In sonnet 41, the speaker addresses his poem, dramatizing the differences between true poetic qualities and license to create. He also declares his unity with his art.
First Quatrain: “Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits”
In sonnet 41, the speaker addresses the poem again: sometimes when the poet/speaker is not practicing his art, his thoughts commit “pretty wrongs.” He does not completely specify the wrongs, but the point is that even when he is “absent from [the poem’s] heart,” its loveliness of intent follows him.
Most poets and artists will assert that they are always looking for something that will contribute to their next creation. Practicing aestheticism tempts the artist to anything he deems beautiful. He hints that he is not a beginning poet but has for many years been allured by art’s aesthetic temptations.
Second Quatrain: “Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won”
The speaker then reveals the qualities that most attract him—gentleness and beauty. He insists that any mother’s son would do the same. The gentle and beautiful slope of art wins the artist’s heart. It is as natural as night following day.
If he tried to resist such temptation, it would cause him to feel bitter. His life would sour until he returned again to his God-given attractions and practiced his in-born talent. He can only prevail in following his intuition that leads him always back to his love of creating his art, his poems.
Third Quatrain: “Ay me! but yet thou mightst my seat forbear”
However, the speaker then addresses the notion that the poem might garner more attention than the poet. The beauty and the “straying youth” of the poem might seem to “chide” the speaker or even the poem itself; thus, such a chiding would count as one of the “pretty wrongs that liberty commits.”
However, the speaker insists that the poem is forced to tell the truth, even as it appears to “break a twofold truth.” The speaker asserts that whoever would “lead thee in their riot even there” is the one who would cause the muse to break with truth, but the twofold truth is delayed until the couplet.
The Couplet: “Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee”
If the muse breaks truth with the poem, her beauty would tempt the speaker to address the necessary correction to bring the poem back to its proper condition, and if the beauty is merely superficial, the poem would not only be untruthful to itself, but it would also prove false to the speaker. The speaker has on every occasion convinced the reader that he could never allow such an atrocity; therefore, the unity of poet and poem is recaptured.
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 36, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
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