Sonnet 57
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Sonnet 57 in the 1609 Quarto
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C
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.
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Sonnet 57 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man. Sonnet 57 is connected with Sonnet 58 which pursues the theme of the poet as a slave of the beloved.
The character the poet is writing to, in sonnet 57, is a young male he seems to be attracted to. "Shakespeare's sonnets display a narrative and a Dramatic Personae which combine to threaten conventional assumptions of appropriate love. Looking at Sonnet 57, the writer is claiming that the young man, due to the age gap, enslaves him and he must be patient and wait for the time when the fair youth desires the poet and the poet will ultimately wait for that time. Furthering this statement into a detailed analysis of the poem, in line one, "being your slave what should I do but tend"; Shakespeare is referring to himself as a slave who serves his master. He continues throughout Sonnet 57 to emphasise that he is devoted to his master.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 57, shows that "his love for the fair youth is seen as pure and even heavenly…" but in other sonnets he introduces new characters, one in particular the Dark Lady, "his association with the dark lady leads to infection and madness of love". He also uses a terminology about his love and how beautiful it appears, but when this love is being directed to a young man this might appear out of the norm at this time. In the line "Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you" the word "sovereign" implies that the youth is held at a higher degree and "watch the clock for you" implies that he will wait for something to happen because of the youth's age or because he is waiting for the youth to recognise his love. The line "nor dare I question with my jealous thought" implies that he has considered that jealously will raise doubts in his head and might drive his love to madness. That this could end up driving the poet to insanity is suggested in this line, "but, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought." The Speaker is referring to himself as the slave again and is diminishing himself by implying no one would love so low and asking the fair youth to clear his mind of all thoughts of him. Although he is comparing himself to a slave, the poet's love has never once subsided. The last two lines saying "so true a fool is love, that in your will, though you do anything, he thinks no ill." The word "will" could be seen as desire or possibly used as a pun on his name, Will. Since he thinks no ill, he is admitting that his love for the youth has made him a fool: "Ultimately Shakespeare provides space for the homoerotic but must eventually return to the perpetuating systems of heterosexual love". This critique states that Shakespeare's sonnets must seen as a continuation of love sonnets that play with different ideas of love. Love could imply economic interest or patronage. Another way of viewing the poet's intent could be a sexual or erotic attraction (as the critic Rudd emphasises) or a brotherly or platonic affection.
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