Sonnet 35 claims that the young man’s fault is only natural, since even the loveliest things have flaws, and then admits that by making such excuses the speaker has become his accomplice.
Sonnet 35: Full Poem
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,
Authorizing thy trespass with compare,
Myself corrupting salving thy amiss,
Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are.
For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,
Thy adverse party is thy advocate,
And ’gainst myself a lawful plea commence.
Such civil war is in my love and hate
That I an accessary needs must be
To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me.
Text from the 1609 Quarto, with spelling and punctuation lightly modernized. In line 8, modern editions print “thy” twice where the Quarto has “their.”
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about Sonnet 35 for quick reference.
What Sonnet 35 Means
Sonnet 35 begins by comforting the young man for what he has done and ends by accusing the speaker of being his partner in the crime.
The first quatrain tells the young man to stop grieving over his fault. Everything beautiful has a flaw: roses have thorns, clear fountains have mud at the bottom, clouds and eclipses darken the moon and the sun, and a destructive worm can live inside the loveliest bud.
The second quatrain turns on the speaker himself. Everyone does wrong, he admits, and he is doing wrong right now, by justifying the young man’s offense with these comparisons. In soothing the young man’s fault, he corrupts himself, and he makes more excuses for the young man’s sins than the sins deserve.
The third quatrain describes the situation as a trial. The young man’s fault was one of the senses, and the speaker answers it with reason. He is the injured party, yet he acts as the young man’s defense lawyer and brings a case against himself.
The couplet names the result. His love and his resentment are at war, and the conflict makes him an accessory to the “sweet thief” who has robbed him.
Sonnet 35 Line by Line
Each line, with the sense of it in plain English.
Themes
Sonnet 35 is about the cost of forgiving too easily, and its themes move from excuse to guilt.
Nothing Beautiful Is Flawless
The first quatrain is a catalog of lovely things with hidden faults: thorns on the rose, mud under the fountain, shadows on the sun and moon, a worm in the bud. The point is comforting. If nature’s finest things are flawed, the young man cannot be blamed for being flawed too. It is the most familiar kind of consolation, and the poem immediately questions it.
The Guilt of the Forgiver
From line 5, the speaker turns the charge on himself. By excusing the young man, he has become corrupt, and he is making “more” excuses than the sins deserve. The poem sees that forgiveness can be a fault of its own when it lets a wrong pass too lightly.
Love at War With Itself
The couplet describes a “civil war” between love and hate, fought inside one person. The speaker resents the young man and loves him, and the love wins, but only by making the speaker an accomplice to his own injury. There is no clean resolution, just a truce.
Form and Language
Sonnet 35 begins with images from nature and ends in the language of the law courts.
Meter and Rhyme
The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Its turn comes early, at line 5, when the consolation of the first quatrain gives way to self-accusation. Two words need an older stress to fit the meter: “authorizing” is stressed on its second syllable, “au-THOR-iz-ing,” and “accessary” on its first, “AC-ces-sa-ry.”
A Catalog of Flawed Beauty
Lines 2 to 4 pile up four examples in quick succession, each pairing something beautiful with something that spoils it. The rapid list sounds like a proverb, and “Roses have thorns” is one of the best-known lines in the sequence. The “canker” in line 4 is the cankerworm, a caterpillar that eats flower buds from the inside, an image Shakespeare returns to in Sonnet 95, “like a canker in the fragrant rose.”
The Language of the Law
The second half of the poem is full of legal terms: “authorizing,” “trespass,” “adverse party,” “advocate,” “lawful plea,” and “accessary.” The speaker stages a trial in which he plays almost every part. He is the injured party, the defense lawyer, the plaintiff in a case against himself, and finally the accomplice. Our guide to literary devices in the sonnets covers extended metaphors like this.
“Sensual” and “Sense”
Line 9 sets two forms of the same word against each other. The young man’s fault is “sensual,” a failing of the body or the appetites, and the speaker answers it with “sense,” meaning reason. The line suggests that the offense was a physical one, though the poem never says exactly what it was.
“Sweet Thief”
The last line ends on an oxymoron, a pairing of opposites. The young man is a “sweet thief” who “sourly robs,” loved and resented in the same breath. The phrase compresses the civil war of line 12 into two words.
A Closer Reading
Sonnet 35 turns against the very method that the two sonnets before it used to forgive the young man.
In Sonnet 33, the speaker excused the young man with a comparison: “Suns of the world may stain when heaven’s sun staineth.” The first quatrain of Sonnet 35 does the same thing, and even repeats the word: “Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun.” The consolation is built exactly as it was two poems earlier, from nature’s flaws.
Then line 6 names what the speaker is doing: “Authorizing thy trespass with compare.” “Compare” means comparison, and “authorizing” means giving official approval. The speaker realizes that every comparison he has offered, the clouded sun, the thorned rose, the muddy fountain, has not merely described the young man’s fault but licensed it. The strategy that forgave the young man in Sonnet 33, and that Sonnet 34 tried to resist, is exposed here as a kind of corruption.
That is why the three poems read as a sequence. Sonnet 33 forgives by comparison. Sonnet 34 accuses, then forgives at the sight of tears. Sonnet 35 forgives again, and this time sees what forgiving costs. The poem does not withdraw its forgiveness; it cannot, since love wins the civil war. But it no longer pretends that the forgiveness is innocent. The speaker ends as an “accessary,” fully aware that he is helping the thief who robs him.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Sonnet 35, answered briefly.
What Is Sonnet 35 About?
A wrong done to the speaker by the young man of the Fair Youth sonnets. The speaker comforts him by saying that everything beautiful has flaws, then accuses himself of being corrupted by making such excuses.
What Does “Roses Have Thorns, and Silver Fountains Mud” Mean?
That even the loveliest things have flaws. Roses carry thorns, and clear springs have mud in them, so the young man should not be judged too harshly for his fault.
What Does “Authorizing Thy Trespass With Compare” Mean?
Justifying your offense by comparing it to other things. The speaker realizes that his comparisons to flawed roses and clouded suns have excused the young man’s wrong rather than faced it.
Who Is the “Sweet Thief” in Sonnet 35?
The young man, who has taken something from the speaker. The poem does not say what. Some readers connect it to Sonnets 40 to 42, in which the young man takes the speaker’s mistress.
How Is Sonnet 35 Connected to Sonnets 33 and 34?
The three poems deal with the same offense. Sonnet 33 forgives through the image of a clouded sun, Sonnet 34 accuses before forgiving, and Sonnet 35 forgives again while blaming the speaker for excusing the fault.
Related Sonnets
Three sonnets about the young man’s faults, and the beauty that hides them.