1. Sweet love renew thy force, be it not said

2. Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,

3. Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd,

4. To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might.

5. So love, be thou; although to-day thou fill

6. Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness,

7. To-morrow see again, and do not kill

8. The spirit of Love with a perpetual dullness:

9. Let this sad Interim like the Ocean be

10. Which parts the shore, where two contracted new,

11. Come daily to the banks, that, when they see:

12. Return of love, more blest may be the view;

13. Else call it Winter, which being full of care,

14. Makes Summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.

Summer's Welcome

Dedication: To Elizabeth

An appeal to Elizabeth to recognize Henry and to not demonstrate the gluttony he has so often referred to in representing her selfishness over her own power and autonomy to decide her own fate. Explaining to Elizabeth that the secrecy of Henry’s true nature can be thought of as merely a temporary and unfortunate interlude, to the greater promise enabled by his succession.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Telling Elizabeth to restore herself by virtue of Henry. Playing again on the gluttony of her eating Henry, he tells her that to not let the sharpness of her rule be embodied by such a poor decision.Continuing on with with how her "feeding" is but a short sighted activity while recognition restores Henry to his rightful glory.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Playing again on the edge of this metaphorical sword dulled by her appetite and sacrificing the spirit of love embodied in their child.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Using the metaphor of the ocean tide rising above a former parting of the water and fully restoring and improving things.

couplet (13-14),

Finally telling her to think of Henry as the wished for and rare rejuvenation and summer like thing in the midst of winter.

Commentary:

This sonnet initial reference to Elizabeth’s “edge” or skill and decisiveness as ruler not being blunter than her “appetite” is makes reference to her gluttony and thus “eating” Henry as in the “Eat up thy charge?” reference of 146 line 8 as well as the “gluttoning on all” of line 14 sonnet 75. This metaphor of course will culminate in the very last line of these sonnets (line 14 sonnet 1), “To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee”. Oxford goes on to pun on this appetite with “Thy hungry eyes” and also of course the mention of “killing” that which represented the “spirit of Love”. There is also the tie in of the winter coming which fits in with the promise of summer spoken of by the couplet and the overt and initial plea for the subject to renew (herself). Which makes this sonnet I would argue an early procreation sonnet which will become more overt and which of course the orthodoxy has so thoroughly confused as being explicit.

This sonnet is understood to an “abstract love” that requires renewal so that the poet can be reunited with the youth. This makes little to no sense to me personally. Understanding this sonnet as very much written to a real person to recognize the child they created and essentially devoured should I hope, provide a much better understand for it in particular and it presence in the whole context of the sonnets.

Vendler does not connect this sonnet to any request for procreation. She remarks that the cause of the sad interim separating the lovers is not specified but says “its result is a fear that love may have lost its force”. She says “this fear is (somewhat unbelievably) displayed from suspicion of the waning affection of the other onto the fidelity of the self”.

However I see the simple message that “tomorrow is another day and there is new opportunity to mend and change Elizabeth’s ways and bring the metaphorical summer mentioned.