Sonnet 142: Love Is My Sin, and Thy Dear Virtue Hate
Sonnet 142: Love Is My Sin, and Thy Dear Virtue Hate - meaning Summary
Hypocrisy of the Beloved
This sonnet addresses a beloved whose virtue condemns the speaker’s passionate love. The speaker argues that the beloved is hypocritical: she has also profaned love by pursuing others, so her moral high ground is undeserved. He asks her to compare states, plant pity in her heart, and recognize mutual culpability. The closing couplet warns that if she hides desires, her example may prevent her from obtaining what she seeks.
Read Complete AnalysesLove is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving, O, but with mine, compare thou thine own state, And thou shalt find it merits not reproving, Or if it do, not from those lips of thine That have profaned their scarlet ornaments And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine, Robbed others’ beds’ revenues of their rents. Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov’st those Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee. Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example mayst thou be denied!
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