“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Introduction

• Published in 1609, "Sonnet 129" is part of a sequence of Shakespearean sonnets addressed to someone known as the "Dark Lady." The poem is about the frustrating, torturous side of sex and desire. It presents lust as a "savage," all-consuming force that drives people "mad," pushing them to seek out physical satisfaction at all costs. But when the act of lovemaking is over, people feel ashamed for agonizing so intensely over a pleasure as fleeting (and, to the speaker, emotionally depleting) sex. Everyone knows lust leads to self-loathing, the speaker says, yet simply can't help themselves from indulging; passion is too powerful to resist.

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“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Summary

• To waste energy in the pointless, embarrassing act: that's what it means to have sex. But until people have sex, their desires will be misleading, cruel, violent, shameful, wild, intense, inappropriate, merciless, and deceptive. As soon as people give in to their sexual desires, they hate them. Lust pushes people to irrationally chase after sex, even though, as soon as they have it, they hate the impulse that drove them toward sex in the first place—as though they were a fish that'd swallowed a fisherman's bait, a trap that was specifically set to attract them and make them go crazy. People go mad trying to fulfill their longings, and feel just as mad when actually doing so; such passions are intense and overwhelming regardless of whether people have already had sex, are in the middle of having sex, or are seeking out sex. Having sex feels great, but people are miserable once it ends; the prospect of sex is great, but once it's over, the pleasure vanishes as if it were all just a dream. Everyone knows this, but nobody has the good sense to resist the heavenly allure of sex in order to avoid the hellish torments of lust.

“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Themes

• 

  Lust and Shame

  “Sonnet 129” is about the painful side of sexual pleasure. The poem presents lust as an overwhelming urge that forces people to indulge in sex that, as soon as it ends, leaves them feeling depleted and ashamed. For the speaker, the fleeting physical satisfaction of sex isn’t worth the emotional agony that follows. The fact that people keep indulging their lust anyway illustrates how powerful desire can be—so powerful, the speakers says, that it defies all “reason,” compelling people to chase after something that they know will make them “mad.”

  According to the speaker, lust is merciless and unstoppable. It smolders inside people like a “murderous” energy, overriding all other considerations and making it near impossible to do anything else until people satisfy their craving for intimacy. In other words, sexual passion completely consumes people's good sense!

  This intense, feverish state might be worth enduring, the speaker suggests, if sex itself were more rewarding. Yet the speaker believes that sex doesn’t actually amount to much. It's a "waste," a mere “expense of spirit”—a phrase that implies that having sex costs something, as if people throw away precious energy when they indulge in their desire.

  Because actually having sex seems to rob people of their “spirit,” its aftermath is full of regret. People feel ashamed for seeking out satisfaction through sex, the poem implies, especially since that satisfaction disappears as soon as it has been "enjoyed." Post-sex embarrassed comes from people feeling foolish for having expended so much energy (both mentally and physically) on something so shallow and fleeting (in the speaker's summation, at least). And because of this apparently inevitable sense of shame, lust leads to nothing but “woe.”

  Such “woe” isn’t enough to keep people from succumbing to their desires, however. “All this the world well knows,” the speaker says, suggesting that everyone understands that lust is often more torturous than it is pleasurable. And yet, nobody “shun[s] the heaven that leads […] to this hell,” meaning that, although everyone knows that indulging in lust will only lead to pointless agony, they do it anyway. Lust is simply too powerful for people to overcome, the poem illustrates, even if relenting to desire means torturing oneself.

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame”

• Lines 1-2

  Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
  Is lust in action;

  The sonnet begins with a bold assertion: sex isn't worth the painful cost of lust. The speaker calls sex an "expense of spirit," to be more specific, a metaphor that implies that sex uses up one's mental and physical (and, of course, spiritual) energy.

  This suggests that sex actually costs people something. Not only that, but it's little more than a "waste of shame"—an idea that frames sex not only as a pointless use of energy, but also as something that leads to guilt (perhaps because people feel ashamed of their feverish sexual desires once these desires have been satisfied).

  All of this, the speaker says in line 2, is what "lust in action" amounts to ("lust in action" is yet another euphemistic way of talking about sex, since acting on lust means actually having sex). "Lust," then, is something capable of driving people to deplete their "spirit" and vitality as they go looking for a sexual release.

  The first line establishes the sonnet's use of iambic pentameter, a meter consisting of five iambs (metrical feet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, da-DUM):

  Th' expense | of spir- | it in | a waste | of shame

  (Note that "Th' ex" is meant to be read as a single syllable here.) This is the standard meter for Shakespearean sonnets, and generally mimics the natural lilt of English speech.

