English poem
Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing: Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'
More by William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 86: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
- Sonnet 87: Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
- Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be dispos'd to set me light
- Sonnet 89: Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
- Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
- Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
- Sonnet 92: But do thy worst to steal thyself away
- Sonnet 93: So shall I live, supposing thou art true