1. O call not me to justify the wrong,
2. That thy unkindness lays upon my heart,
3. Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue,
4. Use power with power, and slay me not by Art.
5. Tell me thou lovest elsewhere, but in my sight,
6. Dear heart, forbear to glance thine eye aside,
7. What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might
8. Is more than my ore-press’t defense can bide?
9. Let me excuse thee, ah my love well knows,
10. Her pretty looks have been mine enemies,
11. And therefore from my face she turns my foes,
12. That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:
13. Yet do not so, but since I am near slain,
14. Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain.
End My Pain
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Asking her not to seek his approval of her wrong and providing her his impressions of how she wounds him. Suggesting that she uses physical power to go with her office power and actually kill him instead of metaphorically. Asking her not to demonstrate her unfaithfulness (to him and possibly Henry). Asking her why she plays with him when she has ample might to crush him. Telling of how Elizabeth intercedes on his behalf amongst his rival courtiers but asking her not to do so since he is near dead. Asking her then to finish him to end his pain.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
Don't ask me to approve of what you have done. If you are to slay me do it not verbally but go ahead and do it with the power you posses as a monarch.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
You needn't wound me with your cunning and your ability to make me jealous, when you can manipulate me so easily with "thy might" and have no defense of either.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
You have used your beauty to win over others and have protected me
couplet (13-14),
Don't bother go ahead and kill me with your disapproval and rid me of the pain you have caused.
Commentary:
Oxford explaining to Elizabeth that she should not expect him to understand her actions with regard to Henry and thus to justify her wrong. The key to this sonnet is the “wrong” referred to which of course ties to the “lie” of 152 and what is hidden in 142. Themes such as the wrong or untruth and the robbery and crime are important vehicles for metaphor in these sonnets and which will become more clever and sophisticated. This sonnet also expresses the power and the might of Elizabeth. The sonnet is a declaration that poet will not justify the wrong committed against him and thus this continuing saga unaddressed largely by orthodox scholars.
Though this sonnet seems unrelated by virtue of the poem itself it is actually quite closely tied emotionally to the others as a continuation of the anguish being experienced and resulting depression and self destructive thoughts and behavior which no doubt likely followed and which very well seem evident in Edward de Vere’s life during this time.
The request in the first couplet to wound the writer not with the subject’s eye, is a clever play on the "seeing" metaphor used previously. This request that she merely abuse him verbally and not engage the concealment of Henry along with the corresponding charade of his non-existence. He also accuses her of charming others who might align with him.
The notion that he would rather be killed outright should not be understood I believe as traditional scholarship would have it, as mere poetic hyperbole. Oxford expressing an end to his agony which represents his state of depression and is tinged with anger toward Elizabeth for her responsibility.
My thoughts are that the last quatrain expresses that Elizabeth has had persons of the court, particularly other courtiers, appear to show some understanding toward Oxford. Though one might expect natural human empathy to be at play. Never the less Oxford seems to have interpreted as having been affected by Elizabeth. To which he finds all the more objectionable and patronizing.
Vendler believes that the nature of the is sonnet is that the subject is “amorously looking at others”.