Sonnet 144: Two loves I have of comfort and despair by William Shakespeare

Full Text

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

Overview

Sonnet 144 makes explicit the sonnet sequence's love triangle: the speaker, the Fair Youth ("better angel"), and the Dark Lady ("worser spirit"). She's corrupting him; they may be sleeping together ("one angel in another's hell"). The speaker lives in agonized uncertainty.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-4

Two loves: comfort (male, fair) and despair (female, dark). Morality play figures—angel and devil.

Lines 5-8

The woman tempts the man, trying to "corrupt my saint to be a devil." Sexual seduction as spiritual battle.

Lines 9-12

Has the angel become a fiend? He suspects but can't know. "In another's hell"—sexual pun on female anatomy.

Lines 13-14

Living in doubt until the "bad angel fire my good one out"—venereal disease as revelation.

Themes

• Love triangle
• Moral allegory
• Sexual jealousy
• Uncertainty

Literary Devices

Morality Play

Angel vs. devil — Medieval dramatic form—good and evil spirits competing for a soul.

Sexual Puns

"hell," "fire out" — Crude puns underneath spiritual language.

Historical Context

Published earlier in The Passionate Pilgrim (1599). Makes the sequence's triangular structure explicit.