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Ilyssa Silfen
ENL 361
Professor Goodland
22 September 2009
A Rose By Any Other Name: An Analysis of Sonnet 54
In Sonnet 54, the speaker, an older man, the poet, probably in his thirties or
forties, addresses his beloved, who has been identified in the previous sonnets as a young
man. In his address to the young man, he argues that the young man’s beauty, integrity
and virtue are similar to the fragrance contained within a rose, and he argues that those
three qualities will be forever preserved in his, the poet’s, sonnets, in the same way that
the fragrance of the rose is forever preserved in perfumes.
The speaker develops two key images throughout this particular sonnet; that of
the rose and that of the canker blooms, which are identified as “the blossoms of the dog
rose, a wild rose that has little fragrance” (N5). In the literal vein, these two flowers are
compared and contrasted in terms of their looks and their fragrances; the rose and the
canker bloom are both stated to be incredibly beautiful to see. However, the rose is
deemed to be additionally beautiful due to its sweet odor, while the canker bloom does
not have any scent to speak of, and is therefore not mourned when its blossoms die. The
scent of the rose, on the other hand, is preserved in perfumes, and because of this the rose
is, in contrast to the canker bloom, mourned, and possibly even more importantly, forever
remembered.
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Throughout the sonnet, the inner qualities of the young man are compared to the
sweet scent of the roses and contrasted from the empty beauty of the canker blooms,
adding a further richness to the poem. In fact, this comparison lasts for the first 12 lines,
or 3 quatrains, of the sonnet in what can only be considered an epic simile. The use of the
epic simile showcases the amount of love and devotion that the speaker holds for his
beloved, the young man, by creating an uninterrupted, and quite romantic, compare and
contrast between the young man’s outer and inner beauty to the two different kinds of
flowers. The epic simile serves to add an emotional depth to the sonnet that would
otherwise not exist if multiple, simpler similes and/or metaphors were used in its place.
In the first two lines of the sonnet, the speaker makes a compelling and emotive
argument when he states, “O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem by that sweet
ornament which truth doth give” (1-2). The speaker here is making a clear contention
that physical beauty appears even more beautiful when it is combined with “truth,” which
is defined as integrity and virtue, as well as constancy (N2). These qualities, beauty,
integrity, virtue and constancy, are compared and contrasted through the comparing and
contrasting of the images of the rose and the canker bloom. To begin, the speaker states,
“The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem for that sweet odor which doth in it live” (3-4).
This image, drawn from nature, literally states that the rose is quite beautiful in its own
right, but that its sweet scent gives it even greater beauty. This also draws on the
speaker’s original argument that beauty is nothing without “truth”; just as the rose is
made even more beautiful by its scent, the young man’s beauty is made more beautiful by
his inner qualities.
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For the second image, also drawn from nature, the speaker describes the canker
blooms as having “full as deep a dye as the perfumèd tincture of the roses, hang on such
thorns, and play as wantonly” (5-6). The word tincture means “hue or color” (N6), and
the word “such,” in this case, means “similar” (N7); therefore, we can stipulate that
speaker is saying that the canker blooms have a very similar quality of physical beauty
and the same rich color as the roses do. The comparison to the rose ends, however, when
the speaker states: “But, for their virtue only is their show, they live unwooed and
unrespected fade, die to themselves” (9-10). At the same time that the speaker is arguing
that the canker bloom’s only virtue is its “show,” its physical appearance (N9), and
because of this, it is hardly noticed in life and dies unvalued (N10), the speaker is also
arguing that the same goes for any human being. Although the canker bloom (person)
may be quite beautiful, if that is all it has going for it in life, its beauty, then once that
beauty fades, there will be nothing left, and the bloom (person) will die without any
regard. In other words, the speaker is arguing that, without other redeeming qualities,
beauty means nothing. The speaker continues this argument by stating that “Sweet roses
do not do so; of their sweet deaths are sweetest odors made” (11-12). With this sentence,
the speaker is arguing that roses do not rely solely on their beauty; they have their sweet
scents as well, which are distilled into perfumes and preserved. The speaker here is
vehemently arguing the same of his beloved; just as the rose is filled with the sweet scent
that will keep its memory alive, the young man is full of constancy, integrity and virtue,
as well as beauty, and therefore his own memory will be well preserved.
The speaker’s argument is concluded in the rhyming couplet, in which the speaker
proclaims “And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, when that shall vade, by verse
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distils your truth” (13-14). The couplet repeats the image of the beautiful youth, as well
as the concept of the youth’s “truth,” and, in doing so, the speaker concludes the
argument definitively. The speaker states that when “that shall vade” (14), “that” being
defined as the young man’s beauty and youth (N14) and “vade” being defined as fading
away or departing (N14), that just as the scent of the rose is distilled into perfume and
preserved in that manner, the verses that he is dedicating to the young man will preserve
his inner qualities, and thus his memory, forever.
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Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 54. In Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems. Edited by
Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square Press, 2006.
Mowat, Barbara A. and Paul Werstine. Notes, Sonnet 54. In Shakespeare’s Sonnets and
Poems. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, New York: Washington
Square Press, 2006.