My love is as a fever
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Toward the end of Shakespeare’s life, there is a sea-change in the tone of his sonnets. The romanticism of the “Fair Youth” sonnets (1-126) is replaced with much more visceral language and imagery. My love is as a fever is sonnet 147, and exemplifies the qualities of its fellow “Dark Lady” sonnets (127-151). While the speaker describes their love as a figurative sickness, I wrote the piece as if the speaker was literally suffering from one or more of the many venereal diseases prevalent in the Elizabethan era. There is evidence in Shakespeare’s later writings that he himself suffered from syphilis. The music incorporates a variety of symptoms and side effects from treatment, including dementia, disorganized speech, social withdrawal, bone ache, tremors, and psychosis.
For another Shakespearean sonnet setting, see Sweet Love Remembered.
For another Shakespearean sonnet setting, see Sweet Love Remembered.