Shakespeare's Sonnets: So oft have I invok'd thee for my muse
Shakespeare's Sonnets: So oft have I invok'd thee for my muse
Sonnet 78
Original Text
SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS (London: G. Eld for T. T. and sold by William Aspley, 1609): e4v-f1r.
1So oft have I invok'd thee for my muse
2And found such fair assistance in my verse,
4And under thee their poesy disperse.
6And heavy ignorance aloft to fly,
7Have added feathers to the learned's wing
8And given grace a double majesty.
9Yet be most proud of that which I compile,
10Whose influence is thine, and born of thee.
11In other's works thou dost but mend the style,
12And arts with thy sweet graces gracèd be,
13 But thou art all my art and dost advance,
14 As high as learning, my rude ignorance.
Notes
3] got my use] adopted my practice. alien: stranger's. Back to Line
5] Possibly "an allusion to Captain Tobias Hume, The First Part of Ayres (1605), dedicated to William Herbert by a soldier who claims to lack eloquence, yet translates songs and composes airs" (Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones, the Arden Shakespeare [London: Thomson Learning, 1997]: 266). dumb] mute. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1609
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2008
Rhyme
Form