Sonnet 83
I never saw that you did painting need,
And therefore to your faire no painting set,
I found (or thought I found) you did exceed
The barren tender of a Poets debt:
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you your selfe being extant well might show,
How farre a moderne quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow,
This silence for my sinne you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory being dombe,
For I impaire not beautie being mute,
When others would give life, and bring a tombe.
There lives more lfe in one of your faire eyes,
Then both your poets can in praise devise.
Commentary
Address to his beloved about rival poets
Changes to the original text: end of line 3, comma taken out; end of line 8, comma changed to full stop
The poet is still pre-occupied with the rival poet (see the previous sonnets).
The first quatrain makes the assertion that the poet never thought the young man needed any 'painting', and therefore did not concern himself with doing so.
The second quatrain extends this idea, remarking that everybody can see how much the young man exceeds whatever a 'modern' poet might say about his worth.
The third quatrain makes the point that the young man has misunderstood the poet's silence, since silence is the best way not to impair the young man's beauty. Others, not perceiving this, continue their praises which effectively put the young man's virtues 'in a tombe' ie serve to conceal them.
The final couplet asserts that there is more life in one of the young man's eyes than in all of the praises devised by his poets.