Sonnet 119: What Potions Have I Drunk of Siren Tears
Sonnet 119: What Potions Have I Drunk of Siren Tears - context Summary
Published in 1609
Sonnet 119 appears in Shakespeare's Sonnets, first published in 1609. It frames a speaker reflecting on past errors in love — anguish, delusion, and self-rebukes — and recognizes that suffering has ultimately strengthened the relationship. The poem functions as a restorative conclusion in the sonnet sequence: ruined love is rebuilt "fairer," and the narrator returns chastened but enriched, claiming a net gain from the trials endured.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distilled from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw my self to win! What wretched errors hath my heart committed, Whilst it hath thought it self so blessèd never! How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted In the distraction of this madding fever! O, benefit of ill, now I find true That better is, by evil still made better; And ruined love, when it is built anew, Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. So I return rebuked to my content, And gain by ills thrice more than I have spent.
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