Although Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 differs in many ways from other sonnets written in the same period, it has become a commonly studied and explicated sonnet, attracting the attention of academics for several reasons, including the strange change in tone, the position of the vault, the detached and impartial detachment of the judgment until the last couplet, and the combination of three quatrains and a couplet, although many have argued that it is set in an octave sextet order. While not a particularly difficult sonnet to read, the underlying levels of judgment, the overturning of the social order, the right to refuse procreation, and sexually transmitted diseases can be discovered during careful reading. Using Carol Thomas Neely's collection of essays entitled "Detachment and Engagement in Shakespeare's Sonnets" and Helen Vendler's book The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets, I will perform a close reading involving all levels of the text, including tone, imagery, rhyme schemes , general context and connotations. The stark differences between this sonnet and the other sonnets within its sequence provide insight into the speaker's evolving view of the sonnet's subject, and the line-by-line progression toward a final judgment on the subject suggests a moral or physical character. "infection" (10) which will ultimately reveal the subject's impurity. Say no to plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The opening lines of the sonnet immediately classify it as. contrasting in tone with the other sonnets in the sequence to which it belongs, beginning with Sonnet 87 (Neely 84). The language and subject of the sonnet have become vague: "those who have the power to wound, and will." no one” (1) confuses the idea that the speaker was addressing a lover, which is clear in both the first and subsequent sonnets. The language of the first quatrain seems to be less interested in the subject of the poem as a character, but more in the power that the subject exerts over others. “Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, / Impassive, cold and slow to temptation,” (3-4) suggests that the subject of the sonnet is dogged in fighting temptation, although the speaker is not necessarily praising him as you might expect from an Elizabethan voice of reason. Instead, the speaker actually seems to be accusatory of the subject's ability to reject temptation in a way that seems reminiscent of the first 18 sonnets, whose primary concern is procreation and the importance of creating a new generation to inherit the world (Vendler 404 ). The language within the first quatrain reflects the tone of the speaker: the repetition of the verb “to do” accentuates both the speaker's desire for action on the part of the subject and the sonnet's references to sex. The use of the word “stone” to describe the subject in line 3 classifies the impersonal “they” as cold and reserved, which references the Petrarchan image of the unattainable and beautiful woman, unaffected by temptation (Neely 84). On an entirely separate level, it must be recognized that the use of the element “stone” within the sonnet places the subject in alignment with the lowest of earthly elements, suggesting that the cold and immobile nature of the stones is not stoic, but selfish. .The second quatrain changes the tone of the sonnet by using language that makes the subject more attractive: "They justly inherit the graces of heaven, / And exploit nature's riches with expense;" (5-6). This rightful inheritance of heavenly graces and earthly riches suddenly reveals itself to the Elizabethan publicthat the subject of the sonnet, though cold and selfish, still holds the divine right of an aristocrat, and in this sense should still be respected. Although not yet directly stated, the tone begins to change with the idea that the subject's selfishness is not entirely condemnable. In fact, the tone of the sonnet seems to be careful to create an impersonal and controlled tone that is slow to judge. By focusing the second quatrain of the sonnet on the saintly, almost divine qualities of the subject, the speaker allows the audience to balance the first and second quatrains with each other, leaving a somewhat even-handed feeling. In Carol Thomas Neely's collection of essays "Detachment and Commitment in Shakespeare's Sonnets," she argues that, unlike the other sonnets in her sequence, the speaker of sonnet 94 "seems to address no one and, until the last lines, not judge no one." (84) The second quatrain supports Neely's argument in that none of the lines seem to suggest a tone of judgment, but of impartiality and, at times, praise: “They are the lords and owners of their faces,/ Others but stewards of theirs ). excellence", (7-8). Shakespeare's use of language in the second quatrain allows the subject to become more attractive while at the same time making the nature of their "pow'r" clearer. This is definitely important in the setting of the third quatrain and the final couplet, which reveals the underlying judgment that the speaker rejects in the quatrains. The third quatrain, which seems to completely change direction with the description of a flower, offers a parallel between the subject and the natural process through which a flower blooms and dies in a self-contained cycle: “The summer flower is sweet to the summer, / Though to itself it lives and dies alone” (9-10). tendency to live and die for oneself only suggests that the subject of the sonnet should be granted similar freedom, to live and die in one's own beauty without the burden of reproduction (Neely 86). the speaker suggests an alternative ideology to the first 18 sonnets in that the lack of procreation may not be a selfishness, but a personal right of the subject. His beauty, the speaker suggests, is enough to give him merit, like a summer flower that can be looked at but does not care about its own future generation. This idea is followed by the volta, which appears in an odd place in this sonnet due to its location in the middle of the third quatrain: “But if that stream with vile infection meet, / The vilest weed surpasses its dignity.” (11-12). These lines provide a change in attitude that represents the opposite side of the first two lines of the third quatrain. The speaker is suggesting that, like a summer flower, the subject has every right to live and die only to itself (without reproducing) as long as there is no "underlying infection" in the center of the flower, in which case any weeds could develop. they surpass him in a moral order. “Infection” can be read as any moral corruption, but it has been suggested that the use of the words “harsher” and “fester” which appear in the following couplet connote a physical infection: venereal disease. This reading is easily followed through the final two lines, a couplet, in which the speaker finally seems to allow a judgment on the subject. The sudden change of tone after the turn (“But if that flower...”) is pushed even further by the last two lines, which seem to allow for a judgment on the topic. Using the flower's “base infection” as a euphemism for the subject's potential venereal disease, the speaker openly judges the subject: “For sweeter things grow sourer by their deeds;/ Rotting lilies smell very.