Sonnet 40: Take All My Loves, My Love, Yea, Take Them All
Sonnet 40: Take All My Loves, My Love, Yea, Take Them All - meaning Summary
Possessive Love and Forgiveness
The speaker addresses a beloved who takes his lovers and affection, arguing that nothing new is gained because his love was already theirs. He balances condemnation and forgiveness: he cannot fully blame the beloved for using his love, yet censures self-deception and the emotional injury caused. The poem ends by naming the beloved both charming and corrupting, accepting hurt without turning to enmity.
Read Complete AnalysesTake all my loves, my love, yea, take them all; What hast thou then more than thou hadst before? No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call; All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more. Then if for my love, thou my love receivest, I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest; But yet be blamed, if thou thy self deceivest By wilful taste of what thy self refusest. I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief, Although thou steal thee all my poverty; And yet love knows it is a greater grief To bear love’s wrong, than hate’s known injury. Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows, Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.
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