“Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloak,
To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
‘Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender’s sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence’s cross.
Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
And they are rich and ransom all ill deeds.”
The most important thing to note about sonnet 34 is that the speaker never forgives the lover. The lover’s sin is fantastic, but the speaker loves anyway. The speaker loves him so much that he can no longer be angry with him. The tears ransom the lover’s deeds, but do not provide forgiveness. The lover is delivered from his consequences, but the sin still was committed, and the speaker does not forget nor forgive.
The speaker cannot depend on the lover. All this changes later in the series.
