1. The other two, slight air and purging fire,
2. Are both with thee, wherever I abide,
3. The first my thought, the other my desire,
4. These present-absent with swift motion slide.
5. For when these quicker elements are gone
6. In tender embassy of love to thee,
7. My life, being made of four, with two alone,
8. Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy,
9. Until life's composition be recured,
10. By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
11. Who even but now come back again assured,
12. Of their fair health, recounting it to me.
13. This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
14. I send them back again and straight grow sad.
Thought and Desire
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Expressing the four elements of his life, the air and fire of his composition and Elizabeth and Henry from which he will be separated on his death.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
Oxford explains to Elizabeth that his thoughts and his desire (for action) are frequently with him as he waits and tolerates her failure to recognize Henry.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
When the air and fire wane because of his love for her, he is left with just two elements. Likely there is greater significance to the observation that his life is made of four, however if air and fire leave him possibly he is just left with water and earth. With these representing the feelings and emotions (water) and the practical or more likely in this case the stable, consistent and rigid condition of the present state makes for a very depressed state.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
However when they (his thoughts and desires) but more importantly news of Elizabeth’s continued health, which signals that hope is not lost, than he uplifted
couplet (13-14),
Then explaining of the temporal nature of this as he still recognizes the tenuousness of both her health and that his thoughts and plans for action are all that sustains him without the slim hope that she’ll both live on and act herself.
Commentary:
Long noticed fact that this sonnet (45) deals with air and fire, while the next (44) deals with earth and water. Earth, water, fire, and air, the four basic elements of matter, this according to both Astrology and antiquity. As the poet explains, the air represents his thinking, while the fire his desire. However, fire more traditionally was representative of action. Thus this again appears to be a warning of sorts linking the poet’s thoughts to his desire for action. This action comes into play in an extended metaphor. As the messengers the poet awaits reflect the news he expects to hear. Which will not only bring him joy but result in better metaphorical health for the subject by virtue of the revitalizing power of renewing herself.
The emotional stage of melancholy reveals that the poet has again settled into depression. See explanation in second quatrain for reason.
While there is little to be gleaned from this sonnet and in the immediate sequence surrounding it, it should be noted as in all of these sonnets numbered 1-126 that there is nothing contradicting the explanation that I am providing. Namely that these sonnets are not necessarily written to a boy at all, this alone should raise suspicion of how this could be so at odds with orthodoxy and yet not contradict the actual poems in any way. While the poetry itself might provide for some of this ambiguity, the continuation of the story should actually be clearer with a continuation of the poems to the same person that really started the sequence the “Dark Lady” of the latter numbered sonnets.
Line 12 contains one of the 15 instances where “their” frequently appears as “thy” and an indication and affirmation I argue that reflects the sonnets actual greater metaphorical meaning.
It may seem likely that 45 was meant to follow 44 but I would suggest that this is an example of using synecdoche as the subject would no doubt have been aware that air and fire were the other 2 elements of alchemy and earth and water were excluded. It was an earlier thought that this is an example where early on in the sequence the sonnets that are pairs have kept their sequence despite the overall reversal.