Open Source Shakespeare

Sonnets

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Act I, Scene 8

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  • Shakespeare. Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
    Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy. 100
    Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,
    Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?
    If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
    By unions married, do offend thine ear,
    They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds 105
    In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
    Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
    Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
    Resembling sire and child and happy mother
    Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing: 110
    Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
    Sings this to thee: 'thou single wilt prove none.'