Sonnet 105: Let Not My Love Be Called Idolatry
Sonnet 105: Let Not My Love Be Called Idolatry - meaning Summary
Defending Steadfast, Simple Love
The speaker insists his devotion should not be called idolatry because it continually celebrates a single beloved. He argues his poems repeat one stable truth—this person is "fair, kind, and true"—and that verbal variation does not mean divided affection. By framing praise as constancy rather than worship, the sonnet defends faithful love against accusations of excessive adoration and emphasizes unity of subject despite repeated iteration in verse.
Read Complete AnalysesLet not my love be called idolatry, Nor my belovèd as an idol show, Since all alike my songs and praises be To one, of one, still such, and ever so. Kind is my love today, tomorrow kind, Still constant in a wondrous excellence; Therefore my verse to constancy confined, One thing expressing, leaves out difference. Fair, kind, and true is all my argument, Fair, kind, and true varying to other words; And in this change is my invention spent, Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. Fair, kind, and true, have often lived alone. Which three till now never kept seat in one.
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