Sonnet 129
129th of 154 by William Shakespeare
Sonnet 129 is one of the 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare and published in the 1609 Quarto. It is considered one of the "Dark Lady" sonnets (127–152).
Overview
Sonnet 129 considers the emotional experience of the act of physical love as it progresses in time: first the anticipation of lust, then the consummation, followed by the complete shift in mood of the aftermath. The sonnet in spirit resembles a passionate dramatic monologue, and seems to be expressed by a man who looks back at such an act of love with bitter fury at its contrasting aspects. The sonnet begins with a howl of disgust, as the poet condemns the experience, listing negative aspects of lust in anticipation: It can cause a man to be dishonest, brutal, shameful, savage, and cruel. The moment lust is satisfied, it is despised the way a fish (or other animal) might despise the bait it has swallowed. The poem ends with the couplet pointing out that though all men are aware that love in action may provide pleasure, it ends with a deep wretchedness; but still they can't resist. This sonnet is one of the most impersonal, in that only one other sonnet in the quarto collection (sonnet 94) excludes the characters of both the poet and the subject, which in this case would be the dark lady. "Sonnet 129 fixes and deprecates lust with such murderous precision..."
Structure
Sonnet 129 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet.
The public source identifies “Sonnet 129” as 129th of 154 by William Shakespeare. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sonnet, 129th and William.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2609188. VIAF identifies the subject as 187448939. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1609.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sonnet 129” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.