains appear more brilliant than they in fact were.
sovereign eye = majestic, kingly gaze. Note that here the usual flattery of king by subject has been reversed. The king flatters his courtiers, the mountains.

3. The sun kisses the earth. The glorious morning is partly subsumed into the character of the sun, as a result of sovereign eye and kissing.

4. Gilding = turning to gold; covering with gold.
alchemy - this was the science which sought to discover how to turn base metals into gold. It was considered to be part magic, part science, and had a reputation for trickery and deceit. Nevertheless Elizabeth employed an alchemist in the early years of her reign, having been lured by the prospect of large sums of gold.

There are echoes in these opening lines from Sidney's Arcadia: But indeed, as we can better consider the sun's beauty by marking how he gilds these waters and mountains than by looking upon his own face, too glorious for our weak eyes, so it may be our conceits (not able to bear her sun staining excellency) will better weigh it by her works upon some meaner subject employed. ARC.1.1. (Peng.p.63.)

5. Anon = very soon, almost immediately;
permit - the subject is morning line 1, and, by implication, the sky and the sun.
basest = blackest, dirtiest, of humble origin; low born. Cf. Edmund in King Lear:
...Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? I.2.9-10.
There is also a contrast with gilding and alchemy. Base metals were the ugly materials of the alchemist's study, which were destined to be turned into gold, the noblest metal of all.
to ride - as horsemen. The clouds ride on the face of heaven as horsemen ride on the face of the earth.

6. rack = a line or procession of moving clouds; thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky.(Webster's) The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, . . . pass without noise. Bacon.
his = the sun's, the sky's, the morning's.

7. the forlorn world - the world becomes forlorn, presumably because it is darkened by the ugly rack of clouds, which hide the sun's celestial face (visage).

8. Stealing = moving furtively, stealthily, like a thief.
with this disgrace = with the disgrace of having his visage blotted out. disgrace could also refer to physical disfigurement.

9. my sun = the youth whom I love; you; the heavenly eye of my life. This is however the first mention of sun in the sonnet.

10. all triumphant splendour = gloriously arrayed, in total splendour. triumph conveys the idea of a triumphal procession, a procession to commemorate the victory of a famous commander.
on my brow = upon my forehead, upon my face.

11. But, out, alack - editors gloss this as being an emphatic way of saying 'Alas', out being an intensifier, and cognate with its use in expressions such as 'out upon it!'. However I think it also has reference here to the sun, which was only 'out', i.e. shining, for one hour.
he was but one hour mine = I enjoyed his (the sun's, my love's) presence for only one hour.

12. The region = the upper air, the upper region of the sky.
him = my love, (the sun).

13. him....my love - these cannot both refer to the youth. If my love = the youth, then him must be the sun of 5-8 and 9-12, which has been disgraced by clouds ruining his face. But if him refers to the youth, then my love is 'my love for him', personified, which does not disdain him (the youth) for having become inaccessible.
no whit = not in the least, not a jot.

14. The homophonic meaning, sons, is played upon. Sons of the flesh are also liable to blemish and disgrace, as heavenly suns are. stain can be used transitively or intransitively, so that the youth, as well as becoming stained himself, has passed the infection on to others.