William Shakespeare, Sonnet viii
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?
4
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
8
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,
12
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.'
Notes
line 1: Malone thus explains this passage: "O thou whom to hear is music, why hear'st thou," &c. [ Back to text ]
line 10: If two strings are tuned in perfect unison, and one only is struck, a very sensible vibration takes place in the other. This is called sympathetic vibration. [ Back to text ]
Most notes to Shakespeare's sonnets are from Charles Knight's edition, but those in square brackets are mine.