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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 76
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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015
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Shakespeare's Sonnets - Sonnet 76Sonnet 76
76
Synopsis:
The poet poses the question of why his poetry never changes but keeps repeating the same language and technique. The answer, he says, is that his theme never changes; he always writes of the beloved and of love.
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
4To 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,
8Showing 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,
12Spending again what is already spent.
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love, still telling what is told.