Sonnet 33 claims that the young man, like the morning sun, has let a cloud hide his glory, and that the speaker forgives him, since even the sun in heaven is sometimes stained.
Sonnet 33: Full Poem
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountaintops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
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.
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all-triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack, he was but one hour mine;
The region cloud hath masked him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
Suns of the world may stain when heaven’s sun staineth.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 33 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 33 Means
Sonnet 33 compares the young man to the sun on a morning that starts bright and clouds over, and it uses that comparison to forgive him.
The first quatrain describes a glorious sunrise. The speaker has often seen the morning sun look down like a king on the mountaintops, kiss the green meadows with its golden face, and turn pale streams to gold, as though by alchemy.
The second quatrain describes what happens next. Soon the sun lets the lowest, dirtiest clouds drift across its face, hides itself from the abandoned world, and slips away unseen toward the west, disgraced.
The third quatrain applies the picture to the speaker’s own life. In the same way, his “sun,” the young man, once shone on him in full splendor one early morning. But he was the speaker’s for only an hour. Now a cloud has hidden him away.
The couplet forgives him. The speaker’s love does not scorn him for this at all, because if the sun in heaven can be darkened, so can the suns of this world.
Sonnet 33 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 33 is the first poem in the sequence to admit that the young man has done the speaker wrong, and its themes all come from that moment.
The Beloved as the Sun
The young man is not compared to the sun here; he is called “my sun.” Everything the octave says about the morning sun, its royal gaze, its golden face, its power to transform what it touches, is therefore said of him too. The praise is lavish, but it sets up the fall. The higher the young man is raised, the more a single cloud matters.
Betrayal Left Unnamed
Something has gone wrong between the speaker and the young man, but the poem never says what. We learn only that he was the speaker’s “but one hour,” and that “the region cloud hath masked him from me now.” The vagueness is part of the effect. By speaking only of clouds, the speaker can register the hurt without having to name it, and without having to accuse.
Forgiveness by Comparison
The couplet forgives the young man on the grounds that even heaven’s sun is sometimes clouded. If the greatest light in the world can be dimmed, the speaker reasons, no earthly “sun” can be expected to shine without fail. The forgiveness is real, but it rests on an analogy, and the next two sonnets in the sequence suggest it does not hold for long.
Form and Language
Sonnet 33 is built on a single comparison that fills the whole poem, and its language shifts from splendor to disgrace.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, but it divides like a Petrarchan sonnet. The first eight lines describe the sun, and the last six apply the description to the young man. The couplet ends on a feminine rhyme, “disdaineth” and “staineth,” whose soft extra syllables make the final verdict land gently rather than firmly.
Extended Metaphor
The octave is one long description of a sunrise clouding over, and only at line 9 does “Even so” reveal what it has been describing all along. The delay lets the image build its full weight before the speaker attaches it to his own life. Our guide to literary devices in the sonnets covers extended metaphors like this one.
Royal and Golden Imagery
The sun has a “sovereign eye,” a “golden face,” and a “celestial face,” and it gilds the streams with “heavenly alchemy.” Alchemy was the art of trying to turn base metal into gold. The words make the sun a king whose gaze confers value, which is exactly why its disappearance leaves the world “forlorn.”
Sun and Son
Many readers hear a pun in “my sun” and “Suns of the world.” Read as “sons,” the couplet says that the men of this world may fall, just as the sun of heaven is dimmed. The pun cannot be proved, but it fits a poem that moves between heaven and earth.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 33 forgives the young man with an analogy that has already found him guilty.
The couplet’s logic seems to excuse him. The sun in heaven is sometimes clouded, and no one blames the sun, so why blame an earthly sun for the same thing? But look at how the octave describes the clouding. The morning does not suffer the clouds; it “permit[s] the basest clouds to ride” across its face. Then it hides its face and goes “stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.” The sun of the octave is not a victim of the weather. It allows the clouds, it hides, and it slinks away ashamed.
So the comparison that is meant to clear the young man also describes him. He, too, has allowed something low to come between him and the speaker, and he, too, has slipped away rather than face what he did. Even the final word, “staineth,” carries two meanings at once: to be dimmed, as the sun is, and to be morally stained. The forgiveness in the couplet is sincere, but it is spoken in words that record the offense.
That double effect is what makes the poem so poised. The speaker chooses not to disdain the young man, and says so plainly. He does not pretend that nothing happened. The next sonnet shows how fragile the balance is: it begins by accusing the young man of promising “such a beauteous day” and then letting the clouds overtake the speaker on the road.
The poem also marks a change in the sequence. The sonnets just before it, such as Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 30, turn to the young man as the cure for the speaker’s troubles. Sonnet 33 is the first in which he is the cause of them.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 33, answered briefly.
What Is Sonnet 33 About?
A wrong done to the speaker by the young man of the Fair Youth sonnets. The poem compares him to the morning sun hidden by clouds, and it forgives him because even the sun in heaven is sometimes darkened.
What Does “the Region Cloud” Mean?
The clouds of the upper air. In the poem, the phrase stands for whatever has come between the speaker and the young man, which the poem never names.
What Does “Suns of the World May Stain When Heaven’s Sun Staineth” Mean?
If the sun in heaven can be dimmed by clouds, then people on earth, the “suns of the world,” can also be darkened. “Stain” also means to be disgraced, so the line admits a fault while excusing it.
Is There a Pun on “Sun” and “Son” in Sonnet 33?
Many readers think so. “My sun” and “Suns of the world” can also be heard as “son” and “sons,” though the poem’s main image is the sun in the sky.
How Is Sonnet 33 Connected to Sonnets 34 and 35?
The three poems deal with the same offense. Sonnet 34 accuses the young man more openly, and Sonnet 35 forgives him again while blaming the speaker for excusing him.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets that show the young man’s brightness, and its flaws.