Sonnet 102
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
love
silence
maturity
music
My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear:
That love is merchandized whose rich esteeming
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
When I was wont to greet it with my lays,
As Philomel in summer's front doth sing
And stops her pipe in growth of riper days:
Not that the summer is less pleasant now
Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night,
But that wild music burthens every bough
And sweets grown common lose their dear delight.
Therefore like her I sometime hold my tongue,
Because I would not dull you with my song.
What It Means
Shakespeare's love has grown, but the outward expression of it has gone quiet. This isn't a loss of feeling — it's that in summer, when the birds sing constantly, the song loses its quality. He used to sing his love like a songbird in spring. Now it's summer and everything is in full bloom; adding more song would be redundant. Silence is the mark of mature love, not indifference.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence, continuing the return-to-poetry theme.
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