First Quatrain: “Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not”
The first two questions of Sonnet 149 appear in the first quatrain: 1. Are you really able to claim that I do not love you when you see me acting against my own best interests by continuing this ruinous relationship with you? 2. Don’t you understand that for you I debase myself with self-cruelty?
The speaker has repeatedly groaned and complained that he treats the woman better than he treats himself. He swallows his pride and gives over his own thoughts and feelings to a woman who snubs him and abuses him and then has the audacity to insist that he does not really love her.
Second Quatrain: “Who hateth thee that I do call my friend?”
Questions 3, 4, and 5 continue in the second quatrain: 3. Have I not estranged myself from all those who have spoken ill of you? 4. Are you not aware that I scorn anyone who scorns you? 5. And as you look at me with disdain, do I not berate myself for your sake?
The speaker confesses that he has sacrificed other friends for her sake. And he even scolds himself after she makes him think that he is to blame for her disagreeable treatment of him. He wants to make her realize that he has been willing to surrender not only other friends, but also his own self-interest for her sake.
Third Quatrain: “What merit do I in myself respect”
The final question comprises the entire third quatrain: 6. When you see me under the spell of your wondering eyes, how do you think I should have any self-esteem left when I virtually hate myself in order to serve your blundering ways?
The Couplet: “But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind”
In the couplet, the speaker seems to throw up his hands telling the woman to go ahead and hate him if she must. But at least he finally knows what she is thinking. He adds a final, sarcastic jab: anyone who thinks that you can love is fooling himself, and yet I consider myself the deluded one.
Depending upon how one reads the last line, another interpretation is also possible: the speaker wishes to contrast himself with those men that the “dark lady” would love; thus, he claims that she loves only the ones who “can see,” and therefore, she cannot love him, because he is blind.
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