"Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green..."

Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green

Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice,

In temperate heat where he is felt and seen;

In presence prest of people, mad or wise;

Set me in high or yet in low degree,

In longest night or in the shortest day,

In clearest sky or where clouds thickest be,

In lusty youth or when my hairs are gray.

Set me in heaven, in earth, or else in hell;

In hill, or dale, or in the foaming flood;

Thrall or at large, alive whereso I dwell,

Sick or in health, in evil fame or good:

Hers will I be, and only with this thought

Content myself although my chance be nought.

First of all, looking at the structure, it is clear that the structure of the sonnet follows the English model, that consists of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme in the quatrains follows the pattern ABAB and it is functional to make the reading fluid and harmonious. Indeed, the sonnet is a lyrical form of poetry that relies on sound.

Considering the title the reader can understand that the sonnet belongs to a collection of sonnets, since the title corresponds to the first line.

In the title the speaking voice is asking someone to set him whereas the sunbeams are intense enough to parch the green. The reader is curios to find out who the speaking voice is talking to, and why he does such a strange request. Indeed the verb ‘parch’ doesn’t refer to a temperate and pleasant situation; on the contrary it refers to a situation of suffering.

In order to find some answers, the reader should consider the title, that is also the first line, in relation with the second line.

In the second line the speaking voice presents an alternative, introduced by the conjunction ‘or’. The alternative situation is the opposite of the previous one, since it expresses a situation where sunbeams don’t manage to dissolve the ice.

The antithetical opposition between hot and cold in the first two lines characterizes all the sonnet, and it is well expressed by the oxymoron: ‘mad or wise’, ‘high or low’, ‘longest night or shortest day’ and so on.

The reader can notice the three quatrains resort to an antithetical structure underlined by the recurring of the conjunction ‘or’. Indeed the function of the quatrains is to communicate the speaking voice’s problem and suffering.

It follows that the reader is curios to find out why the speaking voice communicates such contrasting feelings and moods. The reader is pushed to make conjectures about the reason why the speaking voice is in conflict.

The rhyming couplet should suggests a possible solution to the speaking voice’s problem and it allows reader to understand the whole sonnet.

The final couplet opens with the personal pronoun ‘hers’: it probably refers to the woman loved by the speaking voice. He says ‘Hers will I be’: the choice of the indicative mode communicates the certainty and so the eternity of the affirmation.

She is the reason of the speaking voice’s suffering and conflict but anyway he will be hers forever.

This thought is enough to make the speaking voice content, even if his chance is nothing.

The final couplet communicates the irreversible and eternal conflict of the speaking voice, who will love ‘her’ forever even if she makes him suffer and even if he will never have a chance.