[943] So is it not with me as with that Muse (Sonnets XXI)

So is it not with me as with that Muse
Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse,
Who heaven itself for ornament doth use
And every fair with his fair doth rehearse
Making a couplement of proud compare
With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems,
With April's first-born flowers and all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems.
O let me true in love but truly write,
And then believe me: my love is as fair
As any mother's child, though not so bright
As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air:
  Let them say more that like of hearsay well;
  I will not praise, that purpose not to sell.

	-- William Shakespeare

[Glossary]

1. "that Muse": metonym for "the poet inspired by that Muse".
5. "couplement": the act (or fact) of coupling.
2. "this huge rondure": this great sphere of earth and heaven, from Fr.
"rondeur".

[Commentary]

One thing I'm always struck by while reading the Sonnets is the confidence
of Shakespeare's opening lines. They're not always "poetic" in the
traditional sense; indeed, they often seem exactly the opposite, using
inverted syntax and unusual images to capture the reader's attention [1].
This, it goes without saying, is a high-risk approach; fortunately,
Shakespeare is, well, Shakespeare, and carries it off with the utmost of
ease. He sets never a foot [2] wrong; his tone is calm and utterly assured,
while retaining a depth of feeling, an immediacy which reaches out over the
centuries to touch readers even today.

Today's poem is (in a neat little bit of self-reference) about the Sonnets
themselves. It "rejects the conceits of poets who habitually make
extravagant comparisons with stars, jewels and flowers, in favour of
truthful (and private?) cogency" [3]. The obvious parallel is, of course,
Sonnet CXXX, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Minstrels
Poem #44), but the methods used in the two poems are sufficiently
disparate for (the less-celebrated) Sonnet XXI to possess a distinct
character of its own. Note especially the the interplay of language and
meaning: when describing the poetry of bad sonneteers, Shakespeare
rather self-consciously uses pretentious words like "couplement" and
"rondure" [4]; when it comes time to describe his own, more
down-to-earth feelings for his beloved, he is content with everday
phrases like "any mother's child". Self-reference within self-reference
- yum!

thomas.

[1] See, for instance, the titles of the Sonnets that we've run on the
Minstrels.
[2] Pun fully intended :)
[3] Katherine Duncan-Jones, in the third Arden edition of the Sonnets - a
recent (and highly recommended) addition to my library.
[4] Ms Duncan-Jones informs me that this word appears nowhere else in
Shakespeare's oeuvre [5].
[5] I've always wanted to use that word - oeuvre - in a Minstrels commentary
:)

[Minstrels Links]

The Sonnets:
Poem #44, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnets CXXX)
Poem #71, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnets XVIII)
Poem #219, Full many a glorious morning have I seen (Sonnets XXXIII)
Poem #363, Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet CXVI)
Poem #808, Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck (Sonnets XIV)
Poem #943, So is it not with me as with that Muse (Sonnets XXI)