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.

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”.

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 attention¹. 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 foot² 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

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)