Note 1. By the “outcast state” to which he alludes in this sonnet, Shakespeare is supposed to mean the cause of trouble lamented in the one preceding. The modesty evinced in the wishes for the features and faculties of other persons has, in such a man especially, been deservedly admired; and the pause and the change of tone, full of triumphant emotion, at the words, “Haply I think on thee,” produce the utmost effect of masterliness in art from the perfection of the feeling. If the sonnet were set to music, the passage would suggest to a worthy composer a fine change in the key. The gladdening influences of a lover’s thoughts, the cheering light of a pure affection, were never depicted with truer feeling than in this sonnet. [back]
