Shakespeare's Sonnet 33

1. In Sonnets 33-35, the poet is deeply hurt by the patron. These sonnets are called as "Estrangement sonnet cycle" in which we see a "transgression-pardon" cycle.

2. The pain of the poet arises from the disloyalty of the patron. The poet is very jealous and possessive about his patron.

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM

" Full many a glorious morning have I seen

  Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,

  Kissing with golden face the meadows green,

  Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; "

3. Those mornings that the poet now recollects were glorious because he and his patron were united back then. The poet compares his patron to the radiant sun. Mountains and meadows are ordinary but they appear beautiful in the sunlight. Sun is performing this "heavenly alchemy" by transforming ordinary things.        

" Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

  With ugly rack on his celestial face,

  And from the forlorn world his visage hide,

  Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: "

4. His patron is actually a man of honour but he is permitting "basest clouds" to cover him ("... his visage hide") from the world.

The poet is referring to someone who trespassed into their relation and stole the place he held in the patron's heart.

The poet describes this man as the basest cloud who contaminates his patron's "celestial face", that is, the glory of the patron. This man is not allowing the glory of the patron to reach the world and "this disgrace" was permitted by the patron.

" Even so my sun one early morn did shine,

  With all triumphant splendour on my brow;

  But out, alack, he was but one hour mine,

  The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. "

5. The usage "my sun" shows the possessiveness of the poet. The poet remembers the time when the patron was with him. When he says "triumphant splendor" it not only refers to the wealth and greatness of the patron but also the creative fecundity of the poet.

It was a short period of poet-patron relation. The usage "one hour mine" shows this and also it signifies the loss of the poet. The poet lost his moral and aesthetic support.

Again he says "region cloud" and debase the one who masked his patron from him.

The word "now" shows a hope in the poet's mind.

" Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;

  Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth. "

6. Still the poet's love for his patron has not decreased a bit. He is ready to forgive the patron because, when the Sun of the Sky itself is stained ("heaven's sun staineth"), how can the "Suns of the world" be free from faults.

The word "stain" points to the moral fault committed by his patron.

7. We get a message that outward beauty and inner virtue doesn't always correspond.