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LECTURE -9

SHAKESPEARIAN SONNETS

SONNET - 97

How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

Structure
Sonnet 97 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has
three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the typical rhyme
scheme of the form, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and is composed in iambic pentameter,
a type of poetic metre based on five pairs of metrically weak/strong syllabic
positions. The 6th line exemplifies a regular iambic pentameter:
× / × / × / × / × /
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

/ × × / × / × / × /
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, (97.6-7)
/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position. × = nonictus.
It is followed (in line 7) by an initial reversal, a fairly common metrical variation
which also potentially occurs in lines 1, 9, and 13. A mid-line inversion occurs in
line 8 and, more plainly, line 14:
× / × / / × × / × /
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. (97.14)
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Analysis

The poet compares his separation from the fair youth to dull and dreary winter
“How like a winter hath my absence been” because it is the youth’s presence who
makes his days bright like summer “From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!”
but now the days are cold and dark “What freezings have I felt, what dark days
seen!” and the entire atmosphere is like barren month of December “What old
December’s bareness everywhere!”

Yet he says that the time they were separated was actually summer “And yet this
time removed was summer’s time,” which led to autumn when the time comes for
the harvest of crops “The teeming autumn big with rich increase,” which were
planted in spring and grown in the earth “Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,”
like pregnant women giving birth after their husbands have died “Like widowed
wombs after their lords’ decease.”

But the poet says this abundance and riches of nature seems to him “Yet this
abundant issue seemed to me” like orphans without fathers “But hope of
orphans, and unfathered fruit.” Because the pleasure of summer for the poet
only depends on the youth’s presence “For summer and his pleasures wait on
thee,” and now he is gone even the birds don’t sing anymore “And thou away,
the very birds are mute.

If he hears birds singing it is lifeless and dull tunes “Or if they sing, ’tis with so
dull a cheer” that is similar to the warning sounds birds make when winter is
coming “That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.”

Sonnet 97 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William
Shakespeare. It is a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet
expresses his love towards a young man. It is the first of three sonnets describing a
separation between the speaker and the beloved.

As the speaker in sonnet 97 again experiences a dry spell of writer's block, he

fabricates his drama at first blaming his own obtuseness then hinting that, in fact, he
believes his muse is away. The speaker then again returns to the position that he
cherishes his muse and eagerly awaits her return. He knows his nature will remain
dependent on the spiritual guidance that only his soul Muse can offer.
As he compares his dry spells to the season of winter, the speaker then realizes that
winter is only a stopping over period on the year's way to spring. He is demonstrating
his ability to look on the bright side of any event. And for this speaker, the loss of
writing dexterity is likely the worst travesty he can suffer, but instead of allowing
himself to wallow in sorrow and anxiety, he gets busy and creates a little drama that
will get him through his rough patches.
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