Analysis of Sonnet 95How sweet and beautiful you make the shame Which, like a cancer in the perfumed rose, stains the beauty of your name in bud! Oh, in what sweetness you make your sins contain ! That tongue that tells the story of your days, making lewd comments about your sport, cannot despise except in a kind of praise. Mention your name, blesses bad news. Oh, what an abode those vices have that I have chosen for your habitation, where the veil of beauty covers every spot and all things become beautiful for the eyes to see! Pay attention, dear heart, to this great privilege: the hardest knife, badly used, loses its edge. First quatrain First of all, stain can mean two things: 'discover' and also 'stain'; therefore, the shame that "you" do can underline (at the same time) the beauty of your name, which is perhaps becoming more and more popular; also 'taint' the beauty of "your" name. Knowing this, we must read the poem twice, once for each possible reading (also note the floral theme in the first stanza as well). Since it describes the "name" as a bud (and the scent of a rose as sweet), "in what sweets" may refer to the "name" and therefore, of course, to the person himself. Now, question: [first the analogy of cancer with sins; so, as cancer destroys the rose, this person's sins destroy his name (and remember! only "name" at this point)] which? Second quatrain "Name your name": naming from the stories that have been told about this person, like rumors. (For example, not far from this example, someone you have never met, but whose name you know, is considered a whore. Whether this rumor is true or not, this idea will be attached to the person who has this name. Same idea here). Line 8, depending on the punctuation, can be read in two ways (more duality!): if there is no punctuation, just a period, then "blesses" is a verb, "name" is the action of the tongue; thus, we can read "Naming your name blesses and brings bad news" as 'the tongue that names you (says or puts a background to this "name") blesses "bad news"; (obviously the contemptuous comments against your name).