for my sake…

…for thy sake, for her sake are all used in the sonnets. the total count for this prepositional phrase is only 8 times. Sake only being used in combination with for and one of the pronouns mentioned.

I love the phrase especially with for pity’s sake, for God’s sake. it’s such a withering phrase.There’s a lot riding on it. Each usage here in Q1609 Sonnets is a heightened emotional plea. In fact each setting for these 8 usages in these six sonnets is one of betrayal. A lover stolen by another lover. Ouch! Very common.

It starts in the triangle affair between Young Man, Poet and his Mistress,
used 3 times in sonnet 42 in lines 7, 8, and 12.

‘and for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
suffering my friend for my sake to approve her,’

note the feminine lines here.
back to the masculine,

‘and both for my sake lay on me this cross.

10 monosyllables, brilliant!

Sonnet 61, line 12 has

‘to play the watchman ever for thy sake’

reflecting on the unkind absence of the young man sometime after and during the affair.
This sonnet is similar to sonnet 27 btw, by being a reflection back on a trip taken away from the beloved.

‘O for my sake’ starts sonnet 111 addressed to the guilty goddess of his harmful deeds.

Sonnet 134 is tied to the triangle affair, but from the mistress’ point of view.

‘and both for my sake lay on me this cross’

appears in line 12.

The famous Anne Hathaway sonnet in tetrameters, sonnet 145 has the female persona screaming, I hate:

‘to me that languished for her sake’

in line 3. The betrayal is milder because situated around her lips vowing to hate the poet. But still betrayal.

the final example is in sonnet 149, line 4:

‘Do i not think on thee when i forgot
am of myself, all tyrant for thy sake?’

A beautifully righteously angry diatribe at his mistress infidelities. She makes him feel tyrannical. God they must have had fun making the beast with two backs. Yes I know they may just be poetical constructs, but hell’s bells it resonates with my experience.

so for my sake I’m glad these scarcely blotted papers are within my examination.