Scott,



I think I’d treat “Yet…thee” as a main clause as well, not as adverbial.  Yet acts as a coordinating conjunction and so also gets used sentence-initially to set up a contrast with a preceding thought.  There’s a single complex adverbial clause comprising the first two quatrains.  The third quatrain begins with the main clause of that sentence and is itself a coordinate clause with “and.” The third quatrain is set off by a semi-colon because of the preceding serial commas.  The closing couplet is also set off with a semi-colon, perhaps because of the initial “for” and the close logical link between it and three quatrains.  A sonnet in one sentence.  Not many poets have pulled this off so well.



Of course, the semicolons are the interpretation of an editor, unidentified.  In the 1609 facsimile (http://ia311343.us.archive.org/3/items/shakespearessonn00shakrich/shakespearessonn00shakrich.pdf), all lines but the last end in commas, although the punctuation at the end of the first quatrain is ambiguous.  I can’t make out on the screen whether it was meant to be a comma or a period, but I suspect the former.



Herb



From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Woods

Sent: 2009-03-18 14:53

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Sonnet grammar analysis help



List,

Please let me know if you think I'm basically correct with my analysis or where I might be more correct or clear.



Adverb clause in italics

Independent clauses in bold

participial phrases in < > with participle underlined

noun clauses in [ ]

adjective or relative clauses in {  }

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate,

<Wishing me like to one more rich in hope>,

<Featur’d like him>, <like him with friends possess’d>,

<Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope>,

<With [what I most enjoy] contented least>;

Yet <in these thoughts myself almost despising>,

Haply I think on thee,—and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day <arising

From sullen earth>, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

     For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings

     {That then I scorn to change my state with kings}.



Does this seem right?  Any comments?



Thanks,

Scott Woods





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