Shakespeare’s Sonnet #8: “Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly”
If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee,
Reading of Sonnet 8
Click on video to play
The images in the YouTube video are from an original 1609 edition of Shake-speares Sonnets held by the British Library. It is one of only thirteen copies in existence. Images courtesy of the Octavo Corporation.
Modernized Spelling and Punctuation
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-tunèd 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.”
Simplified Modern English Translation
My beautiful friend, why are you sad listening to this music?
Beauty should delight in beauty, not rebel against it.
Why listen to the music if it saddens you?
Or are you just taking pleasure in being annoyed?
If the pleasant concord of these sounds
by harmonious playing of many elements do offend you,
it is because they are sending you a secret message: It is impossible
to make beautiful music without accompanying tones.
See how one lute string, coupled with another,
work together in mutual harmony,
like a father, child, and happy mother
who form a single melodious unit,
whose musical message combines elements
to sing this to you: “One is a lonely number.”
Text from Original 1609 Quarto
Transcription courtesy of University of Virginia Library:
Musick to heare, why hear’st thou musick sadly,
*Sweets with sweets warre not, ioy delights in ioy:
Why lou’st thou that which thou receaust not gladly,
Or else receau’st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well tuned sounds,
By vnions married do offend thine eare,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singlenesse the parts that thou should’st beare:
Marke how one string sweet husband to an other,
Strikes each in each by mutuall ordering;
Resembling sier, and child, and happy mother,
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechlesse song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee thou single wilt proue none.
* indicates fully justified line, compositor may have adjusted spelling to fit the line.
can u also tell me what this poem means???????
In the first seventeen sonnets the poet is trying to convince his young friend that he should get married and have children. In Sonnet 8 he is saying to his friend “Why are you sad listening to this sweet music? I think it is because the music is sending you a secret message: to create beautiful music requires a marriage of well-tuned sounds. In the same way, to create a beautiful child requires a marriage of you and a loving wife. You are sad because listening to the music is reminding you that if you remain single, you will prove to be nothing.”