Sonnet #38, by William Shakespeare - 113 sec
I created this video to cheer up a friend who was feeling down.
Shakespeare's sonnets are compact, intimate, dense with subtlety and entendres. In contrast to how actors usually read Shakespeare, I prefer to read these poems softly, slowly, savoring every word.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare addresses his muse, the person who inspired him. History does not record who this was.
Here is the text of the sonnet.
How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my
verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
O! give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
When thou thyself dost give invention light?
Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which rimers invocate;
And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth
Eternal numbers to outlive long date.
If my slight Muse do please these curious
days,
The pain be mine, but thine shall be the
praise.
Tags:William Shakespeare sonnet 38 
