1. So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
2. Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
3. And for the peace of you I hold such strife,
4. As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
5. Now proud as an enjoyer and anon
6. Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,
7. Now counting best to be with you alone,
8. Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure,
9. Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
10. And by and by clean starved for a look,
11. Possessing or pursuing no delight
12. Save what is had or must from you be took.
13. Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
14. Or gluttoning on all, or all away.
His Treasure
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Oxford expresses how intrinsic Elizabeth is to his life and thoughts. But also letting her know that there is one part of her that comes between them and that causes strife. For which he uses a metaphor of a miser and his wealth to which he finds himself between. After which he tellingly expresses his pride in the wealth that represents his son and of his own anonymous state. As we’ve seen he has given up his identity as Henry’s father for Henry’s future. Expressing doubt that she would really let Henry go to waste and attempting to convince her that she is still his chief interest. He explains how he both pines and surfeits, pining for her but over indulging in his fixation with Henry. He finishes with a reminder of her gluttony in the waste of Henry.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
Expressing to Elizabeth that she is his everything in line 1. Reiterating in line 2. That in order to be with her he endures and tolerates this misery in line 3. Cleverly comparing the separation of himself and the bounty of his son in line 4.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
Refering to his being sidelined and anonymous in line 5. Expressing his denial that Henry will come to waste in line 6. Telling Elizabeth that he wants only to be with her in line 7. That this would then be a remedy and solace to his own public despondency in line 8.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
Reiterating the joy Elizabeth brings him in line 9. Though telling her of his lack of ability to see her in line 10. Repeating this lack of opportunity in line 11. Expressing that without this contact he can only enjoy that which does come from Elizabeth, namely Henry in line 12.
couplet (13-14),
Telling of his lonelyness and separation from her and all the while alluding to the gluttony of her not sharing Henry and the waste of this.
Commentary:
This sonnet raises two important themes, that of Elizabeth’s gluttony, and to lesser extent Oxford’s own anonymity which is explored in more detail in the next sonnet.
Oxford begins with the theme of food to illustrate to Elizabeth how important she is to him. However he transitions to the theme of Elizabeth hoarding a great wealth while he watches anonymously as he points out in line 5. Then there is the mention of his own doubt that this metaphorical “treasure” representing Henry could be stolen. And expressing the he now counts his blessings to be with Elizabeth but that in the future looks forward to having the “world” see his “pleasure”. Which again is not hyperbole as traditionally understood. And he finishes with the hording transitioning to gluttony.A theme which will become important and in fact the final thought of these sonnets.
While traditional scholarship may understand that there are contrary feelings expressed by the poet, missing is an understanding of where the feelings originate. Or what the clear subtext of the sonnet alludes to, that of the misappropriation and waste of a wealth provided but unused.
Vendler asserts that this sonnet is a reflection of the poet’s own sins and a response to what she believes was the motivation of the poem, an expression of the poet’s “erotic uncertainties”. She explains that the “sins” of the poem are his and she points out that they are explained in lines 9-10 as his gratitude for his otherwise starved nature on receiving erotic food and drink. Thus he is describing his moral behavior while line 6 is somehow evocative that his beloved is unfaithful. And all of this is supposed to be within the confines of a strictly non sexual, “Platonic” relationship.