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 sonnet, in fact it consists of 14 lines. It is arranged into the “Elizabethan form” because it is composed of three quatrains and a rhymed couplet. It belongs to a collection, in fact the title reminds the beginning of the poem and especially it is Shakespeare’ s 129 sonnet.

The sonnet’s rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

In the first quatrain Shakespeare gives a judgment of the sonnet’s problem: the lust, a feeling of strong sexual desire for someone. He describes it by using a negative climax ( perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame, savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust), giving a bad connotation to it.

In the second quatrain the author wants to underline the savage features of the lust by using words of the semantic field of the hunting as: hunted (L. 6)and swallowed bait (L.7). Indeed, to me, Shakespeare’s aim is to make the reader understand that the lust emphasizes human being’s instincts to the detriment of their reason (underlined by the repetition of “Past reason” L. 6 and 7) But these instincts last until the lust is satisfied and then they are even hated. The hatred is stressed by the comparison with a bait that has the purpose to make the taker mad (Past reason hated as a swallowed bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad L.7-8).

The third quatrain begins with the word “mad” that is also the last’s of the previous line so that the two quatrains are linked to but also because the madness is the main theme of these lines. Here Shakespeare is trying to make the reader feel the feeling of a mad lust before, during and after the action (Mad in pursuit and in possession so, Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme L. 9-10). Therefore he gives again a negative connotation to it by showing his total condemnation.

Finally in the rhyming couplet the author gives a conclusion making the reader understand that even if human beings have already gained some experience, they do not seem to learn  from it; reather  they carry on to subdue their brain to their instincts (All this the world well knows, yet none knows well L.13). In addition it entails the lost of the salvation (To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell L.14: the opposition of “heaven” and “hell” is typical of human being).

Therefore from the sonnet the reader can understand Shakespeare’s idea of the lust. His view is linked to the Renaissance (by the typical theme of the strength of the passions) but also to the Middle Ages (the sexual vision).