Shakespeare Sonnet 114
Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you
Sonnet 114 continues its thought from sonnet 113. Addressing his Muse, he asks two questions in the first and second quatrains.
First Quatrain: “Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you”
The speaker’s first question poses the possibility that because he is blessed with an able Muse, he might be susceptible to flattery, which he calls “the monarch’s plague.” A king, and thus any person holding a lofty societal position, always has people looking for favors, and those seekers are prone to say kind things about the king simply to win those favors.
The artist who gains some critical attention during his/her own lifetime has to guard against useless criticism. While some critics will be unfairly harsh, others who aspire to their own notoriety may offer false compliments to the artist. The artist must be aware of both useless poseurs as he practices his art for genuine purposes.
The speaker begins his second question, which is completed in the second quatrain.
Second Quatrain: “To make of monsters and things indigest”
The speaker’s second question asks whether he should believe whatever he sees and hears. The Muse has taught his mind “this alchymy” that turns “monsters” into angels, and the Muse, of course, resembles the angels. He wonders if, because his own talent is able to turn all bad into “a perfect best,” that makes it so.
He has been calculating these thoughts, weighing the possibilities, and by verbalizing them and dramatizing them in his sonnets, he thinks he may be able to make decisions.
Third Quatrain: “O! ’tis the first, ’tis flattery in my seeing”
The speaker then decides that the answer to his question lies in the first possibility: “’tis flattery in my seeing.” That he may want to choose to believe nice things said about him even when he knows they are not true simply demonstrates his proclivity to succumbing to sheer flattery.
That struggle between the mind and eye is a continuing one: his mind has to discern what to believe. When the eye (or ear) wants to accept something as true, the mind must determine the value of what the eye sees and ear hears. The speaker realizes how tricky the eye/ear can be and how willing the mind often is to allow itself to be fooled.
The Couplet: “If it be poison’d, ’tis the lesser sin”
If the eye/ear at first accepts something that may “be poison’d,” that is “the lesser sin” from what the mind will do when it accepts the poison as potion. Information first comes to the mind through the senses; thus, the pleasantry striking the senses initiates the thought and feeling with which the mind must contend.
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