Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 86 |
3.
inhearse: bury.
4.
Making their tomb the womb: His "ripe thoughts" did not get written; instead, they were buried in the same place they were born.
6.
pitch: height.
7.
compeers: spirits, visiting and aiding the poet in his dreams. I find the references to the "compeers by night" and the "affable familiar ghost" very strange. I can't see what real-life experience the metaphors are pointing to. Is it poetic inspiration? Pride? Competitiveness?
8.
astonished: stunned; paralyzed; struck dumb.
9.
ghost: spirit.
10.
gulls: deceptively provides. intelligence: breaking news; ideas.
13.
your countenance fill'd up his line: your beauty became the subject of his verse.
14.
matter: The substance of thought or expression as opposed to the manner in which it is stated or conveyed.