Sonnet #95

[Admin]

Sonnet #95

XCV.

How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Which, like a canker in the fragrant rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!
O, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose!
That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
Making lascivious comments on thy sport,
Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise;
Naming thy name blesses an ill report.
O, what a mansion have those vices got
Which for their habitation chose out thee,
Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot,
And all things turn to fair that eyes can see!
Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege;
The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.

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[Nick Capozzoli]

Interesting poem. Did you want reader comments on it?

S. seems to be describing a person (unclear if man or woman)
whose outward beauty conceals some inward ugliness, probably
of a sexual nature...decribed as shameful, vice, sin, lascivious, etc.

"Sport" is a term that refers to sexual intercourse, and the "tongue"
"that makes lascivious comments on thy sport" sounds lewd.

Finally, "The hardest knife ill used doth lose his edge" seems a
reference to the erect penis of the subject (so it's a man), who is
misusing this...ah, tool.