Sonnet 39
Oh how thy worth with manners may I singe,
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine owne praise to mine owne selfe bring,
And what is't but mine owne when I praise thee,
Even for this, let us devided live,
And our deare love loose name of single one,
That by this seperation I may give
That due to thee which thou deserv'st alone:
Oh absence what a torment wouldst thou prove,
Were it not thy soure leisure gave sweet leave,
To entertaine the time with thoughts of love,
Which time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceive.
And that thou teachest how to make one twaine,
By praising him here who doth hence remaine.
Commentary
Address to a young man
Changes made to the original text: line 3, final semi-colon changed to comma; line 7, final semi-colon deleted.
In the first quatrain, the poet asks whether it is good manners to praise the young man given that the young man is the better part of himself and that, therefore, he (the poet) is in effect praising himself, which, to answer the question posed, is not good manners.
In the second quatrain, the poet proposes, as a consequence of the argument of the first quatrain, that they should live apart. In that way, he (the poet) will be able to continue to praise the young man.
In the third quatrain, the poet notes that absence from his beloved would be a torment if not for the fact that he (the poet) could pass the time thinking about him (the beloved).
In the final couplet, the poet refers to the young man's implied instruction to stay away, by glossing this as a means of leaving the way open for the poet to continue praising him.
Tortuous.