Because Sonnet 154 is essentially a paraphrase of Sonnet 153, it, therefore, bears the same message. The two final sonnets keep the same theme, a complaint of unrequited, scorned love, while dressing the complaint with the gaudy clothing of mythological allusion. Employing the Roman god, Cupid, and the goddess Diana, the speaker achieves a distance from his feelings—a distance that he, no doubt, hopes will finally bring him some comfort.
In most of the “dark lady” sonnets, the speaker addresses the mistress directly or makes it clear that what he is saying is intended specifically for her ears.
In the last two sonnets, the speaker does not address the mistress; he does mention her, but he is speaking now about her instead of directly to her. He is now withdrawing from the drama; the reader senses that he has grown weary from his battle for the lady’s love, and now he just decides to make a philosophical drama that heralds the ending, saying essentially, “I’m through.”
First Quatrain: “The little Love-god lying once asleep”
In the first quatrain, the speaker alludes to the Roman mythological god Cupid, saying that the god is sleeping, and his “heart-inflaming brand” or torch is lying by his side. Along come “many nymphs” or handmaidens of the goddess of the hunt Diana; one of the maidens grabs the torch.
Second Quatrain: “The fairest votary took up that fire”
The speaker claims that the maiden who steals Cupid’s torch is the “fairest votary.” He reports that the fire from this torch had caused many men to fall in love, and he emphasizes that now the torch is stolen by “a virgin” while the little love god lies fast asleep.
Third Quatrain: “This brand she quenched in a cool well by”
The maiden carries the torch to a “cool well” and tries to put out the flame, but instead she succeeds in heating the water. The hot water becomes widely thought to possess health-giving powers “for men diseas’d.” The speaker then asserts that such is not so for him in his “mistress’s thrall.”
The Couplet: “Came there for cure, and this by that I prove”
When the speaker goes to the bath famed for “healthful remedy,” he finds that there is no cure for him. Love can heat water, but water cannot cool love.
Commentary
The speaker’s choice of Cupid is obvious for the god’s representation of love, but the speaker also focuses on the “torch” instrument instead of the more common “bow and arrows.” The choice of torch is obvious as well, as the speaker has often euphemistically referred to his aroused penis at the sight of the dark lady. The speaker exaggerates his lust by dramatizing its ability to heat water, while water lacks the ability to cool his lust.
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