Sonnet 83
I never saw that you did painting need
silence
praise
rivalry
neglect
I never saw that you did painting need
And therefore to your fair no painting set;
I found, or thought I found, you did exceed
The barren tender of a poet's debt;
And therefore have I slept in your report,
That you yourself being extant well might show
How far a modern quill doth come too short,
Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow.
This silence for my sin you did impute,
Which shall be most my glory, being dumb;
For I impair not beauty being mute,
When others would give life and bring a tomb.
There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
Than both your poets can in praise devise.
What It Means
Shakespeare says he never thought the young man needed the cosmetic treatment of praise. He kept silent because the young man's merit is self-evident. But then he realizes: his silence was a mistake. The rival poet's flattery, however false, was at least some tribute. Shakespeare's silence reads as neglect.
Context
Part of the Rival Poet group (78–86). Sonnet 83 argues that silence, however well-intentioned, can be misread as indifference.
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