Sonnet 102

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Shakespeare. Sonnet 1

«My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear». 

To justify not writing verse about the young man, the poet argues that constantly proclaiming love for someone cheapens the genuineness of the emotion.

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

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His tone is cautious because he detects a change in his feelings for the youth: “My love is strength’ned, though more weak in seeming; / I love not less, though less the show appear.”

He recalls the formation of his relationship with the youth — rather than the current status of the friendship; this recollection is now the only inspiration for his writing and emphasizes just how far apart the two have grown. Because he expects the youth to be indifferent, he is firm but courteous when he refrains from writing verse: “I sometime hold my tongue, / Because I would not dull you with my song.”

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Credits

English audio from YouTube Channel Socratica

Summary from Cliffsnotes.com

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