1. Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye,

2. And all my soul, and all my every part;

3. And for this sin there is no remedy,

4. It is so grounded inward in my heart.

5. Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,

6. No shape so true, no truth of such account,

7. And for myself mine own worth do define,

8. As I all other in all worths surmount.

9. But when my glass shows me myself indeed

10. Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity,

11. Mine own self-love quite contrary I read

12. Self, so self-loving were iniquity,

13. 'Tis thee (myself) that for myself I praise,

14. Painting my age with beauty of thy days.

Sin of Self Love

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Oxford using his own self-love as a homily for instructing Elizabeth, he points out how easily it is to delude oneself of their youthful looks and health.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Telling Elizabeth of his own sin of self-love.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Playing again on his name with reflections about the "trueness" of his nature

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Telling her how he is in fact reminded by the mirror of the falacy and worse of this perception

couplet (13-14),

Telling her how he is still confusing his self image with that of his younger days. This poem meant to serve the greater purpose of reminding Elizabeth that she may be doing the same and that it is time to share light of the royal stage.

Commentary:

Oxford using himself to teach Elizabeth of the vice of self love and the mistake of viewing his current life through images of his younger days.The lesson of this sonnet is generally understood, however by mistaking the subject of the sonnet it misses the real impact of the sonnet as a lesson for a self involved queen. The arrow of time as seen in the previous sonnet is being displayed by the poet’s own age. Contrast with 138 where the poet speaks of himself seen by Elizabeth as an “untutored youth”. Oxford’s age is displayed in quatrain 3 and which both should demonstrate the proper chronology provided here as contrasted with sonnet 138.

The metaphorical painting which the poet does will also become an important metaphor for discussing Henry. As future sonnets will treat Henry as a metaphorical painting of Elizabeth.

Vendler’s analysis has four points flattery of the speaker, the speaker’s realization of his age after looking in the mirror, a delusion of the speaker as identifying with the subject and the final disgust with himself after the epiphany of the mirror. For which she then tries to rearrange to correspond to the various sonnet pieces (quatrains and couplet). It is my feeling that her explanation is rather tortured and absurdly complex but I must admit that again I probably don’t really understand it.