Sonnet 140: Be Wise as Thou Art Cruel; Do Not Press
Sonnet 140: Be Wise as Thou Art Cruel; Do Not Press - form Summary
A Volta Drives the Turn
This poem is a Shakespearean sonnet that uses its conventional structure to move from plea to warning. The speaker begins by begging a beloved not to exacerbate his pain with scorn. At the structural turn (line 9) the tone shifts to fear of despair and public slander if he loses control. The closing couplet compresses the appeal into a practical demand: look straight and avoid creating falsehoods about him.
Read Complete AnalysesBe wise as thou art cruel; do not press My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain, Lest sorrow lend me words and words express The manner of my pity-wanting pain. If I might teach thee wit, better it were, Though not to love, yet, love, to tell me so, As testy sick men, when their deaths be near, No news but health from their physicians know. For if I should despair, I should grow mad, And in my madness might speak ill of thee, Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad, Mad slanderers by mad ears believèd be. That I may not be so, nor thou belied, Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.
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