Sonnet 29 is one of the many love poems written by the famous poet William

Shakespeare. While his other love poems are focusing on physical beauty and erotic desire,
Sonnet 29 focuses on the power of love against self-pity and despair. I have specifically chosen
this poem because of how it is still relevant now as it was 400 years ago due to two major
reasons.

The first reason is the relatability and relevance of the themes. There are a few themes
included in Sonnet 29 and they are divided into two different parts. The first part covers the first
eight lines of the sonnet and the themes here are self-pity and despair. First and foremost, he
started the sonnet with listing out his misfortunes. For instance, in the first two lines of the
sonnet the speaker describes himself as an outcast. Throughout reading the first eight lines, he
also implies that he is ugly, untalented and lonely. Next, there are a lot of negative impressions
of himself as he compares himself with other people, in which he believes that they are better
than him. For an example in the sixth line, he wishes himself to be as “featured as him” and this
shows that the poet desires the attractiveness that the other man has. In addition, he also wants to
have others wealth, friends, skills and scope. As a result, he sees his worth only in relation in
others. Later on, this comparison results mainly in self-pity. However, he does doubt himself on
whether he can still be happy if he becomes someone else who is richer, more handsome and
talented because the things that used to make him happy are now making him more upset. At this
point, the emotional state of the poet is one of depression.

According to the latest National Health and Morbidity Survey, every three in 10 adults
aged 16 years and above in Malaysia suffer from some form of mental health issues. It is
expected that mental illness is the second biggest health problem affecting Malaysians after heart
disease. For this particular reason, this sonnet is still relevant today and it becomes more
important as mental illnesses are way more common now than it was before.

Thankfully, Sonnet 29 is not all despair and melancholy. In the final six lines, the themes
change into love and wealth. The final six lines are all sweetness as he reflects on his love. The
love that he has does not only improve his well-being but it compensates his misfortunes that
when he thinks of his love, the world turns brighter and his state alters. In addition to the
particular state of being uplifted by his love, he says that he would not even change his place
with a king. The poet’s love towards his significant other uplifts him from the darkest place,

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restoring his self-esteem and mood and therefore making him feel as if he is at the top of the
world or literally heaven as what he had written in the sonnet.

Next, the topic of self-esteem. In the second quatrain, the speaker basically loathes the
people around him. He wishes to be others and he wants to have others’ features, friends, skills,
richness, hope and scope. He does stuff that he thought he would enjoy but it turns out that those
stuff do not content him. He does not enjoy doing them anymore. In this quatrain, I am
confirmed that the speaker biggest problem is self-hatred. He really hates himself to the point
that he wishes to be someone else. The probable cause of such self-hatred might be because of
his low self-esteem. He sees himself as someone who lacks everything and people around him
are far more successful than he is.

The topic of self-esteem and comparing self to others are very common in Asian culture.
In Asia, it is a common parenting style of Asian parents to compare their children as if they are
objects. Asian parents would always compare their children to every single child out there. It is
definitely true that Asian parents are really strict when it comes to education. However, this kind
of parenting is demotivating and it results to them growing up with low level of self-esteem and
motivation. Hence, from a young age, children will feel as if they are not good enough and that
they need to always be better than people around them. This parenting style needs to be stopped
because the only person a child needs to compete with is themselves. Based on my own
experience, I was always being compared to my primary and secondary classmates about
academic results. Growing up, I always compared my results with my friends just because I
wanted to know if I was good enough. I was never good enough and even until now, I am still
struggling with my self-esteem and motivation. It took me long enough for me to realize that I
am actually better at one thing than other people in the world which is being me. Life is never
about becoming better than others but being a better version of yourself. All we have is just one
life so play it with your own style.

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 In addition to my analysis of this poem, there is an interesting theory about the concept of
love being mentioned in the poem. The love that is mentioned throughout the poem could be
romantic love or divine love. However, there is a theory that there are references to physical or
erotic desire in the poem. For instance, the word “enjoy” in line 8. While it does not seem like it
is referring to physical love to us but an Elizabethan audience in the time of Shakespeare would
know that another meaning for the word “enjoy” is to be in the act of having sex. If we look
through this lens, it does change on the interpretation of the sonnet. It adds another thing that the
speaker does not like which is the speaker’s sex relationship. The line “With what I most enjoy
contented least” now means that with the person the speaker usually has sex with, he contented
least. In my honest opinion, I do not really see this sonnet to be sexual. However, no matter
whichever way we interpret Sonnet 29, the sweet love message of the poem stays the same
which is “when I think of you, it makes me happy”.