Sonnet 36

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The first five lines of Sonnet 36 in the 1609 Quarto
Q1 Q2 Q3 C Let me confess that we two must be twain, Although our undivided loves are one: So shall those blots that do with me remain, Without thy help, by me be borne alone. In our two loves there is but one respect, Though in our lives a separable spite, Which though it alter not love’s sole effect, Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love’s delight. I may not evermore acknowledge thee, Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, Nor thou with public kindness honour me, Unless thou take that honour from thy name: But do not so; I love thee in such sort, As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. 4 8 12 14 —William Shakespeare

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Q2



Q3



C

Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one:
So shall those blots that do with me remain,
Without thy help, by me be borne alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love’s sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love’s delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name:
But do not so; I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

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8



12

14

Sonnet 36 is one of 154 Shakespeare's sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the speaker expresses his love towards a young man.

Sonnet 36 is just one of The Sonnets out of 154 that were written. There are 120 sonnets devoted to an unknown young man, twenty-eight sonnets are written to a young lady, and the rest are allegorical. Sonnet 36 falls in the category of love and beauty along with other sonnets such as 29, 37, and many others according to Claes Schaar.

Sonnet 36 is a typical English or Shakespearean sonnet, constructed from three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet. It follows the form's typical rhyme scheme, abab cdcd efef gg and is written in iambic pentameter, a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic positions. The second line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:

Shakespeare most likely wrote the sonnets that were meant for the young man over a four- or five-year period. There is speculation that the young man Shakespeare is addressing may be named William Hughs or Hews. While Butler raises the question of Shakespeare's homosexuality, other critics such as Wilde refute this claim and maintain Shakespeare had an innocent relationship with the boy. However, no reputable evidence for this theory has been found. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare addresses the young man's physical beauty as well as his internal beauty. In this particular sonnet, Shakespeare admits his love for the young man, but he states that he is not able to publicly acknowledge his love due to the shame that might result. According to Lord Alfred Douglas, there seems to be a contradiction between Sonnet 35 and Sonnet 36, because while he rebukes the young man in the first sonnet, he admits his own guilt in the second. Butler proposed that the young man in this poem was guilty of some public offense. However, Alfred Douglas believes that line 10 of the poem completely exonerates the young man of such an offense, because Shakespeare admits his own guilt.