William Shakespeare (ca. 1564-1616)
Shakespeare's Sonnets: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sonnet 8
1Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
2Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
3Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
4Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?
5If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
6By unions married do offend thine ear,
7They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
8In singleness the parts that thou should'st bear:
9Mark how one string, sweet husband to an other,
10Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
11Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother,
12Who all-in-one one pleasing note do sing
13 Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
14 Sings this to thee, "thou single wilt prove none."
Notes
1] Music] the beloved. to hear] possibly elided "t' hear".
4] thine annoy] what irritates you.
5] tuned] disyllablic.
6] unions married] chords.
9] other] monosyllabic (like "mother" below).
13] being] monosyllabic.
14] none] no one at all; no harmony.
Online text copyright © 2012, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b2v.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2008
Recent editing: 1:2008/8/21
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
Other poems by William Shakespeare
