First Quatrain: “Love is too young to know what conscience is”
The speaker asserts in the first quatrain of sonnet 151, “Love is too young to know what conscience is,” again using “love” as a euphemistic metaphor for “lust.” In the second line, he avers that “love” now employed literally and “conscience” are virtually identical, as “conscience” and soul are identical.
The speaker stated as a rhetorical question, “Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?,” in order to emphasize the claim: everyone knows that “conscience” is activated by love. But he knows that the “gentle cheater” does not know this. This physically beautiful woman does not possess a beautiful mind.
Thus, he suggests to her that she not try to prove his flaws, for she might find that she is guilty of the same faults that he is. Of course, he does not believe this. He is winding down his relationship with her because he knows it has no future.
Second Quatrain: “For, thou betraying me, I do betray”
The speaker then accurately describes the relationship between body and soul as well as between himself and the dark lady. When she betrays him, he follows and betrays his “nobler part” which is his soul. His “gross body” or physical body commits treason again his soul, every time he allows himself to be seduced by this woman.
He reports that his soul tries to guide him to the right thing that he should do; his soul directs his body to act in ways that “he may / Triumph in love.” But “flesh stays no further reason.” The flesh is weak and succumbs even when the mind is strong.
Third Quatrain: “But rising at thy name doth point out thee”
The speaker completes the clause from the preceding quatrain, “flesh stays no further reason, / / But rising at thy name doth point out thee / As his triumphant prize.” Referring to his penile erection that occurs “at [her] name,” he makes a joke as the woman’s expense: she is a “triumphant prize” for this stick of flesh that is pointing at her. An uglier and more repulsive image is yet to be found in English literature.
Continuing his penile reference, the speaker abandons himself to a full characterization of his male member, stating that the organ takes pride in its function and that “He” feels pleased just to be the woman’s “poor drudge.” “He” is happy to erect himself for her sake and remain limp beside her at other times.
The Couplet: “No want of conscience hold it that I call”
The speaker then declares that his penis has no conscience, and while his mind and consciousness are in the grip of sexual strain, he mistakenly calls the lust he feels for her “love,” which he places in single scare quotes: ‘love’.
For her “dear love,” the speaker claims he “rise[s] and fall[s],” cleverly suggesting a parallel between his whole self and his other little flesh stick of self that also rises and falls at her behest.
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