Sonnet 121

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Sonnet 121

File:Sonnet 121 1609.jpg

Sonent 121 in the 1609 Quarto.

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
When not to be receives reproach of being;
And the just pleasure lost, which is so deem'd
Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing:
For why should others' false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain,
All men are bad and in their badness reign.

–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 121 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 his young lover.

Synopsis

The poet condemns hypocrisy and decides he's going to be himself.

Hypocrites force you to lose out on life's fair pleasures.

They are bad by pointing out your faults. What they see as a fault may actually be a good thing.

You have to hide your pleasurable pursuits from them.

Unless they realize that all people are bad (and presumably they will stop being hyprocrites)

Interpretation

A line by line interpretation in simplified, modern English:

1 You're better off being bad than being known as bad

2 when you are accused of being bad, regardless of whether you are or not,

3 and you lose the pleasure of enjoying your activity

4 not because you feel it is wrong but because others feel it is wrong.

5 Why should others' false, equally adulterous eyes

6 scorn my pleasure?

7 Why can weak people protest my weaknesses

8 and declare what I see good as bad?

9 No. I am what I am. Those who pry at

10 my depravity reveal their own.

11 I may be normal, and they may be the ones who are strange.

12 My actions can't be judged by their foul thoughts

13 unless they believe this:

14 All men are bad and in their badness reign.

External links

• Shakespeare's Sonnets online