Sonnet 147 at first appears to be merely the speaker’s musing about his uncontrolled desires for the affection of the mistress, but it turns out that he is actually addressing her as he examines his situation.
First Quatrain: “My love is as a fever, longing still”
In the first quatrain, the speaker admits that he is still in the throes of sexual longing for the woman. He knows that such longing is unhealthy and calls it a “sickly appetite.” He asserts that not only is his unhealthy longing a disease, but it also feeds upon itself, perpetuating and nursing itself and thus the horrific situation “doth preserve the ill.”
Reckoning that his emotions elicit and perpetuate a degraded state, he chooses to reveal his hunger in medical terms, employing such words as “fever,” “nurseth,” “disease,” and “ill.” All these images result in leaving the patient with the “sickly appetite” which he feels he must somehow learn “to please.”
Second Quatrain: “My reason, the physician to my love”
The speaker then claims that his “reason” or “physician,” metaphorically his ability to think clearly, has deserted him. He no longer possesses the capacity for rational thought, because of his irrational longing for unhealthy dalliance with the slattern, to whom he has unfortunately become attached.
The speaker claims that because of his lost reason he confuses desire with death. He knows that his reasonable physician, were he still in touch with it, would at least keep him aware of the efficacy of keeping body and soul together.
Third Quatrain: “Past cure I am, now Reason is past care”
The speaker then complains that he is “past cure,” and he also lost his ability to even be concerned about his irrational state. He considers himself, “frantic-mad with evermore unrest.” The individual who allows sexual urgings to dominate his thoughts finds it virtually impossible to put that genie back in the bottle. The strong nature of such longings overcomes reason, and the aroused passion savagely seeks satisfaction.
The speaker understands that he has allowed himself to become driven by these perverse desires which cause “[his] thoughts” and his speech to become as frenzied as “madmen’s are.” He finds himself wavering in his ability to seek truth, which has always, heretofore, been his prerogative and preference.
The Couplet: “For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright”
Only in the couplet does it become clear that the speaker has all along been addressing his ravings to his mistress. The couplet not only hurls an accusation at the filthy woman, “Who [is] as black as hell,” and “as dark as night,” but it also reveals the exact spot on which the speaker’s mental health is shining its light: he made the mistake of believing that the woman was a loving as well as lovely creature, but her true personality and behavior have revealed to him a monstrous prevaricator incapable of truth and fidelity.
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