Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call—
All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love thou my love receivest,
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed if thou this self deceives
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robb’ry, gentle thief,
Although thou steal thee all my poverty;
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love’s wrong than hate’s known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes.
Summary of Sonnet 40
- Popularity of “Sonnet 40”: Written by William Shakespeare, the greatest English poet of all time, is another sonnet written in a sequence of 154 pieces. These love sonnets are called the Fair Youth sequence. The first collection of these sonnets appeared in 1609 though some of them were written much earlier. This sequence has brought the name of Shakespeare among the best sonneteers of the world. This circumlocutive expression of love has made it popular across the globe.
- “Sonnet 40” As a Representative of the Expression of love: Shakespeare tells his love, the Fair Youth, directly to take all of his “loves.” Calling his fair youth “my love,” he plays upon the word, love. However, he immediately poses a rhetorical question to ask him what he has before after he has stolen all of his loves. He goes on to say that if the fair youth goes to another person and starts loving that person, the poet is not going to blame him. The reason is that he is using the love of the poet to love that person.
Yet, he will share some blame as the fair youth will be deceiving himself for taking something from others instead of taking it from the poet. Despite this, the poet thinks that he would forgive the fair youth, calling him a dear thief and a lover. The poet states that he always feels hurt more by the lover than from the enemy. Calling him lecherous and graceful, the poet concludes the sonnet by saying that the fair youth can hurt him and kill him, but they would not become enemies of each other. - Major Themes in “Sonnet 40”: The intensity of love, infidelity, the transient nature of a lover, and linguistic playfulness are major themes of this sonnet. Although the play upon words starts in the very first line, where Shakespeare used the word “love” in two different meanings, it continues with other words such as blame, thief, and even hate and love. This play upon words shows how the poet wants to express his intense love for the fair youth. It also shows his vacillation and obfuscation of himself to avoid facing the stark reality of the infidelity of the fair youth in that he is not responsive to the love of the poet. The poet wants to console himself for this. That is why he does not call the fair youth his foe despite the fact that he is sure that the fair youth is going to cause him injuries.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Sonnet 40
William Shakespeare’s excellence lies in using literary devices to enhance the intended impact of this sonnet. Some literary devices used in this sonnet show it amply.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /i/ in “All mine was thine before thou hadst this more” and the sound of /o/ in “What hast thou then more than thou hadst before.”
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick successions, such as the sound of /g/ in “greater grief.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ and /l/ in “Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all” and the sound of /l/ and /s/ in “Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows.”
- Enjambment: It is a literary device in which a verse is rolled over to the next line to complete its meaning. Shakespeare used an enjambment such as;
I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest;
But yet be blamed if thou this self deceives
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. William Shakespeare used imagery in this poem, such as “All mine was thine before thou hadst this more”, “By wilful taste of what thyself refusest” and “Although thou steal thee all my poverty.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects different in nature. The poet used the metaphor of love as if it is property.
- Pun: It is a play upon words. The poem used the word “love” in several different meanings, including its plural.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols such as love, blame, thief, poverty, and grief to show the intensity of love.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Sonnet 40
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction: It means the type of language. This sonnet shows good use of formal and poetic diction.
- End Rhyme: It means to use verses having matching end words, such as all/call and more/before.
- Quatrain: It is a Persian stanza having four verses. The sonnet shows the use of a quatrain in the beginning.
- Repetition: It means to use words or phrases repeatedly to stress upon some theme or idea. The sonnet shows the repetition of love, thou and thine in different verses.
- Rhyme Scheme: This Shakespearean sonnet shows ABAB in quatrains and AA in the couplet.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are three quatrains and a couplet.
- Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a loving, intense, and balanced tone at different places.
Quotes to be Used
The following lines are useful to quote when talking about rationality in love.
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love’s wrong than hate’s known injury.
Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes.