Sonnet 102
Constancy and the Muse
- 1 My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
- 2 I love not less, though less the show appear;
- 3 That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming,
- 4 The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
- 5 Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
- 6 When I was wont to greet it with my lays;
- 7 As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
- 8 And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:
- 9 Not that the summer is less pleasant now
- 10 Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
- 11 But that wild music burthens every bough,
- 12 And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
- 13 Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue:
- 14 Because I would not dull you with my song.