Can someone PLEASE explain Shakespeare's sonnet 29?

Question

I looked under cliffnotes but their description didn't quite make sense to me and sparknotes doesn't have this particular sonnet available for overview. The 3 uses of 'state' is also really confusing to me in this sonnet.
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

*Line 2 - The poet's 'outcast state' is possibly a reference to his lack of work as a player due to the closing of the theatres in 1592. It also could be a reference to the attack on Shakespeare at the hands of Robert Greene.

*Line 5 - Sometimes editors report that, in lines 5 and 6, the poet is referring to his friend, likely the Earl of Southampton. However, if lines 13 and 14 are addressed to the friend, then the previous reference to the friend in lines 5 and 6 seems out of place and illogical. It makes more sense to assume that lines 5 and 6 are not addressed to one person in particular, in keeping with the later references to "this man's art" and "that man's scope".

*Line 7 - "range" here means the "range of opportunity".

Sonnet 29 shows us the poet at his most insecure and troubled self. He feels unlucky, disgraced, and jealous of those around him. What is causing the poet's anguish can only be guessed, but an examination of the circumstances surrounding his life at the time he wrote sonnet 29 could help us to understand his depression. [A supporting information: In 1592, the London theatres closed due to a severe outbreak of the plague. Although it is possible that Shakespeare toured the outlying areas of London with acting companies like Pembroke's Men or Lord Strange's Men, it seems more likely that he left the theatre entirely during this time, possibly to work on his non-dramatic poetry. The closing of the playhouses made it hard for Shakespeare and other actors of the day to earn a living. With plague and poverty threatening his life, it is only natural that he felt "in disgrace with fortune". Moreover, in 1592 there came a scathing attack on Shakespeare by dramatist Robert Greene, who wrote in a deathbed diary: "There is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country." Shakespeare was deeply disturbed by this assault, feeling disgraced in "men's eyes" as well as fortune's.]

The poet is so forlorn that even the passion for his profession as an actor seems to have died. But the sonnet ends with a positive affirmation that all is not lost -- that the poet's dear friend can compensate for the grief he feels.

If you want a li'l more in4mation then you may refer to the Sonnet 30 as well.

Hope that helps!!

Answer 2

Sonnet 29

Answer 3

Sonnet 29 is all about the religion of love (a powerful and uniting theme throughout Shakespeare and the Metaphysical poets), power, beauty, jealousy, and how the persona is no longer the center of love...at least that is how I see it.

The first quatrain likens the persona to Lucifer: the phrases "disgrace with fortune," "alone beweep my outcast state," and "trouble deaf heaven" point to this.

After line 8 there is a turn from Lucifer to Jesus with the imagery and symbolism of the lark arising to heaven's gates. The phrasing can liken the lark to the Holy Spirit.

Dunno if this helps, but hopefully it is a jumping off point.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Can someone PLEASE explain Shakespeare's sonnet 29?
I looked under cliffnotes but their description didn't quite make sense to me and sparknotes doesn't have this particular sonnet available for overview. The 3 uses of 'state' is also really confusing to me in this sonnet.
Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 5

There is a Sparknotes site for this, under their "No Fear Shakespeare" section:

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/sonnets/sonnet_29.html

I'd translate "state" as "condition."

Lines 6 and 7 describe several different men who have something that the narrator desires. Think of "scope" as wide knowledge or intelligence. "Art" is artistic ability. Different abilities that the narrator wishes he had.

Answer 6

The speaker is down on his luck. Wealth and position have passed him by. He is in a state of depression and envies those who have more than him. But then he thinks about his beloved. His thoughts of her lift his spirit and then he feels that her love is a greater possession than all the wealth in the world.

Meaning of "state": 1 a : mode or condition of being ( b (1) : condition of mind or temperament .(I think this is the meaning of the second use of "state").....3 a : social position; especially : high rank - (I think this is the first and third usages in the sonnet.).

Answer 7

Hopelessness, Depression, loneliness, jealousy, dissatisfaction in the first part, then it is the remembrance of his past love that stirs hope and happiness in his heart and gives him the will to overcome his depression. His love for her means so much that he's willing to make changes for her to be a better man.

Love, basically, it's about Depression vs. Love.

Answer 8

That he wishes he was a nobleman, or was wittier or more artful--- but finds through this despair self-loathing and humility, and is transformed by love for his lover, which is like a heaven from the depth he plunges, and is free from his worries.

Answer 9

The first answer sums it up perfectly, and his "state" refers I think, to his condition, situation or circumstance at the moment of that piece of writing...... ?????

I know what I was trying to say ---- Shakespeare I aint!!!! VBG

Answer 10

the speaker is hopeless and depressed and envious of others in the first part of the sonnet then there is the turn when the thought of his beloved comes into his mind...the mere thought of her changes his mindset..from being envious of others, he starts believing that his situation is enviable by even the princes because he has what they do not have (his beloved).