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Or whether doth my minde being crown'd with you
Drinke up the monarch's plague this flattery?
Or whether shall I say mine eie faith true,
And that your love taught it this Alcumie?
To make of monsters, and things indigest,
Such cherubines as your sweet selfe resemble,
Creating every bad a perfect best
As fast as objects to his beames assemble:
Oh tis the first, tis flatry in my seeing,
And my great minde most kingly drinkes it up,
Mine eie well knowes what with his gust is greeing,
And to his pallat doth prepare the cup.
If it be poison'd, tis the lesser sinne,
That mine eye loves it and doth first beginne.
Commentary
Commentary
Address to his beloved
Address to his beloved
Changes to the original text
The sense of this sonnet as a whole is generally quite clear: the poet is saying that everything, even monstrous things, looks good when you are in love, though the expression is sometimes tortuous.
In the first quatrain, the poet puts two alternative explanations for why everything looks good: perhaps it is his mind that likes (drinkes up) this flattery (monarch's plague) or perhaps it is his beloved who has used alchemy to transform the world in such a way.
The second quatrain continues the second idea, commenting that objects are changed as fast as they appear to the eye.
In the third quatrain, the poet decides that it is the first solution that applies, that his eye is flattered.
In the final couplet, the poet concludes that it is a lesser sin that his eye is deceived ie being deceived by flattery is a lesser sin than being deceived by alchemy.
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