Shakespeare's Sonnets: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?

Sonnet 8

Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): b2v.
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". Back to Line
4] thine annoy] what irritates you. Back to Line
5] tuned] disyllablic. Back to Line
6] unions married] chords. Back to Line
9] other] monosyllabic (like "mother" below). Back to Line
13] being] monosyllabic. Back to Line
14] none] no one at all; no harmony. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
ababcdcdefefgg
Form
sonnet