Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare: poem analysis & meaning

Sonnet 29 the full poem, lines numbered

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

5Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,

Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

10Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

The poem in 60 seconds

“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” opens a sonnet about a very bad mood: feeling like a failure and envying everyone else. For eight lines the speaker sinks. Then one thought changes everything, and his mood rises like a lark singing at dawn. Watch how a single sentence carries him from the bottom to the top.

The poem begins, “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,” meaning when the speaker is out of luck and out of favor with other people. At such times he weeps alone over his outcast state and troubles heaven with useless cries, but heaven is deaf. He looks at himself and curses his fate. He wishes he were like someone with more to hope for, as handsome as one man and as well supplied with friends as another. He wants this man’s skill and that man’s range, and he is least satisfied with the things he enjoys most. Yet while he is thinking this way and almost despising himself, he happens to think of the person he loves. Then his state of mind, like a lark rising at daybreak from the dull earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate. Remembering that sweet love brings such riches that he would scorn to change places with a king.

Speaker & situation

SpeakerA person who feels like a failure: out of luck, out of favor and full of envy. The speaker is often identified with Shakespeare, but the poem never says what the “disgrace” was, so it is safest to treat the voice as a speaker.

Addressed toA beloved called “thee” in line 10, never named or described. As the sonnet is usually read, it belongs to Sonnets 1 to 126, which many readers take to concern a young man, though Sonnet 29 itself does not say so.

OccasionNo single event. The poem describes a recurring low mood (“When in disgrace”) and what happens when the speaker, in that mood, remembers the beloved. The date it was written is not known.

ToneBitter, self-pitying and restless through line 8. From line 9 the tone lifts into joy, and the couplet ends in proud contentment.

Form & sound

FormShakespearean sonnet; three quatrains and a closing couplet, fourteen lines in all, printed here as a single block.

MeterIambic pentameter. Lines 9 and 11 end with an extra unstressed syllable, “despising” and “arising,” and the rhyme between them links the low point to the rise.

Rhyme schemeABAB CDCD EFEF GG: eyes / cries, state / fate, hope / scope, possess’d / least, despising / arising, state / gate, and the couplet brings / kings. The third quatrain reuses the “-ate” sound of the first, so “state” comes back changed.

StructureThe whole sonnet is one sentence, with a single full stop at the end. “When” opens eight lines of misery, “Yet” in line 9 opens the recovery, and “For” in line 13 gives the reason.

SoundThe word “state” ends lines 2 and 10 and returns in line 14, tracking the speaker from “outcast state” to a state he would not trade “with kings.” “Heaven” is deaf in line 3 but hears the lark at its gate in line 12.

Line by line what each part says and does

1

Lines 1–4

Alone and out of favor

When the speaker is out of luck and out of favor with others, he weeps alone over his outcast state. He troubles deaf heaven with useless cries, looks at himself and curses his fate.

How it worksThe quatrain is a picture of total isolation: “all alone,” shut out by other people and ignored by heaven. “Bootless” means useless, and “deaf heaven” makes even prayer feel pointless.
2

Lines 5–8

Envy

He wishes he were like someone richer in hope, as good-looking as one man and with as many friends as another. He wants this man’s skill and that man’s range, and he takes least pleasure in what he enjoys most.

How it worksThe list of envied men grows as it goes, and the balanced phrase “this man’s art, and that man’s scope” makes the envy sound endless. Line 8 is a paradox that shows how low mood spoils even his best pleasures.
3

Lines 9–12

The lark

Yet while he almost despises himself, he happens to think of the beloved. Then his state, like a lark rising at daybreak from the dull earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate.

How it worksThe turn comes with “Yet” and “Haply,” which means by chance. The simile carries the speaker’s mood from the ground to the sky, and the heaven that was deaf in line 3 now has a singer at its gate.
4

Lines 13–14

Richer than kings

Remembering the beloved’s love brings such wealth that the speaker would scorn to trade places with kings.

