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Sonnet 29
The famous Sonnet 29 (When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes) by William Shakespeare).
5 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 7, 2012
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William Shakespeare
28.1k books47.3k followersWilliam Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 4, 2021
I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"The feeling of love,
All on its own, is a balm
That sooths many woes."
"The feeling of love,
All on its own, is a balm
That sooths many woes."
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January 6, 2021When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings
May 22, 2022
Two-thirds of the poem consists of a list of half-imaginary grievances. It begins with an allegorical tableau, as crisply limned as in a late-medieval panel painting.
Shakespeare (if we may categorize him with the speaker) claims he is “outcast,” ostracized, “in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes”. To be in disapproval with “men’s eyes” means to have lost social status: the reproachful male eyes look fiercely or, more acidly, glance and turn apathetically away.
But vital female eyes don’t see him at all: he has been dumped by Fortune, the ancient goddess Fortuna, who turned a rudder or wheel and who would later become Lady Luck, patroness of gamblers.
Nothing breaks Shakespeare’s way. Fortune is blind to him, and the Christian God is “deaf” or perhaps nonexistent. The poet’s “cries,” or prayers, like those of Hamlet’s blameworthy but unapologetic king, are “bootless”—unsuccessful, ineffective—as they rise toward heaven and grow fainter like echoes.
Self-absorbed and cursing his fate, the poet is momentarily braced by angry energy. But seething dissatisfactions erupt, a catalog of lacks and wants. He seems to gesture this way and that toward a parade of envied others who do not see him, since he has become an indiscernible man.
The man “more rich in hope” has reason for cheer since he is on the fast track toward a wonderful future.
The second is well “featured,” that is, handsome, a boon that in any age draws attention and brings preferment. We could deduce that the poet thought his own looks unimposing or average.
The third has “friends” in high places, family connections or contacts critical for advancement in the premodern court world. There are hints of petty rivalries among the cultural elite: Shakespeare, incredible to us, envies another’s “art,” that is, literary skill, probably because it is of a more usual, elegant, and chic kind.
And he feels nervy by yet another’s “scope,” or intellectual power, presumably owed to a university education. (The middle-class Shakespeare had a solid Stratford primary schooling, where he acquired, according to a fashionable satire, “little Latin and less Greek.”)
The poem concludes in unqualified direct address: “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings”. Perhaps the sonnet was sent as a gift to its inspirer, but the beloved has already half materialized as a luminous presence.
The friend’s “sweet love” may or may not have been physical, but it is enduringly restorative. Lady Luck’s stinginess has been neutralized by a bonanza of spiritual “wealth.”
Love allows the revitalized poet to “scorn” ambition and materialism: high rank and power now seem paltry. Emotional exaltation brings salvation.
Shakespeare’s art is reborn, crystallizing in the poem before us.
The plot line of the poem resembles a modern business graph that veers dizzyingly downward to bottom out in bankruptcy.
At his lowest, the poet is sluggishly mired in “sullen earth,” the gloom upon the hills just before sunrise, when the sky has already brightened. The lark bursts into song for the sheer joy of being alive. Its “hymns” follow the same arcing path as the poet’s earlier “bootless” prayers, but a bird doesn’t care if “heaven’s gate” is locked. It makes music because it can.
So does poetry flow from him, Shakespeare implies, when love is the goad.
The beating of the lark’s wings certainly mimes the beating of his own heart, which quickens at the meager idea of the beloved.
Shakespeare (if we may categorize him with the speaker) claims he is “outcast,” ostracized, “in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes”. To be in disapproval with “men’s eyes” means to have lost social status: the reproachful male eyes look fiercely or, more acidly, glance and turn apathetically away.
But vital female eyes don’t see him at all: he has been dumped by Fortune, the ancient goddess Fortuna, who turned a rudder or wheel and who would later become Lady Luck, patroness of gamblers.
Nothing breaks Shakespeare’s way. Fortune is blind to him, and the Christian God is “deaf” or perhaps nonexistent. The poet’s “cries,” or prayers, like those of Hamlet’s blameworthy but unapologetic king, are “bootless”—unsuccessful, ineffective—as they rise toward heaven and grow fainter like echoes.
Self-absorbed and cursing his fate, the poet is momentarily braced by angry energy. But seething dissatisfactions erupt, a catalog of lacks and wants. He seems to gesture this way and that toward a parade of envied others who do not see him, since he has become an indiscernible man.
The man “more rich in hope” has reason for cheer since he is on the fast track toward a wonderful future.
The second is well “featured,” that is, handsome, a boon that in any age draws attention and brings preferment. We could deduce that the poet thought his own looks unimposing or average.
The third has “friends” in high places, family connections or contacts critical for advancement in the premodern court world. There are hints of petty rivalries among the cultural elite: Shakespeare, incredible to us, envies another’s “art,” that is, literary skill, probably because it is of a more usual, elegant, and chic kind.
And he feels nervy by yet another’s “scope,” or intellectual power, presumably owed to a university education. (The middle-class Shakespeare had a solid Stratford primary schooling, where he acquired, according to a fashionable satire, “little Latin and less Greek.”)
The poem concludes in unqualified direct address: “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings”. Perhaps the sonnet was sent as a gift to its inspirer, but the beloved has already half materialized as a luminous presence.