  The speaker also uses sibilance of /s/ and /sh/ sounds in these lines:

  Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame
  Is lust in action; [...]

  These soft sounds make the language feel gentle and inviting, reflecting the enticing nature of sexual desire. Sibilance also might call to mind the hissing of a snake, or a hushed whisper. The sounds of these lines thus evokes the slippery deception of lust, which the speaker believes pushes people towards torment. The poem's language itself illustrates just how difficult it is to resist sexual desire, even if such desire only leads to a "waste of shame."

• Lines 2-4

  and till action, lust
  Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
  Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

  

  

• Lines 5-8

  Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight:
  Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had,
  Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
  On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Mad in pursuit, and in possession so:
  Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
  A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
  Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

      All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
      To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

  

  

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“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  The speaker uses several metaphors to talk about sex. The phrase "th' expense of spirit" in the first line, for example, frames sex as something that costs people their own "spirit" or vitality. Rather than framing sex as rewarding and uplifting, this metaphor insists that sex and lust do little more than wear people down.

  Elsewhere, the speaker uses a metaphor to suggest that sexual pleasure is fleeting. In line 12, the speaker says:

  Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

  In this metaphor, the speaker presents the "joy" of sex as something that fades as quickly as a "dream." Such pleasure, the speaker intimates, isn't even real; it quickly recedes, even though people spend so much time chasing it.

  The speaker also uses a simile in line 7 that compares lust to a "swallowed bait," implying that sexual desire is like a trap of some kind. This trap has been "bait[ed]" so that it seems appealing. In reality, though, the trap has been set in order to make the person who "swallow[s]" it "mad." This outlines the idea that something as enticing as sex can, in the end, lead to agony.

  The speaker also says that most people already know this but still end up chasing sexual pleasure. The speaker uses another metaphor to illustrate this destructive tendency in the sonnet's final two lines:

  All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
  To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

  In this metaphor, "heaven" is the fleeting physical satisfaction of sex, and "hell" is the feeling of feverish desire that drives people crazy. These two things, the speaker says, are linked: the pursuit of satisfaction "leads" to suffering and torment. Ending the poem with this metaphor helps the speaker highlight the absurdity and irony of sexual desire, the promised pleasure of which actually leads to pain.

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• Personification

  

  
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• Irony

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

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"Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame" Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Expense
• Spirit
• Lust
• Perjured
• Savage
• Despisèd
• Straight
• Past Reason
• Hunted
• Bait
• Laid
• Mad
• Pursuit
• Possession
• Quest
• Bliss
• Woe
• Shun

• Expenditure. To expend something is to use it up.

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame”

• Form

  "Sonnet 129" is, of course, a sonnet! More specifically, it's a Shakespearean sonnet, meaning that it consists of 14 lines that can be divided into three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a final rhyming couplet:

  • Quatrain
  • Quatrain
  • Quatrain
  • Couplet

  The speaker spends the first three quatrains listing the many ways that lust can torment people, detailing the irony that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is often pretty agonizing. In the poem's turn—which happens in the final couplet—the speaker suggests that people are well aware of how tormenting lust is but don't have the strength to turn away from it. Sexual desire is so powerful, it seems, that people willingly put themselves through "hell" just to chase the brief, "heaven[ly]" pleasures of sex.

• Meter

  Like most sonnets, "Sonnet 129" is written in iambic pentameter. This means that each line consists of five iambs, metrical feet made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da-DUM). Take, for example, the first line:

  Th' expense | of spi- | rit in | a waste | of shame

  The iambs in this line create a da-DUM da-DUM rhythm that subtly echoes the natural cadence of English speech. (Note that "Th' ex-" here is meant to scan as one syllable; it's also possible not to stress "in" in the above line, but that's a very minor variation and the meter would still be considered iambic pentameter).

  The speaker makes a number of metrical substitutions throughout the sonnet, mixing up the easy bounce of iambic pentameter to add interest and emphasis to certain lines. Often these non-iambic feet appear alongside the poem's many caesuras. Line 4 is a perfect example of this:

  Savage, | extreme, | rude, cruel, | not to trust;

  The first foot of this line is a trochee, or a foot made up of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: "Savage." The next foot returns to the iambic rhythm, but the fact that the line contains so many caesuras (indicated by the commas above) forces an extra stress in the third foot: "rude, cruel." This is a spondee, or two consecutive stressed syllables. The next foot again looks like a trochee ("not to"), and the line ends without its final expected beat (there are only nine syllables here).

  In deviating so far from iambic pentameter like this, the speaker makes the language feel less predictable and keeps readers on their toes. The frequent pauses and occasional falling rhythms (that is, feet starting with a stressed syllable and moving to an unstressed one) convey the speaker's anger and frustration.

