1. So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
2. Like a deceived husband so love's face,
3. May still seem love to me, though alter'd new:
4. Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place.
5. For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
6. Therefore in that I cannot know thy change,
7. In many's looks, the false heart's history
8. Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange,
9. But heaven in thy creation did decree,
10. That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell,
11. Whate'er thy thoughts or thy heart's workings be,
12. Thy looks should nothing thence but sweetness tell.
13. How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,
14. If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show.
Thy Beauty Grow
Dedication: To Elizabeth
Oxford pondering whether to continue thinking that Elizabeth still loves him when he knows otherwise. Then telling Elizabeth that her face betrays nothing but sweetness and joy. As that is all they are capable of before warning her that there is a dangerous temptation to continue on a course of allowing her own deceptive thought of continued beauty when that belies her eventual end. The use of the word “grow” to reflect her increasing beauty probably chosen to remind her of her actual growing child also referred to as “beauty” and contrasting with her actual diminishing beauty.
1st Quatrain: (1-4)
Asking the rhetorical question of should I go on and pretend that you (Elizabeth) are faithful, honest, and true in line 1. Again in line 2 - 4 using the very unaccidental analogy of deceived husband to point out that Elizabeth's love has strayed.
2nd Quatrain: (5-8)
Telling her that she is unlike so many others whose faces give away their feelings.
3rd Quatrain: (9-12)
However telling her that her face only displays love only and that her feelings remain hidden
couplet (13-14),
Finally comparing her beauty (not the Beauty i.e., Henry) to Eve's apple, her forbidden fruit and a temptation to believe in her own immortality without Henry. But in line 14 Oxford tells her that if her sweet virtue speaks (as opposed to some evil serpent) than he would tell her that her beauty is Henry not her own display of it.
Commentary:
The poem appeals most to Elizabeth's heart. The basis a supposed analogy of a deceived husband is of course no accident as Oxford likely saw himself as her husband and likely felt initially he would be Elizabeth's consort. I’ve previously commented on the many references like this that actually reveal the relationships between Oxford, Elizabeth and Henry. Others include the “father” of 37, as well “what woman’s son” of 41 and the “son” of 13.
This sonnet again contains references to what is not shown along with warnings of age and decay not appropriate to a fair youth and not depicted as hypothetical effects to come but those that are here. The metaphor of the “deceived husband” as well much more appropriate to a women when from a man.
Line 1 end recalls the rhymed "shed blood of Montague" from Romeo and Juliet (III, i).
Line 2 features an apt allusion.
Line 8's wrinkles is a bit of a dating element suggesting and hinting at an aging Elizabeth.
Line 13 clearly associating Henry (thy beauty) with the notorious forbidden fruit of the bible.
The eye of line 5 represents the son as will be seen and thus another allusion to Henry as the son. The couplet containing the seeming innocuous phrase “How like Eve’s apple doth thy beauty grow. It is offered as a contrast to Elizabeth’s face where love always dwells (as opposed to others) and it equates Henry with the subjects possession of beauty and thus beauty itself. Additionally it links Henry to what Oxford believes is an irresistible temptation to use him to provide for her succession. This is thus still a period of Oxford’s near unshakable faith that Elizabeth will recognize Henry.Which ultimately will result in his complete despair when it fails to happen as we will see and build to very shortly.
This poem also capture's Oxford estrangement from Elizabeth as in line 4 with "thy heart in other place" and thus fits Oxford's biographical timeline and his problems with Elizabeth and the Court. This clear inappropriate metaphor and the mistaken notion that this sonnet is addressed to the youth are manifested in many ways. Particularly in pointing out how the beauty of the subject grows despite the obvious mention of how the aging affects on the subject of this poem. But this is a reflection on how Henry's beauty is an intrinsic quality of Elizabeth as well and growth is literal. Another is the mention that “heaven DID decree” which actually is a reference to an already existing Henry ready whom the poem goes on to say is awaiting the answer of the subject’s (Elizabeth’s) virtue not what is shown (or not shown – Henry).