Addressing his muse, the poet/speaker warns that he will do whatever it takes to secure himself from any possible future loss of inspiration.
Shakespeare Sonnet 49 is structured by the phrase “Against that time,” meaning to guard against the time when certain events may occur. The first two quatrains reveal the events, while the third along with the couplet reveal what the poet intends to do about it.
First Quatrain
In the first quatrain, the speaker hesitates by adding, “if ever that time come,” because he does not want to predict that such losses will definitely occur. He is covering himself: if they occur, he will be prepared, and, of course, if they do not occur, he has lost nothing by being prepared.
But if that undesirable time comes to pass, it will be that his muse looks on him with a “frown” instead of the smile to which the poet/speaker has grown accustomed. When or if the muse is “[c]all’d to that audit by advis’d respects,” that love will have “cast his utmost sum,” and the speaker will no longer feel that his muse bestows favors upon him.
Second Quatrain
That future cursed time would reveal itself if the muse would “strangely pass” and “scarcely greet” the poet as he tries to create. Instead of the “sun, thine eye,” he would see “settled gravity.” The former love that the muse bestowed would be “converted from the thing it was.” It would no longer offer him the inspiration and guidance that he has formerly enjoyed.
The reader needs to remember that the speaker is still verbalizing hypothetically and also that the speaker is holding in abeyance his plan to overcome the possible negativity that might be in store with the loss of his muse’s affection.
Third Quatrain
The third quatrain reveals the speaker’s intention: “Against that time do I ensconce me here / Within the knowledge of mine own desert.” He will entrench himself in his own self (soul). Even the dry barrenness of his own soul is superior to all the laws or reasons that anything outside himself can perpetrate upon him, including the subtle separateness from his own muse.
The Couplet
The poet/speaker acknowledges that the muse has “the strength of laws” to “leave [him] poor,” that is, without the inspiration to continue his craft, but the poet/speaker still has the upper hand, because he has not designated reasons or causes for his love. The causeless cannot be contained nor denied.
Commentary
The speaker has explored the subtle differences between his muse and his own soul in several earlier sonnets, and he continues a variation on this theme here. It could be argued that a useful overall theme for the entire sonnet sequence includes the classic battle between mind and soul.
Other Shakespeare articles: 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 37, Sonnet 38, Sonnet 39, Sonnet 40, Sonnet 41, Sonnet 42, Sonnet 43, Sonnet 44, Sonnet 45, Sonnet 46, Sonnet 47, Sonnet 48, Sonnet 73, Sonnet 96, Sonnet 116, Sonnet 126, Sonnet 130, Sonnet 138
