Sonnet 76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
poetry
repetition
love
consistency
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
What It Means
Shakespeare criticizes his own poetry: why is it always the same? Why does he never try anything new? Every poem he writes is clearly by him. His subject is always the same person, approached from the same direction. He can't escape the orbit. The answer is buried in the question: because love doesn't change, neither does the poetry. The sun rises and sets every day — it's not unimaginative, it's consistent.
Context
Part of the Fair Youth sequence. The self-criticism is unusual — a poet questioning his own range.
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