sighs and tears (symbol)
The "sighs and tears" mentioned in the sestet signify more than just generic terms for expressions of love. In fact, they are associated with a specific group of poets—the Petrarchists of the late sixteenth century—who frequently used the imagery of sighs and tears as a way to convey emotion in their poetry. Because these terms are such a recognizable trope of early Renaissance Petrarchan love poetry, Wroth's alluding to them in her own poem as "false" helps to establish her distinction between "old" and "new" poetry.
performance (motif)
The notion of performance appears throughout the poem with terms like "feign," "gloze," and "show." The speaker distinguishes herself from her Petrarchan predecessors by accusing their expressions of love of being too formulaic, predictable, and performative. Ironically, however, the speaker chooses to leverage this critique by composing a highly formalized sonnet (and sonnet sequence) herself.
Christian theology (allegory)
While the poem does not rely heavily on an allegorical mode, it frequently conflates the experience of love with the experience of religious salvation. Using terms like "redeem" and "blessings" to describe the nature of "true" love, the speaker conflates the erotic with the spiritual, and in so doing suggests that one can approach erotic love through religious love and vice versa.
