Sonnet 82

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 82 is one of the sequence of 154 sonnets first published in 1609.

It belongs to the cluster commonly called the Fair Youth sonnets, in which the speaker addresses and sometimes reproaches a young man of great beauty and worth. Sonnet 82 sits in the midst of a group of poems that explore issues of praise, poetic rivalry, and the relationship between truth and flattery.

Below we give the poem in full, then an extended, layered analysis: historical/contextual notes, structure and meter, diction and rhetorical moves, a line-by-line close reading, thematic synthesis, and interpretive possibilities.

The Poem (Sonnet 82)

By William Shakespeare

I grant thou wert not married to my muse,
And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book.
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Find’st thy report as sweet as thy first taste,
For my love only serves to praise in few,
But those few notes that I with much delight
Do sing, are purpose and not passing vaunt;
They breathe the truth, and therefore stand they sure:
The foolish have got tongues; and now, alas,
I see that all things are not good as they were.

But,—what?—since thou dost spare my serious rhymes,
And dost allow the flatterers’ pens to play,
I find thy favour doth to others move,
And yet I chide not when thy heart looks that way.

Note: This is one of several variant texts of Sonnet 82. Shakespeare’s sonnets were printed in 1609 without authorial corrections; different editions and editors sometimes vary slightly in punctuation and word choice. The presentation above follows a broadly accepted modernized punctuation and capitalization.

Context and Overview

Sonnet 82 is part of the Fair Youth sequence (roughly Sonnets 1–126). In these poems the speaker often addresses praise, legacy, and reproach. A recurring tension throughout the early sonnets is between sincere praise (which the speaker claims to offer sparingly and truly) and the flattering hyperbole produced by other poets or “dedicated words” which lavish over-the-top compliments on the youth. The speaker alternately envies, defends, and distances himself from those flatterers.

Sonnet 82 specifically interrogates the relationship between the youth and other writers who celebrate him. The speaker claims moral and artistic superiority because his praise is economical, truthful, and “purpose”—aimed toward something (maybe preservation of virtue or immortality through verse)—whereas others write “blessing every book” with empty flattery. It ends with an ambiguous concession: though the youth allows flatterers, the speaker doesn’t “chide” when the youth’s favour moves elsewhere. That blend of pride, woundedness, and philosophical resignation is typical of Shakespeare’s sonnet-speaker.

Form, Meter, and Rhyme

• Form: Shakespearean (English) sonnet: 14 lines, three quatrains followed by a couplet.
• Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (standard Shakespearean pattern).
• Meter: Predominantly iambic pentameter (five iambs per line), though Shakespeare permits metrically charged variations (initial reversals, extra syllables, elisions) to suit emphasis and tone.

The poem’s formal regularity helps the speaker assert order and control—particularly fitting for a sonnet that claims measured praise as superior to excessive flattery. The couplet, conventionally a concluding insight or turn, here functions as a resigned clarification rather than a dramatic twist: the speaker acknowledges the youth’s tolerance of flatterers and refrains from anger.

Diction, Tone, and Persona

• Diction: Words like muse, dedicate, subject, blessing, report, taste position the poem within a poetic-critical conversation — the speaker is thinking about poetry itself and poets as social actors. Political or legal terms such as attaint (a stain or blemish) bring seriousness to the stakes.
• Tone: Measured, slightly defensive, moralizing but also tempered. There’s an undercurrent of wounded pride but also stoic calm—an insistence on the value of “few” true praises.
• Persona: The speaker is an artist (poet) who prides himself on restraint and truthfulness. He judges other poets as “foolish” for using tongues that “bless every book.” The persona is part moralist, part competitor, part lover.

Key Themes

1. Truth vs. Flattery — Central to the sonnet is the distinction between praise that is sincere, restrained, and purposeful, and praise that is overblown, habitual, or insincere.
2. Artistic Integrity — The speaker defends his poetic method (few, purposeful notes) as morally and artistically superior to rampant flattery.
3. Reputation and Legacy — The sonnet hints at the desire for a truthful memorialization of the youth—praise that preserves essence rather than bloats it.
4. Jealousy and Resignation — The speaker notices that the youth favors other writers, yet opts not to scold; the emotional tension between pride and philosophical forbearance animates the conclusion.
5. Poetry as Social Exchange — The sonnet explores the social economy of favor (the youth’s taste, the poets’ pens, the public reception).

Close, Line-by-Line Reading

Lines 1–4
I grant thou wert not married to my muse,
And therefore mayst without attaint o’erlook
The dedicated words which writers use
Of their fair subject, blessing every book.

