Sonnet 86
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
rivalry
inspiration
silence
loss
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all too precious you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He, nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence
As victors of my silence cannot boast;
I was not sick of any fear from thence:
But when your countenance fill'd up his line,
Then lack'd I matter; that enfeebled mine.
What It Means
Shakespeare wonders what silenced his own Muse. Was it the rival's confident poetry? Was it the 'spirit' the rival claimed to have on his side? No — what silenced Shakespeare was the knowledge that the young man was filling the rival's verse with his worth, leaving nothing for Shakespeare to add. It was the young man's attention to the rival, not the rival himself, that killed Shakespeare's inspiration.
Context
Part of the Rival Poet group (78–86) — the conclusion of that sequence. The identity of the rival poet is unknown; George Chapman is a common suggestion but has not been confirmed.
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