Shakespeare Sonnet 82

‘I grant thou wert not married to my Muse’

Oct 12, 2008

In sonnet 82, Shakespeare's speaker addresses his favorite subject which is, of coure, "love"; he dramatizes the superior nature that this subject offers to his art.

First Quatrain: “I grant thou wert not married to my Muse”

In the first quatrain of sonnet 82, the speaker addresses again his favorite subject, “love,” and tells love that he knows his favorite subject and his “Muse” are not the same or even closely linked as by marriage. Because the Muse does not align herself irrevocable with any particular subject, theme, or topic, the writer’s inspiration and subject matter do not taint each other.

If the writer praises one, he is not necessarily praising the other. Writers will, of course, always be “blessing every book.” But their subject and their Muse are not always equal in their production and therefore cannot partake of equal appreciation. The writer alone decides to whom he will offer his gratitude for any particular piece of work.

Second Quatrain: “Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue”

The speaker then alerts love that it is “as fair in knowledge as in hue.” He asserts that the beauty of love lies not only in its outward expression but primarily in its knowledge. Love’s value exceeds the ability of the speaker/poet to praise it. The writer who falls in love with love will seek answers to earthly questions as he seeks “Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days.”

The original writer will not be satisfied by merely copying others but will be motivated by the ever-new inspiration that love continuously infuses into his vision. He does not wait for the Muse, and readers have noted this trait in this speaker’s method. He writes even when he feels he has nothing to write about except to complain that he cannot write.

Third Quatrain: “And do so, love; yet when they have devis’d”

Love works in a similar fashion. Even as those who formulated the rules of “rhetoric” have warned against the “strained touches” that the art of rhetoric can offer, love remains true. The speaker then drives his claim home by using the rhetorical device called “incremental repetition” in the line, “Thou truly fair wert truly sympathized / In true plain words by thy true-telling friend.”

He employs the term, “truly,” twice and its root, “true,” twice in the two lines. Through this repetition, he emphasizes his stance that “love” and “truth” are, in fact, married, or unified for him.

The Couplet: “And their gross painting might be better used”

In the couplet, “And their gross painting might be better used / Where cheeks need blood; in thee it is abus’d,” he compares his sonnet to a painting, which has to use gross physical forms, where the painter must put blood in the cheek of his subject.

But such grossness is not required for the written word, and this speaker avers that in the sonnet “it is abus’d.” Too physical a subject abuses the spirituality with which the subjects, “love” and “truth,” endow his art.

The copyright of the article Shakespeare Sonnet 82 in British Poetry is owned by Linda Sue Grimes. Permission to republish Shakespeare Sonnet 82 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.