Sonnet 102

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< Sonnet 102 >

My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear;
That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming,
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
When I was wont to greet it with my lays;
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
And stops his pipe in growth of riper days:
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough,
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue:
Because I would not dull you with my song.
–William Shakespeare

Sonnet 102 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It's a member of the Fair Youth sequence, in which the poet expresses his love towards a young man.

[edit] Synopsis

Though seemimg to be cooler to the youth, the poet's love is actually stronger, even though he makes less show of it. Advertising one's feelings is to commercialise one's love. The poet wrote more verse in the earlier phase of their relationship, as birds sing more in the spring. Now that the spingtime has passed, song is less appropriate. So like the birds the poet now sings less cfrequently, less his song seem dull and repetitive.

[edit] See also

Shakespeare's sonnets