TH'EXPENSE OF SPIRIT sonnet 129

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,

Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;

Mad in pursuit and in possession so,
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

"Th' expense of spirit" is a Shakespeare's sonnet. It is composed of 14 lines and it is arranged into three quatrains and a rhymed couplet so it respects the "Elizabethan form". This sonnet takes part if a collection because its title is also part of the first line of the poem.

The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

In the first quatrain Shakespeare gives a definition of lust,that is also the main theme of the sonnet,it reppresents a feeling of strong sexual desire for someone. The poet describes it using a negative climax, he also makes the reader understand that he has a negative idea of lust.

In the second quatrain Shakespeare describes passion using the semantic field of hunting: people look for lust as an animal looks for its prey.

In the third quatrain the poet presents a contrast between desire and hate, in fact when the desire has been consumed hate takes its place. In this part the poet also underline that lust is mad in all three of its forms: in pursuit, possession and in memory.

Shakespeare describes lust as a drug or a poison: it makes men lose their minds.