A summary of Shakespeare’s 52nd sonnet
Sonnet 52 is another poem about absence, and about Shakespeare having to be apart from the Fair Youth. The rather dense and knotty conceit, which centres on locked-up treasure, requires a bit of untangling and closer analysis, but first, here is Sonnet 52 and a brief paraphrase of its content.
So am I as the rich, whose blessed key,
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
Since, seldom coming in the long year set,
Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet.
So is the time that keeps you as my chest,
Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide,
To make some special instant special-blest,
By new unfolding his imprisoned pride.
Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope,
Being had, to triumph, being lacked, to hope.
Sonnet 52 takes up the idea of a locked-up treasure which we’d previously encountered in Sonnet 48. Here, though, Shakespeare is trying to console himself for the fact that there are times when he and the Fair Youth must be apart; he tells himself that the pleasure of seeing the young man again, after an enforced absence, is all the sweeter. ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’, we might say, or ‘anticipation is nine-tenths of the pleasure’.
As Don Paterson points out in his Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A New Commentary
In Sonnet 52, Shakespeare immediately starts off by likening himself to a rich man, and he ends by likening himself to the blessed. But we should remember that this sonnet comes in a broader sequence which is concerned with absence, uncertainty, and moping. If you found this analysis of Sonnet 52 helpful, you can discover more of Shakespeare’s best sonnets with ‘Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore’, ‘When to the sessions of sweet silent thought’, and ‘Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing’.
If you’re studying Shakespeare’s sonnets and looking for a detailed and helpful guide to the poems, we recommend Stephen Booth’s hugely informative edition, Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Yale Nota Bene)