The friend’s “sweet love” may or may not have been physical, but it is enduringly restorative. Lady Luck’s stinginess has been neutralized by a bonanza of spiritual “wealth.”
Love allows the revitalized poet to “scorn” ambition and materialism: high rank and power now seem paltry. Emotional exaltation brings salvation.
Shakespeare’s art is reborn, crystallizing in the poem before us.
The plot line of the poem resembles a modern business graph that veers dizzyingly downward to bottom out in bankruptcy.
At his lowest, the poet is sluggishly mired in “sullen earth,” the gloom upon the hills just before sunrise, when the sky has already brightened. The lark bursts into song for the sheer joy of being alive. Its “hymns” follow the same arcing path as the poet’s earlier “bootless” prayers, but a bird doesn’t care if “heaven’s gate” is locked. It makes music because it can.
So does poetry flow from him, Shakespeare implies, when love is the goad.
The beating of the lark’s wings certainly mimes the beating of his own heart, which quickens at the meager idea of the beloved.
April 8, 2021
I adore the way this sonnet flows and I remember studying it in school.
June 20, 2017
It's definitely an interesting poem and quite deep when you really boil it down. It's not my favorite of William Shakespeare's though, and the rhyming scheme could use a little work.
May 28, 2024
This sonnet, number 29 out of 154, captures the complexity of human emotions, from jealousy, envy, depression and self-loathing, all of that eventually reaching its zenith and redemption through love and imagery of nature. The first part of the poem is one of insecurity, depression and comparing yourself to others who seem better than you. His mood transcends when talking and thinking about his love, and the speaker realises that he would not want to live his life in any other way (not even like a king) as long as he has her (let's just asume it's a "her").
*
Dit sonnet, nummer 29 van de 154, omschrijft de complexiteit van menselijke emoties, van jaloezie, afgunst, depressie en zelfspot, wat allemaal hun zenith en verlossing bereikt door liefde en natuurbeelden. Het eerste gedeelte van het gedicht gaat over onzekerheid, depressie en jezelf met anderen vergelijken die beter lijken dan jij. Zijn gemoed overstijgt zichzelf wanneer hij praat over zijn geliefde, en de spreker beseft dat hij zich geen ander leven zou wensen (niet eens dat van een koning), zo lang hij haar heeft (we gaan er even van uit dat het een "haar" is).
*
Dit sonnet, nummer 29 van de 154, omschrijft de complexiteit van menselijke emoties, van jaloezie, afgunst, depressie en zelfspot, wat allemaal hun zenith en verlossing bereikt door liefde en natuurbeelden. Het eerste gedeelte van het gedicht gaat over onzekerheid, depressie en jezelf met anderen vergelijken die beter lijken dan jij. Zijn gemoed overstijgt zichzelf wanneer hij praat over zijn geliefde, en de spreker beseft dat hij zich geen ander leven zou wensen (niet eens dat van een koning), zo lang hij haar heeft (we gaan er even van uit dat het een "haar" is).
May 13, 2025
- Themes of self-pity, isolation, despair, love, and wealth
- Only period is at the end of line 14; one long sentence
- Situation of considerable despair and despondency for the speaker
- "In disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" = lacking both money and popularity/comradery
- Tone is emotional and melodramatic
- Apostrophe to his love "Happily I think on thee..."
- Riddled with hyperboles of his loneliness and love for this person
- Personification of fortune and heaven
- Rapt with passiveness, a "woe is me" mentality
- Only period is at the end of line 14; one long sentence
- Situation of considerable despair and despondency for the speaker
- "In disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" = lacking both money and popularity/comradery
- Tone is emotional and melodramatic
- Apostrophe to his love "Happily I think on thee..."
- Riddled with hyperboles of his loneliness and love for this person
- Personification of fortune and heaven
- Rapt with passiveness, a "woe is me" mentality
June 22, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
This sonnet to be honest goes pretty deep when you take a second to think about it which made me like this sonnet even more.
This sonnet was interesting and enjoyable as well, but still it didn’t speak to me so much as I wished it would.
The writing style here was pretty okay but I was expecting something more from William Shakespeare.
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
This sonnet to be honest goes pretty deep when you take a second to think about it which made me like this sonnet even more.
This sonnet was interesting and enjoyable as well, but still it didn’t speak to me so much as I wished it would.
The writing style here was pretty okay but I was expecting something more from William Shakespeare.
October 19, 2022
"For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings."
=
Because thinking about your love brings so much richness to my life
That I would rather have it than be king.>>
That then I scorn to change my state with kings."
=
Because thinking about your love brings so much richness to my life
That I would rather have it than be king.>>
October 4, 2017
Obviously, these sonnets are super short (duh), but since I had to spend about an hour analyzing each, I think it' justified to add each separately to my reading challenge haha.
December 7, 2017
Also found at poetrysoup.com
July 11, 2018
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate.
January 5, 2024
Simply thankful.
November 30, 2024
When life sucks, I think of you and everything gets better. Basic gist of the poem. Love makes everything better.
May 15, 2025
judi dench’s recitation of this on graham norton is captivating
October 12, 2025
"And look upon myself and curse my fate"
November 25, 2016
"For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings"
That then I scorn to change my state with kings"
April 5, 2024
Had to translate to current English. It was good
January 23, 2023
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29
“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,..”
Last line: “That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”
“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,..”
Last line: “That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”
January 24, 2023
•••Read for school•••
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews