Sonnet 8

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? 4If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,By unions married, do offend thine ear,They do but sweetly chide thee, who confoundsIn singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. 8Mark 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: 12Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'

1 Music to hear: you whose voice is music10 mutual ordering: ordered harmony14 'Thou single wilt prove none'; cf. n.