Sonnet 21: So Is It Not with Me as with That Muse
Sonnet 21: So Is It Not with Me as with That Muse - meaning Summary
Honest Love Versus Poetic Flattery
The speaker rejects the conventional poet who decorates his subject with extravagant similes to impress. He refuses to inflate his beloved with borrowed celestial and natural imagery, asserting that truthful, modest praise is enough. He insists sincere love does not need hyperbole to be genuine, and he will not trade honest depiction for fashionable flattery or meaningless praise. The poem defends authenticity over ornate poetic boasting.
Read Complete AnalysesSo is it not with me as with that muse, Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse, Who heaven it self for ornament doth use And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, Making a couplement of proud compare With sun and moon, with earth and sea’s rich gems, With April’s first-born flowers, and all things rare That heaven’s air in this huge rondure hems. O, let me, true in love, but truly write, And then, believe me, my love is as fair As any mother’s child, though not so bright As those gold candles fixed in heaven’s air. Let them say more that like of hearsay well; I will not praise that purpose not to sell.
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