101
O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dy'd?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified. 4
Make answer, Muse: wilt thou not haply say,
'Truth needs no colour, with his colour fix'd;
Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay;
But best is best, if never intermix'd'? 8
Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb?
Excuse not silence so; for 't lies in thee
To make him much outlive a gilded tomb
And to be prais'd of ages yet to be. 12
Then do thy office, Muse; I teach thee how
To make him seem long hence as he shows now.
102
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandiz'd whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere. 4
Our love was new, and then but in the spring,
When I was wont to greet it with my lays;
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing,
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days: 8
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough,
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. 12
Therefore, like her, I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.
4 dignified: art dignified
7 lay: apply, as a color
8 if never intermix'd: if left to itself
13 office: work
1 seeming: appearance
3 merchandiz'd: cheapened
esteeming: worth
7 Philomel: the nightingale
front: beginning
