Sonnet 52


1. So am I as the rich, whose blessed key,

2. Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,

3. The which he will not every hour survey,

4. For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.

5. Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,

6. Since, seldom coming, in the long year set,

7. Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,

8. Or captain jewels in the carcanet.

9. So is the time that keeps you as my chest,

10. Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,

11. To make some special instant special blest,

12. By new unfolding his imprison'd pride.

13. Blessed are you, whose worthiness gives scope,

14. Being had to triumph, being lack'd, to hope.

Imprisoned Pride

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Discussing both himself as analogous to a rich man with a locked treasure and Elizabeth blessed for her ability to provide materiality and opportunity for which with it, will lead to triumph but without it, leaves no hope. Thus revealing the enormous discrepancy that exists between these two competing ends and the effect it has on Oxford.

1st Quatrain: (1-4)

Asking himself if he is the key to unlocking Henry, his treasure. Which through great self restraint he compares to something brought out for rare pleasure.

2nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Further questioning if the delay is being done for the exceptional nature of the event.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Telling himself that indeed Henry is being held like a special robe for some special occasion. Clearly alluding to his imprisonment.

couplet (13-14),

Finishing with a blessing for have this something special hid away which when had will be triumphant but which while waiting provides anticipation

Commentary:

Oxford begins by asking rhetorically if he has some key to unlock Henry but the couplet reveals that it is Elizabeth who can “give scope” or as sonnet 1 would tell us “increase”. This sonnet is another rich in metaphor that is I believe relatively transparent in referencing his seeking to have “that special instant special blest” and the “new unfolding his imprisoned pride” in lines 11 and 12. The notion of imprisonment is an important metaphor and will again arise in Sonnet 5.

It appears that this sonnet is frequently understood to be an acceptance of infrequent contact between the poet and the youth. As opposed to an expression of the waiting for the youth to be released to fulfill his greater purpose and truth for which I am arguing. I hope it is apparent that the latter ties much better back to the whole of the sonnets.

Line 8 carcanet was a necklace, however Shakespeare did use necklace in The Winter's Tale (IV, iv)

Vendler comments , “this poem is a rationalization for the all-too-rare meetings between the speaker and the beloved… that the speaker can do nothing but helplessly wait for these occasions of joy granted only rarely by the beloved.” To explain the inexplicitness and usage of phrases such as imprisoned pride, as referring to lack of contact hopefully is inferior to an understanding than this sonnet being part of a much larger whole referring to the sweet locked up treasure and what is being hidden. One might as well, why if infrequent meetings are the point of the sonnet, that there are not more sonnets discussing or other pleadings for more contact. Instead as we’ll see, it is the speaker who must excuse his own absences from his subjects in 51 and 50.