Sonnet 90: Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt; If Ever, Now
Sonnet 90: Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt; If Ever, Now - meaning Summary
Prefer Sudden, Not Lingering Loss
The speaker asks a beloved to abandon or hate him immediately rather than postpone the blow. He argues that a swift, decisive rejection would let him endure the worst at once and prevent a drawn-out suffering in which smaller misfortunes compound the final loss. The poem frames emotional pain against fortune’s spite and asserts that other sorrows will seem minor compared with the devastation of losing this person.
Read Complete AnalysesThen hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, And do not drop in for an after-loss. Ah, do not, when my heart hath ‘scaped this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquered woe; Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, To linger out a purposed overthrow. If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last, When other petty griefs have done their spite, But in the onset come; so shall I taste At first the very worst of fortune’s might, And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, Compared with loss of thee will not seem so.
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