Sonnet 8: “One string sweet husband to another”

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 should’st 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.”

“This is new. We have the impression that this sonnet is a direct response to something that has just happened or has been said…We can imagine Y.M. remarking that although he enjoys music, he always feels sad when he listens to it. “You are music to hear,” W. begins, “why should you hear music sadly?” He uses the occasion to return to the procreation theme…The logic of the couplet may go something like this: “The harmony of music, blending many sounds into one, reminds you that everything gets reduced and, as only one, you will therefore become nothing.” Even if the logic may appear strained, the progression of the sonnet feels strong enough to hold it up…The couplet is felt to be correct, if not strictly provable… 

“What is most important, though, is not the argument of Sonnet 8, nor its logic—not whether it will finally convince Y.M. to marry and have a child (by now, this is seeming less and less likely). What is important is that something has happened between Sonnets 7 and 8…It gives the sequence a feeling of privateness, a personal intimacy critical to evoking an emotional response.

“We’ve now had a glimpse of an interaction between W. and Y.M. They have had a conversation. Perhaps they have listened to music together. It has become an opportunity to revisit The Theme—get married, have a child. How does Y.M. react? How does W. feel about Y.M.’s reaction? How is their relationship developing? Whatever is going on, we sense that we are going to learn more as we read on.”

—Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends, p.33-34 (publication date 10/1/21)