Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,

Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight,

Past reason hunted; (lines 1–6)

and, no sooner had

Past reason hated as a swallowed bait

On purpose laid to make the taker mad;

Mad in pursuit and in possession so,

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; (6–10)

A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. (11–14)

"Sonnet 129" deals with the damaging consequences of lust as they manifest themselves temporally in past, present, and future. Sexual desire, of its very nature, anticipates the future; its satisfaction always takes place in the present; and once satisfied it forms the basis of a memory, something that recedes into the past. But it's not a happy memory; for as soon as the speaker has satisfied his lust he feels a sense of shame, and it's this feeling that haunts his memory.

The speaker appears to draw on his own experience to warn us of the dangers of sexual desire; how it constantly tempts us, drives us mad, only to leave us feeling full of self-loathing once we've taken possession of the object of that desire. The sonnet's remorselessly bitter tone leaves us in no doubt that the speaker has recently succumbed to temptation himself and hopes that others will avoid the same mistake.

The theme of Sonnet 129 is lust, and more specifically the remorse that comes with sexual longing. Shakespearetakes the reader through the stages of lust before the act, during, and after. Lust is described as all consuming and something that wraps the player in a shameful act. The luster immediately regrets his acts and is sent into a shameful state. Sonnet 129 is interesting because of the negativity Shaksepere associates with sexual desire which is in strong contrast to his more positive sonnets about love.