I never saw that you did painting need...
Sonnet 83I never saw that you did painting need
And therefore to your fair no painting set; I found, or thought I found, you did exceed The barren tender of a poet's debt; And therefore have I slept in your report, That you yourself being extant well might show How far a modern quill doth come too short, Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow. This silence for my sin you did impute, Which shall be most my glory, being dumb; For I impair not beauty being mute, When others would give life and bring a tomb. There lives more life in one of your fair eyes Than both your poets can in praise devise. Buy and Download...Click HERE
|
|
I never thought you needed embellishing, so didn’t. I thought you were better than any offering a poet’s pen could make. That’s why I didn’t yell about how wonderful you are: to show how art can never match reality. You thought I did wrong to hush up like this, when in fact it’s the best thing I did. By not talking about loveliness I make sure I don’t damage it, while other people would try to breathe life into things and kill them in the process.
There’s more life in a single one of your eyes than both of us contending poets can think of in complements, no matter how hard we try.