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My love is strengthened, though more weake in seeming
I love not lesse, though lesse the show appeare.
That love is marchandiz'd, whose ritch esteeming,
The owners tongue doth publish every where.
Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
When I was wont to greet it with my laies,
As Philomell in summers front doth singe,
And stops his pipe in growth of riper daies:
Not that the summer is lesse pleasant now
Then when her mournefull himns did hush the night,
But that wild musick burthens every bough,
And sweets growne common loose their deare delight.
Therefore like her, I some-time hold my tongue:
Because I would not dull you with my songe.
Commentary
Commentary
Address to his beloved
Address to his beloved
Changes to the original text: line 1, comma inserted after 'seeming'; line 2, 'thogh' changed to 'though'; end of line 2, comma changed to full stop; end of line 11, 'bow' changed to 'bough'.
In the first quatrain, the poet claims that his love is no less, though seeming so, and that the man who publishes his love everywhere is actually engaged in merchandising.
In the second quatrain, the poet claims that he celebrated his love when it was new (in the spring) in the same way that a nightingale (Philomell) sings in early summer (summers front) but gives off (stops his pipe) later in the year (riper daies).
In the third quatrain, the poet explains that he does not mean to say that summer is less pleasant now than when the nightingale sang, but that there is perhaps too much birdsong all around (burdens every bough), and things (sweets) become too common, lose their appeal (deare delight).
In the final couplet, the poet claims that it is for this reason, for fear of dulling the beloved's appetite, that he is sometimes silent.
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