No More Be Grieved Analysis

Shakespeare’s No More Be Grieved sonnet consists of fourteen iambic pentameters, containing three quatrains and a couplet, and utilizes the ABAB rhyme scheme. Its simplicity in structure and use of basic Shakespearean sonnet fundamentals exemplify No More Be Grieved to be a work of regularity. Moreover, its comprehensibility in structure is apparent in the content of the sonnet as a whole as No More Be Grieved centers around the issue of human conscience and how it can pose a test to the loyalty of two friends. The opening quatrain of No More Be Grieved creates the problem. The speaker is in a state of turmoil, the cause most likely being betrayal from a companion. The poet is speaking directly to his companion and trying to mitigate an already tense situation by urging his friend to no longer grieve at what he had “done” (1). The speaker creates an analogy by stating that all objects of beauty like “roses” (2) have barbed imperfections, …show more content…
The speaker cites how he made “sense” (9) of his friends actions. Shakespeare uses irony as well, citing that even though the speaker was hurt he still “advocate[d]” (10) for his friend. These actions plunged the poet into deeper conflict “[a]gainst” (11) himself. The speaker has a desire to “love” (12) and “hate” (12). This fuels the turmoil: the speaker wants to defend and hurt his friend. This stanza also transitions from the usage of biblical allusions to the technicalities of the law. Key phrases such as “lawful plea” (11) leads to the narrator to characterize himself as an “accessory” (13) or an accomplice (notice the diction here?) to the “sweet thief” (14) that betrayed him. The speaker struggles to make the distinction between prosecution and advocation of his beloved which is the direct causation of the aforementioned “civil war” (12). This contributes to the theme of the ‘inner