Sonnet 25: Let Those Who Are In Favour With Their Stars Poem by William Shakespeare

Who on earth voted this brilliant poem a measely 1! -It carries such a powerful message for egotists. Egal Bohen...

Awesome I like this poem, check mine out

Wonderful sonnet by Shakespeare to read! The bard's words are golden message to be read even after many ages too!

Well, I suppose it's alright...MM

The love the Fair Youth and the speaker share is going to last forever. No one can take it away from them.

or sun are shining on at any one time. Those who have awards, power, and many friends only have them temporarily. Like a marigold flower, these people will die when the sun no longer shines on them.

A Sonnet to my heart! A clever love poem that compares the speaker's permanent love to fleeting moments of fame. The speaker addresses the Fair Youth telling him that the love they have is far more important than who the stars

Great Sonnet 25 by our world famous William Shakespeare! . I totally enhoyed this one!

.. 1. Let those who are in favour with their stars To be in favour with one's stars = to enjoy success and good fortune. There was a widespread belief in the influence of the stars on human fortunes. Nevertheless others preferrred a more humanist and rational approach. Compare for example Cassius' words to Brutus in Julius Caesar: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings. JC.I.2.140-1. 2. Of public honour and proud titles boast, proud titles = titles which engender pride in the holders; aristocratic titles; high government posts. boast = exult in, derive glory from. 3. Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars triumph is equivalent to glory, and has a military connotation, derived from Roman triumphal processions led by successful generals in the Republican era of Rome. There is presumably also a suggestion that humble birth bars the poet from taking on high public office. See also 111. 4. Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most. Unlook'd for = unseen, unnoticed; In contrast to those in the public eye; perhaps also unexpectedly; joy in = take delight in, enjoy; that I honour most = that to which I attach most value and respect, viz my love for you. 5. Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread Great princes - the reference is to potentates in general, ancient and modern, male and female. The fate of the favourites of such was proverbial - they were all subject to the wheel of fortune. Here Shakespeare describes them as flowers enjoying a few brief days of sunshine. A few years later he wrote of Wolsey's downfall under Henry VIII. (See the full text below) . There are a number of verbal parallels between it and this sonnet. 6. But as the marigold at the sun's eye, As if they were marigolds in the sunlight. The sun's eye is the sun itself, but of course with a glance at kingly authority. Cf.: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines 18.5 and 7.1-8. 7. And in themselves their pride lies buried, pride = glory, vanity. The marigold, which was thought of as an ephemeral flower, lives only for itself, just as prince's favourites do. Hence their pride is buried within them.