The speaker is caught between two loves that pull him in opposite directions: a fair, angelic man who brings comfort, and a dark, sinister woman who drags him toward despair. She tries to tempt the good angel away, hoping to corrupt his purity. The speaker suspects the angel may already have turned fiend, but he can’t be sure. He feels torn and powerless, reduced to guessing that his angel is “in another’s hell” — a biting guess at their sexual betrayal. The final couplet locks him in endless doubt, waiting for the bad angel to fire the good one out. The mood is anxious, jealous, and bitterly resigned, steeped in helpless suspicion.
Sonnet 144: Two loves I have of comfort and despair — Summary
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil, Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend, Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another's hell: Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.