Sonnet 82: I Grant Thou Wert Not Married to My Muse
Sonnet 82: I Grant Thou Wert Not Married to My Muse - meaning Summary
Praise Versus Flattering Imitators
The speaker addresses a beloved, acknowledging other poets may lavish ornate, flattering praise. He defends his own restrained, plain style as truer and more fitting, arguing that rhetorical embellishment suits subjects who need dramatized color but would misrepresent this addressee. The sonnet contrasts genuine, measured praise with exaggerated compliments, claiming honesty better captures the beloved’s worth than fashionable poetic affectation.
Read Complete AnalysesI grant thou wert not married to my Muse, And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook The dedicated words which writers use Of their fair subject, blessing every book. Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, Finding thy worth a limit past my praise, And therefore art enforced to seek anew Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. And do so, love, yet when they have devised What strainèd touches rhetoric can lend, Thou, truly fair, wert truly sympathized In true plain words by thy true-telling friend; And their gross painting might be better used Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abused.
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