The poem opens with a concession: the youth is not “married to my muse” — i.e., not exclusively beholden to the speaker’s poetic voice. That acknowledgment strikes an oddly legal tone: if the youth is not bound to the speaker, he may freely glance over other poets’ praises without stain (“without attaint”). The verb o’erlook can mean to overlook (both to observe and to ignore), so there’s a nuanced double meaning: the youth can both read and forgive other praise. “Dedicated words” are the conventional encomia written in praise; “blessing every book” condemns the ubiquitous, generic flattery that fills published works.

Lines 5–8
Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue,
Find’st thy report as sweet as thy first taste,
For my love only serves to praise in few,
But those few notes that I with much delight

Here the speaker compliments the youth’s internal and external beauty—“fair in knowledge as in hue”—so the youth’s reputation (“report”) is as pleasing as his initial impression (“first taste”). The speaker contrasts his economy of praise—“praise in few”—with the multitude of flattering voices. The “few notes” he sings are delivered “with much delight,” which frames restraint not as stinginess but as chosen refinement.

Lines 9–12
Do sing, are purpose and not passing vaunt;
They breathe the truth, and therefore stand they sure:
The foolish have got tongues; and now, alas,
I see that all things are not good as they were.

The “few notes” are not “passing vaunt” (ephemeral boasts) but have “purpose” — the poetry aims at truth and permanence. “They breathe the truth” suggests animate praise, life-sustaining rather than superficially breathy. Then a turn toward complaint: “The foolish have got tongues”—others have begun to speak (or jabber) foolishly—and the speaker laments a decline: “not good as they were.” This could mean a decline in poetic standards, in moral seriousness, or in the exclusivity of the youth’s favor.

Lines 13–14 (the couplet)
But,—what?—since thou dost spare my serious rhymes,
And dost allow the flatterers’ pens to play,
I find thy favour doth to others move,
And yet I chide not when thy heart looks that way.

The poem’s final lines (lines 13–14 plus two more—note that modern punctuation and edition variants can change line grouping) exhibit a conciliatory voice. The speaker says: okay—since you pardon my “serious rhymes” and tolerate the “play” of flatterers’ pens, your favor naturally shifts.

The concluding admission, “I chide not,” could be read as magnanimity, wounded pride disguised as stoic acceptance, or a rhetorical performance of superiority. The speaker’s restraint is again emphasized: he will not scold the young man for looking elsewhere.

Rhetorical Devices and Imagery

• Antithesis: Truth vs. vaunt; few vs. many; serious vs. play. Shakespeare sets up pairs to mark moral and aesthetic contrasts.
• Metaphor/synaesthesia: “Find’st thy report as sweet as thy first taste” blends sense impressions—taste and reputation—giving reputation a sensual quality.
• Personification: “They breathe the truth” gives the speaker’s lines life and agency.
• Legal language: married, attaint, dedicate—this suggests bonds and reputations enforceable in social or legal terms.
• Musical imagery: “notes,” “sing” — the poet’s praise is framed as music, carefully composed rather than noise.

Interpretive Angles

1. Poetic ego and self-fashioning: The sonnet is a defense of the speaker’s peculiarly modest poetic ethic. By emphasizing that his praise is purposeful and truthful, he constructs an identity for himself as a serious, ethical poet. This self-fashioning is rhetorical: the speaker’s claim to superiority depends on being heard as sincere.
2. Social commentary on patronage: The youth is a patron-like figure whose favor poets seek. The poem suggests the dynamics of patronage—how praise circulates in social networks, how flatterers may gain favor more easily because they flatter lavishly, and how the intelligent poet resists sycophancy.
3. Aging poetic forms: When the speaker says “I see that all things are not good as they were,” he might lament the erosion of poetic standards or lament a cultural shift in taste—perhaps a commercialization of praise (writers “blessing every book”).
4. Stoic resignation vs. performative magnanimity: The final lines are ambiguous—does the speaker genuinely accept the youth’s partiality, or is the magnanimity performative, another way of asserting moral high ground?

Variants and Editorial Notes

Because the 1609 Sonnets were printed in quartos without an authoritative authorial copy, editors sometimes differ on punctuation and word choice.

For rhetorical effect, modern editors often tighten punctuation to signal the speaker’s rhetorical stops and caesuras — important in Shakespeare’s tightly metered lines. Any specific edition might also prefer slight variant readings; that does not change the poem’s fundamental rhetorical arc.

Conclusion — Why Sonnet 82 Matters

Sonnet 82 is compact but rich: it stages a debate about sincerity in art and the social economy of praise. The sonnet is self-reflexive — a poem about poetry — inviting readers to consider not only who is praised, but how and why praise is given.

The speaker’s insistence on measured, truthful praise makes the sonnet a meditation on artistic integrity. Yet the poem resists simple triumphalism; it admits that flatterers have their play and that favor can move elsewhere.

That mixture of pride and resignation feels deeply human: the artist’s desire for exclusive recognition, tempered by the understanding that the world is noisier and more varied than his private ideals.