Sonnet 138 - Line By Line

Line By Line

When my love swears that she is made of truth,/ I do believe her, though I know she lies,/ That she might think me some untutored youth / Unlearnèd in the world’s false subtleties.

Lines 1 and 2 of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 present a paradox where the obsessed lover is blind to what he can clearly see. Line 2 reveals that the speaker is aware of his delusion, possibly because of the word “swears” in line 1. Swearing, according to editor Stephen Booth, means there is a reason for disbelief; consequently, the statement incriminates itself. Alice F. Moore also concurs with the writing of Stephen Booth in her own commentary on Sonnet 138, also proclaiming the relationship between the two lovers as one of mutual dishonesty. For Moore, line 2 highlights an internal division of the speaker because he knows that the lady lies, but he, even knowing this, chooses to believe her. The speaker clearly acknowledges his lady’s lies in line 2, and he acknowledges his decision to believe them. Both lines 3 and 4 give reason for the speaker’s beliefs concerning his and his lover’s lies. He wants to appear younger, while she wants to think that she is with a more youthful lover. However, the editor, Carl D. Atkins, approaches the first quatrain with a slightly different take, believing the word “lies” in line 2 to be nothing more than a set-up for the pun in the ending couplet, using the word “lies” to mean “sleep with” instead of “falsehoods.” He also has a slight twist about who lies to whom, claiming that the lady lies to the speaker about her faithfulness, but he does not lie to her, only to himself, imagining that she believes him to be an “untutored youth.”

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,/ Although she knows my days are past the best,/ Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue;/ On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed

In the second quatrain, specifically in lines 5 and 6, the speaker declares he is aware that she knows he is no longer young. Beginning line 5 with the words “Thus vainly” effectively negates the second half of the line, implying that the lady does not actually believe in the speaker’s youth. The same can be said for line 7, with the second part of the line clearly contradicting the beginning. According to Moore, the confusing contradictions within these lines are intended to display, and help the reader to feel, the “schizophrenia” of both the poem and the two lovebirds. Booth’s writing agrees with Moore; lines 5 and 6 parallel the inconsistencies that the speaker discusses in line 2. Booth’s interpretation suggests that the lady struggles to believe that she actually believes the lies that she pretends to believe. Boothe says line 7 simply shows line 8 as a truth “thus, we are both liars, she in pretending faithfulness and I in pretending youth,” emphasizing the mutuality of the relationship. It reiterates their mutual deception and recognition of said deception, believing all that they hear from each other and all that they tell to each other.

But wherefore says she not she is unjust? / And wherefore say not that I am old?/ O love’s best habit is in seeming trust,/ And age in love loves not t’ have years told:

In line 9, the word “unjust” is taken by Atkins to mean either “dishonest” or “unfaithful”; the editor leans toward the second option because it is in keeping with the rest of his interpretation, but it is clear that the word refers to some “falseness in matters of the heart.” In line 12, the term “lie with” also furthers Atkins’s argument for an elaborate pun, declaring that the speaker lies with the mistress rather than to her. Also in lines 11 and 12, much is debated over the beginning “O” of line 11. Moore interprets this interjection as impatience or sarcasm, possibly a “reason or excuse hastily tossed off.” However, author Helen Vendler views it as the beginnings of proverbial wisdom; the “O” is actually an answer to a question. Both lines 11 and 12 are in proverb form, but it is interesting to note that Vendler believes the proverbs to reference the speaker, as opposed to his lady.

Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, / And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

The ending couplet provides, according to Moore, an interesting twist when “deception and love making become one: to lie is to lie with” However, Vendler has a slightly different take on the poem as a whole in response to the final volte. She notes that the pronouns “I” and “she” share a mutual verb, becoming “we” with “our” shared faults. The end of the poem shows the final progression of the lovers’ relationship, beginning with anger, then suppressed anger, followed by game playing, then the realization of the absurdity of truthfulness, finally ending with the admission of flattery when each lover suppresses frank speech in order to lie to and with each other. Booth also recognizes the significance of the mutual pronouns, with line 13 reiterating lies as necessary for a cooperative relationship, but his conclusion from the closing lines of the poem varies slightly from Vendler’s. For Booth, line 14 is not a realization of the lovers situation, but it is a reason for the speakers attitude throughout the poem, particularly that of “cynicism, bitterness, and despair.”