Sonnet 57: Being Your Slave, What Should I Do but Tend
Sonnet 57: Being Your Slave, What Should I Do but Tend - meaning Summary
Blind Devotion and Patient Waiting
The speaker portrays himself as a devoted servant whose life is governed by his beloved’s will. He accepts waiting, absence, and uncertainty without complaint, surrendering time and judgment to that beloved. The poem presents love as self-effacing and irrational: the speaker rationalizes any neglect or action by the beloved and labels his own blind loyalty a kind of foolish truth that binds him to patient service.
Read Complete AnalysesBeing your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour, Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, Nor think the bitterness of absence sour When you have bid your servant once adieu. Nor dare I question with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, But, like a sad slave, stay and think of naught Save where you are, how happy you make those. So true a fool is love that in your will, Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.
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