Music to hear why

In the image of a family "sire, child and happy mother," the poet sees sweet harmony, similar to the gorgeous sounds produced by concordant notes. The poet seems to imply that his young friend is not a fan of music, which he must want to remedy. Compare The Merchant of Venice : The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted.

Sweets with sweets war not 2 : you are sweet, thus you should delight in things that are also sweet i. Why lovest thou The notes rebuke the young friend for not participating in life's harmony by remaining single. Academy of American Poets. American Poets Magazine. Poems Find and share the perfect poems. Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sonnet 8. This poem is in the public domain. Venus and Adonis [But, lo! Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds, And now his woven girths he breaks asunder; The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds, Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder; The iron bit he crushes 'tween his teeth Controlling what he was controlled with.

His ears up-prick'd; his braided hanging mane Upon his compass'd crest now stand on end; His nostrils drink the air, and forth again, As from a furnace, vapours doth he send: His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire, Shows his hot courage and his high desire.

Sometime her trots, as if he told the steps, With gentle majesty and modest pride; Anon he rears upright, curvets and leaps, As who should say, 'Lo! For rich caparisons or trapping gay? He sees his love, and nothing else he sees, Nor nothing else with his proud sight agrees. Look, when a painter would surpass the life, In limning out a well-proportion'd steed, His art with nature's workmanship at strife, As if the dead the living should exceed; So did this horse excel a common one, In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide: Look, what a horse should have he did not lack, Save a proud rider on so proud a back.

A slight air of disharmony sets in with lines 3 and 4, with 'receiv'st not glady, receiv'st thine annoy'. Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, Why do you love the music that you listen to receive , even though it does not give you pleasure? Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?

Do you take delight in that which causes you pain? Probably a sexual innuendo is present in these two lines , based on the words 'receiv'st' and 'pleasure'. If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, A two fold idea runs through this sentence, that of sounds united in harmony by unions married and that of souls united in married bliss.

Hence the sweet harmony of music reprimands him because he destroys, by remaining single, the harmony which would accompany him as a married man, and also he destroys the concord of music by not playing his part. The term seems to have a musical connotation, that of sounds united in harmony although OED does not give any musical definition for union.

The closeness of the word to unison does however keep the musical imagery at the forefront of one's mind. Shakespeare only uses the word infrequently, six times in total, two of which, in Hamlet, relate to the meaning 'pearl'. In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Why are you sad when you hear music? So, in other words, in these first two lines Shakespeare is addressing the Youth and saying: Since you yourself are as beautiful and harmonious as music, why are you sad when you hear actual music?

This is wrong, Shakespeare goes on to argue, because sweet things should be in agreement with other sweet things, joyful things with other joyful things — and since you and music are both beautiful, it is wrong that you should be made sad by music. Why, the Bard asks, do you gladly welcome something that makes you unhappy? The inference is that the Youth is made unhappy by music because, whilst he loves the music, it reminds him that he is single and has no lover.

Finding a lover, marrying, and having children is the fix for this that Shakespeare proposes. Anyway, on with the summary.