Sonnet 29 opens in a negative, almost petulant mood, as the speaker "[beweeps]" his "outcast state" (2), and envies other men ("one more rich in hope" [5]). Then, at line 9, the speaker's mood and outlook change; this is commonly referred to in poetics as a volta, or shift. Voltas are commonly employed in sonnets, and often signal a reversal or refinement in opinion.
Here, the speaker's outlook changes when he thinks about his beloved, who is compared to a "lark at the break of day rising / From sullen earth" (11, 12). This causes his "state" (10) to "sing hymns at heaven's gate" (12), and his former sadness is replaced with near euphoria ("Then I scorn to change my state with kings [14]").
As is typical with Shakespearean sonnets, the last two couplets reinforce the poem's final argument. In Sonnet 29, this would necessarily be a triumphant happiness, and an exalting of the beloved above all worldly things.
It is important to note that Shakespeare's imagery is consistent throughout the poem, and reflects the speaker's changing mood. At first, his "bootless cries" would "trouble heaven" (3); later, his state sings "hymns at heaven's gate." Love enables him to make this incredible leap. Also, whereas the speaker was quite sullen at the beginning of the sonnet, and was in "disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" (1), it is the "earth" itself which is "sullen" (12) after the beloved is remembered.
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