William Shakespeare   SONNET 57

Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time* at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu;
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are how happy you make those.
   So true a fool is love that in your will,
   Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

 

 

Marxist Analysis – Jackson Lee

 

A Marxist would say this poem is about slavery and different classes. Marxism theory is the belief which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies. The term slave is used many times in the poem and the speaker is constantly forced upon “love” to do work for someone else’s desires. The third and fourth lines are specifically stating how the difference in class is apparent. The speaker says “I have no precious time* at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require” meaning I have nothing to do with my time because I’m waiting for you to ask me. The final two lines in the poem summarizes the Marxism view so perfectly saying that the lower class society is so foolish in a loving way which is why “you” meaning the higher class can do anything and “he” the lower class thinks of no ill.