First Quatrain: “If thy soul check thee that I come so near”
Addressing the voluptuous mistress again, the speaker admonishes her that if her conscience has any qualms about his desire for her, she should tell that unthinking conscience that he is her “Will.” He is her desire for him, and his name is Will. Because he deems to be her possession, he concludes that her conscience will understand that he is permitted to be “admitted there,” or in her body.
It is “for love” that he becomes a suitor in order to “fulfil” the desires of the lady—her lust, and his own lustful desires. He is, of course, rationalizing his lust again, but this time focusing more squarely on her own lust than his. He is somewhat an innocent who is merely willing to accompany the lady on her journey to lust fulfillment, he playfully suggests.
Second Quatrain: “Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love”
The speaker then predicts that he, or “Will,” is going to “fulfil the treasure of [her] love,” or simply satisfy her desires. Not only satisfy, but “fill it full with wills,” referring her to the sperm he is capable of leaving inside her vaginal cavity, after having completed his act, which he calls, “my will one.”
The speaker’s penis may be only one, but his sperm contains multitudes. The male penchant for braggadocio has overtaken this speaker in sonnets 135 and 136. His overpowering lust has rendered him a satyric fop. Then he philosophizes that it is always easy to accomplish things for which we think we will receive much pleasure.
Third Quatrain: “Then in the number let me pass untold”
The speaker then concludes that since he has made much sense of his explanation, she should go ahead and allow him to join all the others she has tempted and tasted, even though he will be counted as only one. She should allow him one more bit of wise counsel: even if she will not desire to keep him in her company, she could at least retain one token of him, “a something sweet to [her].”
The Couplet: “Make but my name thy love, and love that still”
The token of sweetness, the speaker hopes, will simply be his name: “Make but my name thy love, and love that still, / And then thou lov’st me,—for my name is Will.” And if his name were James or Edward, the last remark would remain unremarkable in its literalness. But the speaker he gone out of his way to pun the term, “will,” and associate it with his name, “Will,” driving home the fact that when he utters that term, he is referring to lust, whether his own or hers.
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