ANALYSIS

As the reader can note the sonnet bears the same title of its first line, he understands it's part of a collection. It consists of 14 lines and it's possible to identify the typical Shakespearean structure.

After reading the sonnet, the reader can note a very elaborate and audible sound level, with lots of assonance and alliterations: this could indicate the writer's strong will to reinforce the content meaning using particular stylistic choices.

In the first quatrain the writer highlights the word lust in the second line just next to the simple present of to be, is, and at the end of the line it's repeated and connoted directly by is perjured in the third line, by using the rhetorical device of the enjambment. Squandering vital energy in an ashamed and decayed way is what satisfying one's lust more. And in progress of it, lust makes one dishonest, murderous, violent, blameworthy, savage, extreme, rude and not to be trusted.

The reader has to remember the Shakespeare's sonnets from 127 to 154 are addressed to a dark skinned woman, where love is described as fever, shame, a passion the man has to rebel against.

Indeed even in the first quatrain lust is referred to a lady and it's deeply negative connoted (bloody, rude, cruel).

The second quatrain is characterized by a frequent contrast and opposition between the semantic field of1 what the man feels before have reached his lustful goal and the semantic field of his successive feelings and thoughts. The metaphor of the swallowed bait condenses the whole quatrain: who tries restlessly to get the Lust's pleasures, enjoys them in action but then he will hate them.

In the last quatrain the temporal or chronological aspect of Lust's effects on a man's feelings and thoughts is more deeply analyzed. Indeed the extreme nature of these feelings is underlined and the writer puts in front of the reader the utmost peak about the sonnet content. Lots of nouns indicate a huge connotation such as mad, bliss, woe.

The ending couplet is the conclusion which synthesizes denotatively the sonnet adopting again a contrast but also an alliteration and a chiasmus: these great two lines show the power lust has on men all over the world, so impossible to avoid as ruthlessly damned.  

The intense use of rhetorical devices by Shakespeare in his sonnet creates the effect of a mystical formula, something not completely defined which men can't control at all; this is it, the central focus in the sonnet beyond its surface: it's what we don't know in a complete way that excites our human curiosity and makes us never totally able to get away from it.

MY PERSONAL CORRECTION

The sonnet bears the same title of its first line, so the reader understands it is part of a collection. It follows the Shakespearean model, indeed it consists of 14 lines.

Just reading the sonnet, the reader notes lots of assonance and alliterations, used by the speaking voice to reinforce the content meaning.

In the second line of the first quatrain the writer highlights the word “lust”. In the whole sonnet there are lots of other references to lust (for example “is perjured”) as, at the same way, the description of it (it is “dishonest, murderous, violent, blameworthy, savage, extreme, rude and not to be trusted”) so the poem will be about it. The quatrain starts with a statement “the expense of spirit…is lust in action” and from this statement the  develops of an argumentation follows focusing the reader's attention on the act of a sexual intercourse.

Shakespeare addresses his sonnets (from 127 to 154) to a dark lady. In these sonnets he describes love as a fever, shame. Maybe also in this sonnet he gives a negative interpretation of love or, to say it better, of sexual intercourse. Indeed when sex prevented the birth of somebody, it is sinful.

The second quatrain is characterized by a frequent contrast and opposition between what people think when they look for it and when it is over. The metaphor of the swallowed bait condenses the whole quatrain: who tries restlessly to get the Lust's pleasures, enjoys them in action but then he will hate them.

In the last quatrain the speaking voice gives the main purpose of the poem analyzing men’s thoughts and feelings about lust. They have an extreme nature. Lots of nouns indicate a huge connotation such as mad, bliss, woe.

The sonnet end with a couplet in which there is a summary of the poem’s content. The reader finds  an alliteration and a chiasmus: these two lines show the power lust has on men all over the world. It is impossible to avoid as ruthlessly damned.  

The intense use of rhetorical devices by Shakespeare in his sonnet creates the effect of a mystical formula, something not completely defined which men can't control at all. The poem’s message may be that it's what we don't know completely that excites us and makes us never totally able to get away from it.