William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Sonnet VIII
Music to hear,
why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets
war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that
which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st
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
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:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'
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