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#79 Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
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This week's randomly chosen sonnet. 79, follows last week's, 78, in the original ordering, but that is coincidence of course.
Why a "sick" muse?And, what is meant by "argument" here? -
"I grant (sweet love) thy lovely argument
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,"
Finally, there's so much reference to giving and taking back, "he robs thee of, and pays it thee again" and "He lends the virtue and he stole that word" and "Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay."
What is happening here? I see there is competition, but the specifics have me stumped.
Well, "argument" could mean simply "theme". Paradise Lost heads each Book with a summary of the theme, called "The Argument":http://www.bartleby.com/4/401.html
And Ophelia says of the mime she is watching, "Belike this show imports the argument of the play." The mime presents the theme which is to follow.
So "thy lovely argument / Deserves the travail of a worthier pen" can be taken to mean "As a theme for poetry, you deserve a better writer than me."
Supposedly a better writer has turned up, so S's own Muse has gone sick and his own poetry (the "gracious numbers") is suffering. Again there is a similarity with Hamlet, when he writes to Ophelia about his verses, "Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers", "ill" again suggesting sickness.
But this better writer just copies the virtues of the beloved and puts them into his poems, just as a painter copies natural objects. This is the robbery (a bit like copyright violation), and then presenting the poems to the beloved is the pay-back.
But what is really going on here? One of the themes running through the sonnets is that writing them is a task, and this task is somehow failing . . .
And just to add, "give another place" is an inversion, very easily misread: it means "give place to another".
There are so many poems where S bemoans the loss of either his muse or his talent or his youth (when he was most genius). It's as if he suffers constant insecurity that he will never again come up with something as worthy as the thing before... this is a normal fear for writers and artists, and he seems to live in this fear.
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The last two lines are absolute killers....
"Then thank him not for that which he doth say,
Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay. "
somehow this relationship...or work...is not rewarded from afar but directly from the person doing all the work. Is this good or bad. Is it possible that the writer gains a knowledge from their poems...as much as putting in the work...perhaps there might not just be a futile or existential sense to these lines. I took them as tragic at first, but then later thought...maybe the practice is the reward?
"and in fresh numbers number all"
Uh wow! Love the direct reference to poetry here! And magic!
The word pen...both in this sonnet and 78...could mean penis.
https://books.google.com/books?id=2Xt...
Candy wrote: "The word pen...both in this sonnet and 78...could mean penis...."I did not know that, but from what your link explains, it's really a great analogy.
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
My verse alone had all thy gentle grace,
But now my gracious numbers are decayed,
And my sick Muse doth give another place.
I grant (sweet love) thy lovely argument
Deserves the travail of a worthier pen,
Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent
He robs thee of, and pays it thee again.
He lends thee virtue and he stole that word
From thy behavior; beauty doth he give
And found it in thy cheek; he can afford
No praise to thee but what in thee doth live.
Then thank him not for that which he doth say,
Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay.