Sonnet 80
O How I faint when I of you do write,
Knowing a better spirit doth use your name,
And in the praise thereof spends all his might,
To make me toung-tied speaking of your fame.
But since your worth (wide as the Ocean is)
The humble as the proudest saile doth beare,
My sawsie barke (inferior farre to his)
On your broad maine doth wilfully appeare.
Your shallowest helpe will hold me up a floate,
Whilst he upon your soundlesse deepe doth ride,
Or (being wrackt) I am a worthlesse bote,
He of tall building, and of goodly pride.
Then If he thrive and I be cast away,
The worst was this, my love was my decay.
Commentary
Address to his beloved concerning a rival poet
Changes to the original text
This is the third poem to mention the rival poet.
The first quatrain expresses the poet's anxiety that another, greater poet now addresses the young man.
The second quatrain makes the point that the young man's worth is so broad that it may support many 'barkes', from the meanest to the most stately.
The third quatrain continues this idea, pointing out that because his own barke is modest, he will be kept afloat by even just a small amount of assistance, but then canvasses the idea that, if he is wrecked, he becomes a worthless boat.
The final couplet argues that, cast away, he (the poet 1) can still say that his (true) love was the cause of his (the poet 1's) fall. Yes, my only fault was loving you too well!