1. How can my Muse want subject to invent,

2. While thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verse,

3. Thine own sweet argument, too excellent,

4. For every vulgar paper to rehearse:

5. O, give thyself the thanks if aught in me,

6. Worthy perusal stand against thy sight,

7. For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,

8. When thou thyself dost give invention light?

9. Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth

10. Than those old nine which rhymers invocate,

11. And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth

12. Eternal numbers to outlive long date.

13. If my slight Muse do please these curious days,

14. The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.

Eternal Numbers

Dedication: To Henry

Telling Henry of his status as Oxford’s argument and that he’ll live in infamy.

1^st Quatrain: (1-4)

Asking Henry, how Elizabeth can ask for any other themes, when he has Henry as inspiration and is the very essence of Oxford's lines.

2^nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Telling him that anyone could write about him such is the power of his inspiration.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Henry is the 10^th Muse. The first nine are the Nymph daughters of Zeus in Greek mythology which is somewhat analogous as the progeny of a ruler. And the eternal numbers Oxford is wishing for are the uninterrupted succession of the throne which Henry is to be part of.

couplet (13-14),

The slight Muse here is again Elizabeth aged and frail. However if Elizabeth is to please the “curious days” and recognize Henry, then the “pain” will be Oxford’s anonymity but Henry will be the “praise” and the reason for bringing the pleasure of a more suitable successor to Elizabeth.

Commentary:

This as a late poem is reflected in Henry’s understanding and presumed ability to step in and become a welcome successor to the throne. The reference to “these curious days” in fact seems to reflect the probable rampant speculation and assumption of the succession likely passing to James IV of Scotland.

Line 2 expresses that Henry is the argument of his verse in general.

Vendler sees this poem as fanciful and not having a “serious” purpose, more to play with “complicated syntax”. What’s more she fails to understand how the subject can be my Muse, when she tells us “that the phrase is normally taken to mean ‘the spirit of inspiration within me’”. She apparently fails to remember that the poet regards the youth and he as one (42 and 43). That there is any question that Henry was Ox’s inspiration here is well understood by now.