Sonnet 76

1. Why is my verse so barren of new pride,

2. So far from variation or quick change?

3. Why with the time do I not glance aside

4. To new-found methods, and to compounds strange?

5. Why write I still all one, ever the same,

6. And keep invention in a noted weed,

7. That every word doth almost tell my name,

8. Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?

9. O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,

10. And you and love are still my argument:

11. So all my best is dressing old words new,

12. Spending again what is already spent:

13. For as the sun is daily new and old,

14. So is my love still telling what is told.

Ever the Same

Dedication: To Elizabeth

Oxford reflects on why his poems continue to remind Elizabeth of the same things and how his name is almost told within his verse. The clue provided that “every word doth almost tell my name”, a reflection that “every word” is almost an anagram for “Edward Vere”.

1st Quatrain: (1-4)

Asking her rhetorically why his verse contains ever the same appeal.

2nd Quatrain: (5-8)

Cleverly alluding to himself in line 5 with the play on ever (E. Vere). Making reference to his references always being about what she considers the weed, this boy that grows and serves no funtion in line 6. Again another better play on his name as "every word" is ALMOST an anagram for Edward Vere in line 7. Again referring to himself and alluding to the mystery behind his identity in line 8.

3rd Quatrain: (9-12)

Telling Elizabeth that yet he writes of her in line 9. That her and his love for her are still part of his motive and objective in line 10. Referencing her knowledge that there are allusions in these poems in line 11. Telling her how he is rehashing what she knows to be old news in line 12.

couplet (13-14),

That his love is expressed when he continues to remind her.


Commentary:

Here the Oxford explains to Elizabeth why his verse is ever the same and thus of one purpose. I think it should be kept in mind that the dedication says these sonnets are of one purpose. Hopefully the connectedness and single purpose of the sonnets is seen as well. My own feeling is that this poem was written to Elizabeth to remind her of his purpose but it also seems to have posterity in mind and wants to make sure that his poems are all understood as serving one purpose. Evidently Oxford was anticipating the orthodoxy’s confusion. This of course is also what the dedication tell us and perhaps it was the publishers that are responsible for putting this reminder in at this near halfway point.

As already mentioned line 7 actually identifies Oxford with the “phrase every word doth almost tell they name”, because as many Oxfordians pointed out “every word” is almost an anagram for “Edward Vere”, producing “edwrd ver” with a left over o and y.

Orthodox scholars might have us believe Shakespeare is complaining of his verse being limited. Does it make sense that the man we know as Shakespeare ever felt such an extreme limitation in expressing himself. Consider the much more believable alternative, that he is actually arguing that the limitation of his verse is his own making. That it is very much deliberate, for the very point of arguing for his single desire. That he bores his subject with the same theme and constantly alluding to that which he can not name.

Vendler remarks how 76 is misunderstood and proceeds to explain that it is not as often understood, and apology but and “apologia” or a reply in self defense supposedly to the young man as a response to his complaint of receiving “old fashioned” and “monotonous” poems. She observes “that of all the indictments that could be made against these astonishingly inventive poems, monotony is the furthest off the mark”. But she is apparently not perplexed that this criticism might have been made. Nor does she seem surprised that the poet is if anything confirming the monotony. She says “he must somehow reply to it” and that the reader (young man) is reading only for themes and neglects to not Shakespeare’s change in styles. Failing to question herself why Shakespeare’s themes remain the same.