Sonnet 33: Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen
Sonnet 33: Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen - meaning Summary
Love Compared to Weather
The speaker compares a beloved to the sun: radiant, briefly triumphant, then suddenly obscured by clouds. This pattern—swift brightness followed by disappointing concealment—parallels the speaker’s relationship, where an early, intense intimacy is quickly clouded or withdrawn. Despite the loss and disillusionment, the speaker maintains affection and offers a resigned generalization that when the true sun is blemished, lesser suns (people) will share that stain. The tone blends wonder, hurt, and acceptance.
Read Complete AnalysesFull many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountaintops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face, And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace. Even so my sun one early morn did shine With all-triumphant splendour on my brow. But out, alack! He was but one hour mine; The region cloud hath masked him from me now. Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth; Suns of the world may stain when heaven’s sun staineth.
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