SONNET #8

by: William Shakespeare

USIC 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.'

• Shakespeare Index - An index of articles on to the Elizabethan dramatist.
• All Sorts of Hamlets - A study of some of the most famous actors to tackle Shakespeare's most famous rôle.
• Biographical aspects of the Sonnets - Examines the worth of Shakespeare's sonnets in piecing together clues as to the nature of his romantic life.
• His Family and Education - Available biographical details of Shakespeare's early life.
• His Marriage and Relations with his Wife - Known facts of Shakespeare's relationship with Anne Hathaway.
• Shakespearean Blank Verse - Management of metre, pause, trisyllabic substitution and the redundant syllable.
• The Shakespeare-Bacon Theory - Analysis of the theory that the plays of William Shakespeare were not written by the man whose biography we are familiar with, but rather under pseudonym by Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon.
• Shakespeare Monologues - A collection of monologues for actors.
• Shakespeare's Coined Words - A study of words coined by Shakespeare which either have been, or deserve to be, adopted into common usage.
• William Shakespeare - A biography.
• William Shakespeare - A biographical account of the poet's life.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - A biography, plus links to purchase all of his works currently in print.
• Purchase books by William Shakespeare