• Rhyme Scheme

  "Sonnet 129" follows a standard Elizabethan sonnet rhyme scheme, which looks like this:

  ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

  This rhyme scheme creates a sense of consistency and steadiness. The predictability of the rhyme scheme might reflect the predictable cycle of lust and shame. The pull of the clear, full lines throughout the poem also grants the speaker's words a feeling of forward momentum; the rhyme scheme swiftly propels readers through the poem, just as lust propels people to "hunt" after their desires.

“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Speaker

• There's no concrete information about the speaker of "Sonnet 129." The only thing that is perfectly clear is that this person doesn't think too highly of lust, believing sexual desire to be a "cruel" yet irresistible force that drives people "mad."

  However, the rest of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets provide contextual clues about the speaker's identity. Many of the other sonnets make it clear that the speaker is an aging poet who has a strong connection with a younger man and, later, a tumultuous relationship with a woman known as the "Dark Lady." Many readers believe that the speaker is actually Shakespeare himself, though there's no saying for sure if this is actually the case. In any case, everyone agrees that the speaker is somebody who gets hung up on both the joys and challenges of romance.

“Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Setting

• "Sonnet 129" doesn't mention a specific time or place. This is because the poem is about what it's like to experience lust, not about a particular person, relationship, or story. The speaker talks about lust in a broad, somewhat abstract way, never explicitly stating that these observations apply to the speaker's own experience. The poem is therefore applicable to almost any setting.

  Having said that, though, most people read "Sonnet 129" in the context of the rest of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, which are most likely set when Shakespeare wrote them: in the 1590s. It's thus reasonable to assume that "Sonnet 129" is set against the backdrop of Renaissance England.

Literary and Historical Context of “Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame”

• Literary Context

  "Sonnet 129" belongs to the "Dark Lady" sequence of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. Whereas the first 126 of these sonnets (known as the "Fair Youth" sequence) are about the strong connection that the speaker (often taken to be Shakespeare himself) has with a young man, the sonnets in the Dark Lady chunk are more blatantly sexual and often present desire as a sickness. This is clearly the case in "Sonnet 129," which frames lust as an overpowering, misery-inducing force.

  The sonnets about the Fair Youth tend to be wistful and affectionate, while many of the sonnets about the Dark Lady are full of intense, self-destructive passion. "Sonnet 129" doesn't actually mention the Dark Lady, instead focusing on the ravaging effects of lust. This negative perspective on desires foreshadows pieces like "Sonnet 147," in which the speaker uses an extended metaphor to compare his love for the Dark Lady to a "fever" that has overtaken him.

  The sonnet form was popularized in the 14th century by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, who wrote many sonnets about unrequited love. Many of the sonnets written in the next 400 years were, in some way or another, also about love, and Shakespeare's 154 sonnets are no exception. However, "Sonnet 129" isn't about unrequited love—in fact, it's about what happens when people actually get what they want.

  Historical Context

  Along with the 154 other Shakespearean sonnets, "Sonnet 129" was published in 1609. Shakespeare actually wrote most of the sonnets much earlier than this, though nobody knows exactly when he composed them. That said, most people agree that he produced the sonnets in the 1590s—a relatively calm period in English history.

  In 1588, Britain defeated the Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 ships sent by Spain to dethrone Queen Elizabeth. This victory led to a peaceful period in which artists like Shakespeare were given the space and time to focus on their craft. Shakespeare wrote several of his most famous plays during the 1590s, but the plague outbreak of 1592 meant that theaters had to close. Some speculate that this gave Shakespeare extra time to write and perhaps even encouraged him to focus on poetry; not only did he write the sonnets in this era, but he also published the narrative poem Venus and Adonis while the theaters were shut down.

More “Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of the Poem — Watch the actor Ralph Fiennes recite "Sonnet 129."

  • 1609 Printing — Take a look at what it would have been like to read "Sonnet 129" when it was first published in 1609.

  • The Bard Himself — Learn more about Shakespeare in this brief overview of his life and work.

  • Shakespeare's Sonnet Sequences — Check out the British Library's simple break down of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Shakespeare

  • Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

  • Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

  • Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time

  • Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

  • Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth

  • Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes

  • Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still

  • Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

  • Sonnet 19: Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

  • Sonnet 20: A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted

  • Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"

  • Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

  • Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

  • Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen

  • Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire

  • Sonnet 55: Not marble nor the gilded monuments

  • Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore

  • Sonnet 65 ("Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea")

  • Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead

  • Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold

  • Sonnet 94: "They that have power to hurt"