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S Lxxxiii: Onnet
S Lxxxiii: Onnet
This sonnet is closely linked to the preceding one, especially by the opening two
lines, which pick up the idea of painting from the closing couplet of 82. In addition
there is the repeated idea of the limits of possible praise being exceeded by the
youth's natural merits, and the 'devising' of rhetorical artifices in the hope of praising
him.
THE 1609 QUARTO VERSION
painting = description, such as is found in poetry. Also with a hint that the
to your fair no painting set = did not attempt to paint your beauty, did not set
your beauty off in a painting (as one shows off the beauty of a jewel by its
setting), did not attempt any further improvement on your fairness (by
you did exceed = your merits were superior to, you were above the need of,
or desire for.
a poet's debt - the poet presumably owes the praise that he includes in his
poetry to the youthful beauty of the young man. The writer's modesty
compels him to claim also that the offering is worthless. It may be implied
however that the 'barren tender', the offering of empty verse, is made by the
rival poet(s), whose exaggerated praise misses the mark, and who are doing
And therefore I have been remiss by not reporting you to the world through
my verse. slept implies being asleep when one should have been attentive
and on duty.
you yourself, being extant = you yourself, in your own person, while you are
a modern quill = a shallow, trite style of writing. quill = quill pen, a goose
feather, was the main writing implement in use for many centuries. Here used
to mean the writer himself who uses the quill. modern in Shakespeare usually
examples.
However the meaning of 'up to date' seems appropriate as well here, since
the rivals are accused of using all the new forms of poetry that may be
doth come too short = falls short of (proclaiming adequately your excellence).
These two lines, 7-8, are syntactically complex. They convey the general
meaning 'An ordinary writer would, when speaking of your worth, fall short of
wittily falls short of expressing the thought fully, (one would expect an
if underlining the failure of the second rate poet and his shortcomings. JK
questioning of the youth's worth. In fact the break of sense in the middle of
the line does almost cause the reader to think that 'What' is the start of a
This silence = my silence in not writing your praises, which, as I stated, was
to allow you to shine forth and show up the inadequacies of the poets and
fault) to(someone)'.
being dumb - this merely reiterates the fact of his silence. 'I shall be a
and bring a tomb - instead succeed in enclosing you in a tomb. One tends to
think back to sonn. 81, where he described his own verse as if it were a
mausoleum.
Dumb silence can speak with more eloquence than artificial verse. But not all
verse is artificial, and some speaks from the heart. There is a vibrant contrast
between what the true heart speaks and what the poet schooled in rhetoric
can devise. (The latter being the hall mark of the rival poet(s)).
One suspects here an echo from a proverbial saying, such as 'There is more
both your poets - probably the speaker and his rival, although it could imply
two rival poets. Since the speaker currently claims that he is dumb and silent
(although the presentation of this poem alone undermines that claim), or that
he only writes the truth, not rhetorical praise, it could be that two other poets
(others would give life, l.12) were engaged in devising conceits with which to
amuse the youth and win his allegiance. The word devise is used here and in
It is suggestive of trickery and deception, or, at the very least, false praise. As
in sonn.72:
a sonnet which also discusses the art of showing things in a false light with
false praise.