Shakespeare Sonnet 118 Modern Text (Translation)

-via SparkNotes

Shakespeare Sonnet 118 Analysis

The poet says just as we like to increase your appetites “Like as to make our appetites more keen” by eating more pungent and tasty food “With eager compounds we our palate urge;”and to prevent illnesses that are unknown “As, to prevent our maladies unseen,” we make ourselves vomit “We sicken to shun sickness when we purge;”

In same way he was full of the sweetness of the fair youth “Ev’n so, being full of your ne’er-cloying sweetness,” but he instead changed to more bitter things “To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding;” and he became tired of being healthy so he found an urge “And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness” to be sick and influenced by other people to prevent him being sick (influenced ) from the youth “To be diseased ere that there was true needing.”

The poet says he adopted this policy in anticipation “Thus policy in love, t’ anticipate” of faults that didn’t exist but eventually became true where he got used to cheating on the youth “The ills that were not, grew to faults assured,” and brought upon a circumstance where medicine was required in a healthy state “And brought to medicine a healthful state” and attempted to cure what was already goodness with illness instead “Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured;”

But he says he learned a very big lesson “But thence I learn, and find the lesson true,” that the medication he used were actually poisonous because he was too lovesick over the youth “Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.”