Sonnet 59 explained
As you may know, the word 59 appears a lot in The Six Thatchers and HLV.
On (possibly) Sherlock’s heart monitor while John is on the center frame
And of course the 59 missed calls.
We know from previous meta that numbers often refer to Shakespeare’s sonnet, here, sonnet 59.
-He has 59 missed calls from his wife: she calls his heart and he does not answer. John’s heart doesn’nt belong to Mary.
- 59 appears in the background when he turns down a girl who’s flirting with him: John’s heart does not belong to another woman either.
-However, what is possibly Sherlock’s heart monitor shows the number 59. John’s love for Sherlock is what is keeping Sherlock alive.
- Sonnet 59= John’s heart narrating his love for Sherlock throughout the time and how other versions of him couldn’t express their love to Sherlocl
Here is the modern translation of Shakespeare’s sonnet:
(1)If it’s true that there’s nothing new and everything that now exists existed in the past, then we are really fooling ourselves when we struggle to write something new, winding up, after much exhausting, painful labor, with a tired imitation of an imitation!
(2) If only I could look back into the records, even as far as five hundred years ago, and find a description of you in some old book, written when people were just beginning to put their thoughts in writing, so I could see what the old world would say about your amazingly beautiful body. Then I could see whether we’ve gotten better at writing or worse, or whether things have stayed the same as the world revolves.
(3) Oh, I’m sure the witty writers of the past have devoted praise and admiration to worse subjects than you.
So, what we can get from it is:
-(1) Idea n°1: John’s character, the narrator in this poem, is stuck in a time loop, nothing is ever new under the sun :
There are two perspectives, one from John as a passive character, written over and over and never made justice to, and the other with John as the writer, who could never express his true feelings towards Sherlock.
- -Sherlock Holmes is one of the most adapted novel in the world and has been since the 19th century. Consequently and John and Sherlock have been written countless times by writers who were paraphrasing each other, but it is “ a tired imitation of an imitation” and they’re both suffering from it.
- John IS a writer: he writes novels about his adventures with Sherlock in the canon, blogs about him in BBC Sherlock. IF it is true that nothing ever change, then he will never be able to express his feelings for Sherlock and his stories will remain a paraphrase of the older ones.
-(2) Idea n°2: John’s other versions failed to express their true feelings towards Sherlock
In the poem, the narrator wants to go see the oldest poems, the original works to see if the writers have could have done justice to his lover’s beauty.” if only I could (…) find a description of you in some old book, written when people were just beginning to put their thoughts in writing so I could see what the old world would say about your amazingly beautiful body ”
He wants to see if he was ever able to write about his feelings towards is lover as what they really are, a love that is not also platonic but also physical ->“ your amazingly beautiful body “.
If other version of him got better at writing= expressed their feelings clearly
-worse =was forced to remain silent/ less obvious because of the threat he would face if he described his lover’s beauty as what he is, his lover.
-or if it remained the same old depiction of Sherlock, here read just a friend.
(3) Idea n°3: John’s adaptations in the past have been forced to express hide who they truly love and were forced to praise someone else instead
“Oh, I’m sure the witty writers of the past have devoted praise and admiration to worse subjects than you. “
John’s older versions had to devote their praises to someone else, some “worse” because of the consequences if they described their feelings for Sherlock.Someone worse being Mmary or any other woman John’s character ever depicted n the books, movies, tv adaptations.
But the idea that nothing is ever new under the sun is only an hypothesis and change is possible.
The poem opens on a speculation :”If it’s true that there’s nothing new (…)
But the narrator is clearly aware of his love and of his lover’s “amazingly beautiful body”. John’s character looks at all the previous versions of himself with amusement and knows the other versions of him couldn’t do what he just did in the poem, praise the right one.
John will therefore be able to express his feelings to the world.
