The speaker laments the battle between body and soul-the dualism that even his art cannot surmount in times of tribulation and woe.
First Quatrain: “How heavy do I journey on the way”
Addressing his creativity (soul) within, the speaker exclaims that his travel through life becomes at times quite burdensome when he realizes that at the end of the journey instead of the supposed “ease” and “repose” one might expect, he may behold only the end of his life. He must still travel the miles even though they lead him farther from his accustomed life, which has become his friend.
All of his activities have become life habits, which he will perceive to have receded as he ages into decrepitude. He labels the journey “heavy,” because peering into the future brings doubt and worry.
Second Quatrain: “The beast that bears me, tired with my woe”
The speaker then metaphorically likens his physical body to a draft animal, “the beast that bears me.” The body “plods dully on,” afflicted by the burdensome weight of his talent. The “wretch” or his animal-like body seems to intuit that the soul is not interested in speed, but in celestial food gathered in part through the act of creativity. Yet the body and soul contrast even as they attempt to work together.
The artist/poet must still acknowledge that his body or animal carries that burden that results from the soul’s duty to itself. While the body becomes “tired with [ ] woe,” the soul spurs it on, and the individual who is the result of this composite soul and body must balance the weight of each: the physical weight that weakens and ages and the spiritual weight (more accurately “presence”) that does neither. The speaker/poet realizes that he is “made from thee,” as he addresses the soul, or the creator of his art.
Third Quatrain: “The bloody spur cannot provoke him on”
In the third quatrain, the speaker recognizes his emotional self that becomes angry when he finds himself thrown off balance in his attempt to appease body and soul. The “bloody spur” that attempts to prod the body may cause a “groan,” but it is impotent in spurring on the soul. He suffers more mentally than physically when his talent is under attack from worries and woes.
The Couplet: “For that same groan doth put this in my mind”
The “groan” that transpires from the soul’s spurring on the body motivates the speaker/poet to think that his past has been more joyful than his future. He falls into the funk of distorted reality, when too much identification with physical reality overtakes the ultimate authenticity of spiritual reality.
Other Shakespeare articles: Who is Shakespeare?
Sonnet Commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 73, 96, 116, 126, 130, 138