How it worksThe couplet answers the envy of lines 5 to 8. The man who wanted to be “more rich in hope” now counts love as “wealth” and looks down on royalty.

The turn

Lines 9–10

Line 9 begins with “Yet,” and line 10 gives the cause: “Haply I think on thee.” The poem swings from self-pity and envy to joy, and the speaker’s “state,” an outcast state in line 2, rises in the next lines like a singing lark.

Literary devices with line numbers

Simile

In lines 11 and 12 the speaker’s state is “Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth.” The lark, a bird that sings as it climbs, carries the mood upward from the “sullen,” gloomy earth to “heaven’s gate.”

Parallelism

Line 7, “Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,” sets two envied qualities side by side in matching phrases. Line 6 repeats “like him” twice. The balanced patterns make the speaker’s envy sound like a list with no end.

Paradox

Line 8, “With what I most enjoy contented least,” says the speaker is least satisfied with what he likes best. It shows how deep the low mood has sunk, since it poisons even his pleasures.

Enjambment

Line 11 runs straight into line 12 without a pause: the lark is “arising / From sullen earth.” The sentence lifts across the line break the way the bird lifts off the ground.

Repetition with a change

“State” ends line 2 (“my outcast state”) and line 10, and returns in line 14 (“my state with kings”). “Heaven” is “deaf” in line 3 and has a “gate” the lark reaches in line 12. The repeated words mark how far the speaker has traveled.

Hyperbole

In line 14 the speaker scorns “to change my state with kings.” The exaggeration answers his earlier envy of ordinary men: now he would not trade even with a king.

Themes in Sonnet 29

Love as the cure for despairEnvy and comparisonInner wealth over worldly status

Love as the cure for despair

Nothing in the speaker’s situation changes. He is still out of luck at the end. Only the memory of the beloved changes, and that is enough to lift him from self-pity to joy.

Envy and comparison

Lines 5 to 8 show how measuring yourself against others makes you miserable. The couplet ends the comparing by counting love as a kind of wealth no one else has.

Inner wealth over worldly status

The speaker starts in “disgrace with fortune” and ends richer than kings. The poem sets outward success (looks, friends, skill, rank) against the private riches of being loved.

Images and symbols

The lark

A songbird that sings as it climbs into the sky at dawn. In lines 11 and 12 it stands for the speaker’s spirit rising from despair to joy.

Heaven

Heaven is “deaf” to the speaker’s cries in line 3, but in line 12 his mood sings hymns at “heaven’s gate.” The change shows how differently the world looks once he remembers the beloved.

Kings

In line 14 kings stand for the highest worldly success. Scorning to trade places with them measures how rich the speaker now feels.

Tensions

Self-pity vs. love. The first eight lines are ruled by envy and self-contempt. The memory of the beloved in line 10 overpowers them, though nothing outside the speaker has changed.

The ending

How Sonnet 29 ends, explained

The couplet gives the reason for the change in lines 9 to 12: “For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” Early in the poem the speaker wanted to be “more rich in hope” and envied other men’s looks, friends and talents. Now he counts the beloved’s love as wealth, and he would not trade his state even with a king. The word “remember’d” matters. The beloved is not present, and nothing in the speaker’s fortune has improved. A memory is enough to lift him. The most common reading takes the ending as a sincere tribute to the power of love to rescue someone from despair. Other readers notice the word “then” in line 14. It suggests that the joy lasts while the thought lasts, and the “When” of line 1 implies the low moods come back. On this reading the poem captures one swing of a mind that rises and falls, not a permanent cure. Some readers also point out that the speaker still thinks in terms of wealth and rank. He has not stopped comparing himself with others. He has only found a comparison he wins.

“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes / I all alone beweep my outcast state,”

Lines 1–2. The famous opening. “Disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes” means out of luck and out of favor, and “all alone” stresses the speaker’s isolation.

“With what I most enjoy contented least;”

Line 8. The paradox that ends the octave: the speaker’s mood is so low that his favorite pleasures satisfy him least.

“Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;”

Lines 11–12. The simile at the heart of the turn. The speaker’s mood rises like a lark, and the heaven that was “deaf” in line 3 now hears it sing.

“For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.”

Lines 13–14. The couplet answers the envy of lines 5–8. Love is the wealth the speaker lacked, and he would not trade it for a throne.

Common misreadings

MythThe lark in lines 11–12 is the beloved.

ActuallyThe grammar makes the speaker’s “state,” his mood, the thing that is “Like to the lark.” It is his spirit that rises and sings at heaven’s gate when he thinks of the beloved.

Myth“Haply” in line 10 means happily.

Actually“Haply” means by chance or perhaps. The speaker happens to think of the beloved. Some readers hear a pun on “happily,” but the main sense is chance.

MythThe poem tells us what disgrace Shakespeare was in when he wrote it.

ActuallyThe poem never says what the disgrace was. It describes a mood that returns (“When in disgrace”), and guesses about Shakespeare’s own life are outside the text.

AP practice a poetry prompt in the exam's style

In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, a speaker who feels like a failure describes how his mood changes when he thinks of the person he loves. Read the poem carefully, then write an essay that analyzes how Shakespeare uses literary elements and techniques to convey a complex perspective on despair, envy and love.

What a strong response notices

The isolation of lines 1–4, including “all alone” and “deaf heaven,” and how it sets up the low point.
The balanced phrasing and paradox of lines 5–8, which make the speaker’s envy sound endless.
The single-sentence structure, with the turn at “Yet” (line 9) and “Haply I think on thee” (line 10).
The lark simile and the enjambment across lines 11–12, and how heaven changes from deaf to listening.
The repeated word “state” (lines 2, 10 and 14) and the couplet’s language of wealth and kings.

Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Literature free-response guide for how answers are scored.

Test yourself

1. What does “bootless” mean in line 3?

2. What does the speaker desire in line 7?

3. What changes the speaker’s mood?

4. What is compared to a lark in lines 11–12?

5. According to the couplet, who would the speaker refuse to trade places with?

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Answer

Explain it like I’m 12

The speaker is having a terrible time. Nothing is going right, people think badly of him, and he feels completely alone. He is jealous of everyone who seems luckier, better-looking or more talented. Then he happens to think of the person he loves. His mood shoots up like a bird singing at sunrise. He says that remembering their love makes him feel so rich he would not trade places with a king.

Compare & connect

Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare

Another sonnet from the same 1609 collection that turns at line 9. There the speaker praises the beloved; here the beloved’s love rescues the speaker.

When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be

John Keats

Keats’s speaker also starts in a dark mood, afraid of dying before his work is done, but his sonnet ends with love and fame sinking “to nothingness,” while Shakespeare’s ends with love outweighing everything.

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Barrett Browning’s speaker counts the ways she loves, drawing on old griefs and childhood faith. Shakespeare’s speaker measures what love is worth against wealth, talent and kings.

Discussion and essay prompts:

💬 Discussion questions

What does When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes mean
What is Sonnet 29 about
What does the lark symbolize in Sonnet 29
How does Sonnet 29 explore the theme of love as the cure for despair?
How does Sonnet 29 explore the theme of envy and comparison?
What is the central conflict in Sonnet 29, and how does it shape the ending?

✎ Essay prompts

Analyze how William Shakespeare develops the theme of love as the cure for despair in Sonnet 29. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
Examine the significance of the lark in Sonnet 29. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
How does William Shakespeare use simile to shape the reader’s experience of Sonnet 29?
Some readers assume that the lark in lines 11–12 is the beloved. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.

Key questions students ask

What does When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes mean
What is Sonnet 29 about
What does the lark symbolize in Sonnet 29
Where is the volta in Sonnet 29
What does haply mean in Sonnet 29
What is the tone shift in Sonnet 29

Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The poem is printed from Project Gutenberg’s modern-spelling text of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (first published in 1609), checked word by word against the page images of the 1609 printing. It is in the public domain.