Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 59

SONNET 59	PARAPHRASE
If there be nothing new*, but that which is	If there is nothing new under the sun, but that which
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,	Has been before, how are our brains cheated,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss	Which, toiling to create something new, mistakenly
The second burden of a former child!	Brings forth something that already exists!
O, that record could with a backward look,	O, that history could go back
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,	Even five hundred years
Show me your image in some antique book,	To show me your picture in some old book,
Since mind at first in character was done!	At any time since thought was first put down in writing!
That I might see what the old world could say	That I might see what an earlier time would say
To this composed wonder of your frame;	To this wonderful beauty of your frame (mind, body, and soul);
Whether we are mended, or whether better they,	Whether we are improved or they were better,
Or whether revolution be the same.	Or whether the cycle of years has yielded no better results.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days	O, I am sure of this, the wits [talented men] of former times
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.*	Have given praise to much worse subjects than this.

ANALYSIS

[Line 1]* Shakespeare likely had in mind here the biblical passage "The thing that hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1.9)

[Line 14]* Shakespeare is saying that, surely, no poet of old ever had a more worthy subject than the one he has -- his lover.

How to Cite this Article

Mabillard, Amanda. "An Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 59". Shakespeare Online. 2000. http://www.shakespeare-online.com (day/month/year).