Sonnet 23
As an unperfect actor on the stage
love
poetry
silence
emotion
As an unperfect actor on the stage
Who with his fear is put besides his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart.
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharged with burden of mine own love's might.
O, let my books be then the eloquence
And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,
Who plead for love and look for recompense
More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.
O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:
To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.
What It Means
Shakespeare compares himself to an actor who forgets his lines from stage fright, or a man overwhelmed by his own passion. He can't speak what he feels. So the poem must do the talking. He asks the young man to read his poems as the voice of his love — since his spoken words fail, let the written ones speak. There's a quiet self-awareness here: the great playwright, the master of words, claims to be speechless in the face of the person he loves.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The theatrical metaphor is significant given Shakespeare's profession.
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