Sonnet 97

1. How like a Winter hath my absence been

2. From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year?

3. What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen?

4. What old December's bareness every where?

5. And yet this time removed was summer's time,

6. The teeming Autumn, big with rich increase,

7. Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,

8. Like widow'd wombs after their Lords' decease:

9. Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

10. But hope of Orphans and unfather'd fruit,

11. For Summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

12. And, thou away, the very birds are mute.

13. Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,

14. That leaves look pale, dreading the Winter's near.

His Pleasures Wait on Thee

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Comparing Oxford’s separation from Elizabeth, to that of winter and its’ bleakness. Contrasting the bleakness, with the bounty embodied in their young son. He does this by using various metaphorical references to the seasons to point out that while it seemed winter it was actually a time of renewal. But then reminds Elizabeth, that this renewal must wait on her decision for the ultimate fate of her son.

1st Quatrain: (1-4)

Oxford using a metaphor for the seasons to express his hope of Elizabeth making a decision to recognize. First in lines 1 -4 are the longer bare winter months.

2nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Contrasting these winter months however Oxford alludes to Henry in line 6 with the "teeming autumn". Why autumn? I believe he is also playing on Elizabeth's autumn. In line 7 he again refers to Henry as the by-product of their love in their youth (the prime) with "wanton burden" .

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Clear reference to Henry with “abundant issue” in line nine. While the line 10 reference to the “unfather’d fruit” is a reference to the denial of his relationship to Henry and Henry’s orphaning to the Wriosethley’s. While line 11 tells her that all await on her decision.

couplet (13-14),

That even the birds are subdued by Elizabeth’s locking of Henry away.

Commentary:

This sonnet again makes usage of Winter as metaphor and reveals similarly to the previous that Elizabeth has the power to make it summer and for which this event Henry (he) waits. The mention of the fleeting year and the dark days seen appears to mark a possible year anniversary of Henry’s being hidden away as the poet describes the passing of the year. This sonnet and the separation have I believe, created the impression that the previous sonnet also deals with separation. However the substance of the poem is not only separation at all but about the possibility for renewal. That alluded to things that relate to the pronoun “him”. The things that bring joy in a time of depression, that the birds lament, the shadow that the author plays with. The separation continues again in next sonnet. Both Oxford and Elizabeth appear in references as “Lord’s deceased” and “widowed womb” respectively.

This sonnet also contains an important autobiographical marker. Oxford's absence, which is likely a reference to Oxford's banishment from court from 1581 to 1583 as a result of his involvement with Anne Vavasour and fathering an illegitimate child. An episode that likely had great influence on Shakespeare because likely the duelings in the streets of London, between Oxford and his men and Thomas Knyvet (Anne's uncle) and his were the inspiration for the Montagues and Capulets of Romeo and Juliet.

Line 6's the teeming Autumn is likely an allusion to Elizabeth's age and thus and an indicator of the arrow of time.

Line 9 all too transparently revealing.

Line 10 it is probably no accident at all to call attention to orphans with a capitalized treatment, as well the unfathered is no accidental allusion.

Vendler had already observed in her comment of 98 that proud lap represents an earlier stage of the widowed womb of 97. While not necessarily the most impressive reasoning, never the less it probably shows again an intuitive understanding of the proper order of the sonnets. She makes a great effort to understand the relationship of the imagined to the factual reality but seems to offer nothing regarding again the meaning of the message. And fails even to mention any of the reasons for teeming, rich, yielding to widowed wombs and decrease, or the abundant issue becoming orphans and unfathered fruit, or as singing turns to dull cheer.

Vendler comments on how objective reality is called into question as the poet discusses feeling over perception. She is seemingly unaware that there is an underlying message to this poem.


Leishman writes "Master Shakespeare you have just told us that the begetter of these yet unborn children was Spring ..." and further remarks in paraphrase that sometimes it was appropriate that he should stop.


Note:

I believe this sonnet represents the time of Oxford's return to England from his own aristocratic Grand Tour of the Continent. Something for which he seems not to have been the likely inspiration for pioneering. But which became de rigueur not very long after. Of course history also records the motivation of this trip to be a rather absurd one and didn't make its appearance in Brief Lives until decades later and critics have acknowledged Aubrey's "credulousness" in other respects.