ABSTRACT
Sonnet 125 of Shakespeare's collection (“Wer't ought to me I bore the canopy”) is the penultimate poem in the series addressed to the male friend. It is the last complete sonnet in this series, and in comparison with its somewhat slighter successor, 126, it appears to offer a more substantial, dense, and conclusive instrument of retrospection. It opens by distinguishing the poet from those who court his friend's love by means of external gestures, “dwellers on forme and favor,” but who see their calculations fail and are condemned to admire the young man from a distance: “Pittifull thrivors in their gazing spent.” The poet's own devotion, he claims, consists purely of uncalculated internal gestures and it leads to a genuine, unmediated exchange. Noe, let me be obsequious in thy heart, And take thou my oblacion, poore but free, Which is not mixt with seconds, knows no art, But mutuall render onely me for thee. 1
