Shakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 80 (“O, how I
faint when I of you do write”) WILLIAM SHAKE-
SPEARE (1599) In Sonnet 80, the speaker accepts the
challenge of producing higher praise and greater verse
than his rival produces. The fi rst QUATRAIN fi nds the
poet acknowledging the diffi culty of rising to meet his
rival’s challenge, which has left the speaker “tongue-
tied” (l. 4) in trying to best him in this war of words.
The second quatrain introduces a simile into the poem
that elaborates the image of the friend as the ocean and
the two rival poets as boats sailing upon it. The rival
poet possesses the more worthy vessel (i.e., poetic
form) and is held up by the “soundless” (l. 10) depths
of the friend’s magnanimity. However, the speaker,
with a lesser boat, is held up by the friend’s slightest
help or acknowledgement. In the fi nal quatrain, the
speaker continues the simile of the poets as sailing ves-
sels and notes that the rival is strong and prideful
whereas the speaker has relied upon his friend’s char-
ity. The fi nal COUPLET has the speaker stating that, even
if his friend does not want his praise anymore, the
speaker will at least know that it was his own desire to
praise his friend that lead to his downfall.
This sonnet vividly describes the competition poets
underwent in trying to secure PATRONAGE and also pro-
vides a good example of the use of elaborate imagery—
in this case, nautical allusions—to create a richly
developed poem.
See also SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM; SHAKESPEARE’S SON-
NETS (OVERVIEW).
Joseph E. BeckerShakespeare’s sonnets: Sonnet 85 (“My tong ue-
tied muse in manners holds her still”) WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (1599) In this SONNET, the speaker
paradoxically writes about being unable to write and
speaks about being silent, providing many images of
illiteracy and muteness. The fi rst QUATRAIN in this
EN GLISH SONNET contrasts the speaker’s muse with the
Classical Muses as they praise the subject, the anony-
mous youth. The speaker’s muse is “tongue-tied” and
holds herself silent (“still,” l. 1), while all the other
muses praise the youth in written (“character” and
“precious phrase”) treatises (“comments”) (ll. 2–4).
The associated words reserve, golden, and precious have
the effect of further contrasting the quality of the oth-
ers’ muses with the speaker’s. They have access to all
the splendor of written words, as opposed to the
speaker’s muse, who can only produce “manners,” the
courtesy to keep silent in the company of her betters.
Scholars agree that line 3 may be corrupt; many emen-
dations have been suggested, such as thy for thei and
Preserve in place of Reserve, but none makes a line that
is entirely compelling.
In the second quatrain, the speaker stands forth
without the mask of the muse: “I” think good thoughts
while the other poets (“other”) write good words (l.
5). All he can do is speak the “amen” to their praises,
in the way that any illiterate monk would do in a wor-
ship service where another, who could read, would
say the prayers from the book. The speaker recognizes
the quality of the praise the others write, realizes he
cannot equal their efforts, and prefers silence to
embarrassment.
The speaker becomes more specifi c in the third qua-
train: When he hears the youth praised, he says “ ‘Tis
so, ‘tis true” (l. 9) and adds his own, higher, praises—
but only within his thoughts, where, he asserts, his
love is greater than any other man’s (“holds his rank
before”), even though his “words come hindmost” (l.
12). Through the three quatrains, the speaker’s tone is
respectful of his rivals’ achievements; they are consis-
tently presented as having superior talent and greater
eminence. Only the COUPLET offers a challenge to this
analysis.
The couplet asks the youth to respect the others for
what they have said aloud (“the breath of words,” l.
13), and also to recognize the speaker’s “dumb
thoughts” as being spoken “in effect” (l. 14), as if they
were spoken aloud and as effective as any words spo-
ken aloud could be. Thus, even though the speaker has
been unable to say—or write—a single word, the youth
should recognize the inestimable value of the love he
has imagined.
The very existence of Sonnet 85 destabilizes its point:
To write about being unable to write creates the kind of
paradox WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE relies on time and again
to present the myriad complexities of feeling andSHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS: SONNET 85 377