The speaker/poet of Sonnet 36 again addresses his poem, dramatizing the unique duality of unity and separation, as the artist experiences those two phenomena.
First Quatrain: “Let me confess that we two must be twain”
In the first quatrain of Sonnet 36, the speaker/poet, addressing his poem, confirms that although he and his poem are essentially individual beings, they share a common goal, “our undivided loves are one.” And though they are united in their quests, the speaker admits that any error that occurs in his inspired art is his alone and does not belong to his poem.
Such a confession reminds the reader of the artist who thanks his assistants by giving them much credit for the ultimate production of the art but still claims that if there is anything wrong the art, it is the artist’s flaw and not the assistants.
Second Quatrain: “In our two loves there is but one respect”
The second quatrain again dramatizes the closeness and unity of the poet and the poem. Despite the fact that they covet a common goal, their individual beings remain an obstacle with which the artist must ever contend.
The artist and the poem can never completely merge, but they share the same “sweet hours” that they steal “from love’s delight.” The artist, during his creative periods, is sometimes deceived into thinking the poem will always complement his creativity, but then the dark times return again and again to enhance their separation.
Third Quatrain: “I may not evermore acknowledge thee”
The speaker says that perhaps he will not credit his poem, because his failure, if he fails, would then attach to the poem, and the speaker/poet avers that there is no honor in blaming anyone but himself for his failures.
And he opines that the poem will not announce its relationship to his work, unless it does so in its own name. The speaker is, obviously, citing a situation that is impossible, but he, nevertheless, avers that his own inspiration in the form of an imaginative muse can do no other than agree.
The Couplet: “But do not so; I love thee in such sort”
Finally, the speaker tells the poem not to be concerned; it need not do anything other than inspire the speaker/poet. He will continue to honor and love the poem because as he asserted in the beginning, they are, in fact, one and indivisible in matters of the heart, and whatever the speaker accomplishes, so does the poem: “mine is thy good report.”
Commentary
In sonnet 96, the reader will find that the couplet is identical to the couplet of sonnet 36—a mysterious event which will be explained in the article analyzing Sonnet 96.
Other articles on Shakespeare: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: Sonnet 1, Sonnet 2, Sonnet 3, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 6, Sonnet 7, Sonnet 8, Sonnet 9, Sonnet 10, Sonnet 11, Sonnet 12, Sonnet 13, Sonnet 14, Sonnet 15, Sonnet 16, Sonnet 17, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 19, Sonnet 20, Sonnet 21, Sonnet 22, Sonnet 23, Sonnet 24, Sonnet 25, Sonnet 26, Sonnet 27, Sonnet 28, Sonnet 29, Sonnet 30, Sonnet 31, Sonnet 32, Sonnet 33, Sonnet 34, Sonnet 35, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
