When My Love Swears That She Is Made of Truth (Sonnet 138) is the first line of Sonnet 138 by the great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (see Shakespeare, William).
Sonnet 138 was first published in 1599, in a collection of love poems entitled The Passionate Pilgrim. Although the book credits all 20 poems in the collection to Shakespeare, he actually wrote only 2. The collected sonnets of Shakespeare were printed in 1609, when the poet was already a well-established playwright. No one knows when Shakespeare wrote the poems, but he probably composed them over several years. There are 154 sonnets in the entire sequence, although some scholars believe that a different author wrote Sonnets 153 and 154, those focused on Cupid, the Roman god of love.
Like almost all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sonnet 138 consists of three quatrains (four-line units) followed by a concluding couplet (two-line unit). Each quatrain has a rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, with the final couplet a rhyming one (gg).
Loading the player...Shakespeare's Sonnet 138
When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutored youth, Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue; On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told. Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flattered be.
This sonnet wittily explores the role of truth in human relationships. It presents a case for leaving truths unspoken and suggests a conspiracy between lovers to maintain happiness. The sonnet uses a pun on the word “lie,” meaning both to tell a falsehood and to “lie” in bed with someone. It suggests the interdependence of two things-diplomatic dishonesty and physical passion.
Sonnet 138 belongs to a group of sonnets in the sequence (numbers 127 to 154) known as the “dark lady” sonnets. They concern the poet’s relationship with a woman of apparently dark hair and complexion. Many of the dark lady sonnets express bitterness and resentment about their relationship. But this sonnet is more accepting about the imperfect realities of their partnership.
There are two essential untruths that the two lovers maintain. One is that the lady is “made of truth”—that is, faithful to him. The other is that the poetic speaker is young (or considered young) by his mistress. Because the truth about these matters is painful, it is easier to suppress it. The issue on which the poem focuses, therefore, is the difference emphasized here is between spoken and unspoken truth.
The turning point of the sonnet lies in the questions of lines 9 and 10. Because we know these things (“she is unjust,” “I am old”), the speaker asks, why don’t we “say” them? The answer lies in the next two lines, particularly in the summary of line 11: “O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust.” Shakespeare makes use of the double sense of the word “habit,” meaning dress as well as behavior. Love has its own apparel to cover what is best left unacknowledged.
Some critics have focused on the cynical and pessimistic message they see in this sonnet. Others find it lighthearted and deliberately comical, with the numerous puns emphasizing its playfulness. Some critics propose a shifting perspective as the poem progresses. Thus Sonnet 138 can be said to start in bitterness but end in philosophical resignation about love’s strange ways. Whatever the case, the speaker has admitted his own willing participation in the game.
For more information about Shakespeare’s sonnets, see Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare’s poems). See also English literature (Elizabethan poetry); Poetry (Forms); Poetry (Renaissance poetry).
